That lonely game: Melville, Mardi, and the almanac (University of Missouri studies)

"Irked by the derogatory reaction of British critics who doubted that such books as Typee and Omoo could have been written by a common American sailor, Melville created Mardi -- on the surface, the record of an odyssey through imagined South Sea world. For the first time, Moore unravels the puzzle Melville created in Mardi, designed to dupe his elitist British readers, by exploring Melville's knowledge of astronomy, nautical navigation, astrology, and game theories. Hennig Cohen's foreword defends the traditional approach to reading Mardi and argues that Moore's heretical interpretation is interesting but narrow in scope. Moore then invites the reader to 'play Mardi'--to engage in games of wit, elaborate metaphor, and arcane learning-- to reveal the full meaning of the novel. The game may be plated most successfully by using the astronomy and astrology of Melville's time, but a knowledge of the Tarot and Ganjifa cards and of the usual Western decks of playing cards will add depth to your understanding. Mardi fulfills Melville's calim to originality and stands unique as a masterpiece of synthesis. Moore demonstrates a circular pattern in which metaphors intertwine and shows how Melville's use of The American Alamanac and his metaphor of time provides unity. She theorizes that Melville was a highly concious artist, capable of manipulating intricate strands of imagery, metaphor, and symbol through a detailed and precise method. Moreover, an elaborate system of puns gives his work an unsuspected economy even where it seems excessively and unnecessarily wordy. Though Mardi fails, perhaps from tediousness and overmanipulation, Melville followed through with the artistic implications in his later and greater books. Moore feels he had a highly developed concept of the errant or deceitful narrator and hoped to force his readers into an intense riddle-solving approach to Mardi."