Herman Melville’s The Enchanted Isles is a beautiful and haunting work written following the author’s tour of the Galapagos Islands. Charles Darwin, who had visited the Galapagos four years earlier, put the islands’ unique ecosystem at the heart of his epochchanging work on evolutionary theory. For Melville, too, this glimpse of a land absolutely untouched by man changed his outlook on civilisation.

Herman Melville’s The Enchanted Isles is a beautiful and haunting work written following the author’s tour of the Galapagos Islands. Charles Darwin, who had visited the Galapagos four years earlier, put the islands’ unique ecosystem at the heart of his epochchanging work on evolutionary theory. For Melville, too, this glimpse of a land absolutely untouched by man changed his outlook on civilisation.

Originally penned as a travelogue, Melville’s writings form a series of evocative and descriptive sketches. Exploring the equatorial islands’ unusual heritage, he recounts their myths and stories, conjuring up the spirit of the place in astonishing detail. Read together, the sketches of the ’Encantadas’, or Enchanted Isles, make up a timeless classic. Perfectly capturing the islands’ eternal charm and mystery, they also elucidate the passions and interests of a great American writer.

Foreword by Margaret Drabble

The Enchanted Isles

 Notes

Biographical note