Typee is a fast-moving adventure tale, an autobiographical account of the author's Polynesian stay, an examination of the nature of good and evil, and a frank exploration of sensuality and exotic ritual.

Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life is the first book by American writer Herman Melville, published first in London, then New York, in 1846. Considered a classic in travel and adventure literature, the narrative is based on the author's actual experiences as a captive on the island Nuku Hiva in the South Pacific Marquesas Islands in 1842, but is liberally supplemented with imaginative reconstruction and adaptation of material from other books. The title is from the name of a valley there called Tai Pi Vai. Typee was Melville's most popular work during his lifetime, and made him notorious as the "man who lived among the cannibals".

Herman Melville(August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, writer of short stories, and poet from the American Renaissance period. The bulk of his writings was published between 1846 and 1857. Best known for his sea adventure Typee (1846) and his whaling novel Moby-Dick (1854), he was almost forgotten during the last thirty years of his life.