"The Encantadas, or Enchanted Isles" is a novella by American author Herman Melville. First published in Putnam's Magazine in 1854, it consists of ten philosophical Β«SketchesΒ» on the Encantadas, or GalΓ‘pagos Islands. It was collected in The Piazza Tales in 1856. The Encantadas was a success with the critics, and contained some of Melville's Β«most memorable proseΒ».
An anonymous narrator unites the ten disparate Β«SketchesΒ», each of which begin with a few lines of poetry, mostly taken from Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene. All of the stories are replete with symbolism reinforcing the cruelty of life on the Encantadas. Β«Sketch FirstΒ» is a description of the islands; though they are the Enchanted Isles they are depicted as desolate and hellish. Β«Sketch SecondΒ» is a meditation on the narrator's encounter with ancient GalΓ‘pagos tortoises, while Β«Sketch ThirdΒ» concerns the narrator's trip up the enormous tower called the Rock Rodondo. Β«Sketch FourthΒ» details the narrator's musings from atop the tower, and his recollection of the islands' accidental discovery by Juan FernΓ‘ndez. Β«Sketch FifthΒ» describes the USS Essex' encounter with a phantom British ship near the area during the War of 1812.
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