Herman Melville - Mardi: And a Voyage Thither, Vol. 1 (Unabridged)

Not long ago, having published two narratives of voyages in the Pacific, which, in many quarters, were received with incredulity, the thought occurred to me, of indeed writing a romance of Polynesian adventure, and publishing it as such; to see whether, the fiction might not, possibly, be received for a verity: in some degree the reverse of my previous experience. – This thought was the germ of others, which have resulted in Mardi.