This innovative work represents the most advanced, and accessible, approach to the study of a "fluid text" (a work existing in multiple versions). Analyzing Herman Melville's working draft manuscript of Typee, editor John Bryant establishes three layered versions of the heavily revised text and provides a chronological sequencing of Melville's writing process. Each of over one thousand revision sites in the manuscript is identified and accompanied by a revision sequence that delineates each compositional step and a revision narrative explaining Melville's changes and how each revision evolved throughout the various stages of composition.

This digital edition offers a graphic, diplomatic transcription of the manuscript, digitized photographs of each leaf, a clear reading text of the manuscript's final version, and the print version of the text as it first appeared in the first English edition of the novel. These features are searchable and linked to each other and to the edition's revision sites, sequences, and narratives. The Fluid-Text Edition is the first comprehensive study of the composition of Typee, shedding new light on the logic of Melville's creative choices, his use of sources, his complex relationship to his characters, and his growth as a writer.