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Tahiti & the Marquesas

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Get the featured set of Essential Reading, our top picks of what to read, and get free shipping on anything else you order.

Essential Reading

Item EXPAC188. Buy these 3 items as a set for $83 including shipping, 15% off the retail price.
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Lonely Planet Tahiti and French Polynesia

Lonely Planet Tahiti and French Polynesia

by Tony Wheeler | Jean-Bernard Carillet

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2012
  • PAPER
  • 296 PAGES

This practical guide to Tahiti and French Polynesia includes a good overview on history, culture and nature, and helpful travel details for your journey. (PAC86, $22.99)

The Happy Isles of Oceania

The Happy Isles of Oceania

by Paul Theroux

  • EXPLORATION
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 480 PAGES
  • FAVORITE

The peripatetic author flies off to Australia and New Zealand with a kayak and ends up exploring much of Melanesia and Polynesia, including Tonga, Fiji and the Marquesas in this wickedly funny, wide-ranging tale. (PAC03, $15.95)

Adorning the World, Art of the Marquesas Islands

Adorning the World, Art of the Marquesas Islands

by Eric Kjellgren | Carol Ivory

  • ART & ARCHITECTURE
  • 2005
  • PAPER
  • 85 PAGES

Written to coincide with an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this book's subject is the art of the Enata, the inhabitants of the Marquesas Islands, northeast of Tahiti, the site of Paul Gauguin's famously inspirational sojourn. (PAC152, $19.95)

 
Aphrodite's Island, The European Discovery of Tahiti

Aphrodite's Island, The European Discovery of Tahiti


by Anne Salmond

  • HISTORY
  • 2011
  • PAPER
  • 544 PAGES

Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, James Cook, Samuel Wallis and many more early European voyagers join local heroes, Tahitian warriors and kings in this authoritative, richly detailed history of French Polynesia and its allure. Author and anthropologist Anne Salmond, (Two Worlds, The Trail of the Cannibal Dogs) is a professor at the University of Auckland. (PAC219, $24.95)

Gauguin's Skirt

Gauguin's Skirt


by Stephen F. Eisenman

  • HISTORY
  • 1999
  • PAPER
  • 232 PAGES

A provocative analysis by an art historian of Gauguin and his work in Tahiti -- and its meaning for current politics in French Polynesia. With 110 reproductions (seven in color) of Gauguin's works and of photos circa 1900. (PAC95, $24.95)

Noa Noa, The Tahiti Journal

Noa Noa, The Tahiti Journal


by Paul Gauguin | John Miller

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 1985
  • PAPER
  • 96 PAGES

Gauguin's impressions of two years in French Polynesia, originally published in 1919. With 24 black-and-white illustrations. (PAC13, $5.95)

Explorations of Captain James Cook in the Pacific as Told by Selections of His Own Journals, 1768-1779


by James Cook | A. Grenfell Price | Geoffrey C. Ingleton

  • EXPLORATION
  • 1971
  • PAPER
  • 292 PAGES

The editors have chosen well from Cook's own journals of his three great voyages, highlighting his many historic discoveries and encounters. (PAC160, $16.95)

Gauguin Tahiti

Gauguin Tahiti


by Francoise Cachin

  • ART & ARCHITECTURE
  • 2004
  • HARD COVER
  • 372 PAGES

This illustrated catalog features gorgeous reproductions and authoritative essays on Gauguin and his time in Tahiti. With 260 color and 80 black-and-white illustrations of paintings, watercolors, drawings, prints and sculptures. (PAC92, $65.00)

Oceanic Art

Oceanic Art


by Nicholas Thomas

  • ART & ARCHITECTURE
  • 1995
  • PAPER
  • 216 PAGES

A concise, cogent and colorful overview of the gorgeous art of the Pacific Islands. Organized thematically with 182 illustrations, 26 in color. (PAC06, $19.95)

On the Road of the Winds

On the Road of the Winds


by Patrick Vinton Kirch

  • ARCHAEOLOGY
  • 2001
  • PAPER
  • 424 PAGES

An excellent scholarly review of the prehistory and archaeology of Pacific civilizations before European contact. (PAC101, $39.95)

The Cruise of the Snark

The Cruise of the Snark


by Jack London

  • EXPLORATION
  • 2000
  • PAPER
  • 320 PAGES

A facsimile edition of London's richly evocative account of his ambitious 1906-7 voyage aboard a 43-foot ketch from San Francisco to Hawaii, the Marquesas, Tuomotos, Fiji and the Solomon Islands with his wife and two crew members. With 119 original photographs of places and people. (PAC17, $14.95)

We, the Navigators, The Ancient Art of Landfinding in the Pacific

We, the Navigators, The Ancient Art of Landfinding in the Pacific


by David Lewis

  • EXPLORATION
  • 1994
  • PAPER
  • 464 PAGES

This engaging classic examines how Stone Age Polynesians may have navigated the Pacific. The scholarly volume will appeal to seafarers and modern Pacific travelers. (PAC35, $31.99)

Blue Latitudes, Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before

Blue Latitudes, Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before


by Tony Horwitz

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2003
  • PAPER
  • 480 PAGES

Sailing on a replica of Endeavour, Horwitz mixes history, fun and adventure in this hilarious recap of Cook's daring voyages around the world. (EXP31, $18.00)

Captain James Cook

Captain James Cook


by Richard Hough

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 1997
  • PAPER
  • 398 PAGES

This fine, vividly written narrative includes a gripping account of Cook's discoveries throughout the Pacific. (PAC24, $18.95)

Getting Stoned with Savages, A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu

Getting Stoned with Savages, A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu


by J. Maarten Troost

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2006
  • PAPER
  • 256 PAGES

Troost (Sex Lives of Cannibals) follows up his hilarious account of life in Kiribati with an equally amusing romp in Fiji and Vanuatu. Coaxed back to the islands by promises of a simpler life, Troost faces dangerous weather, potent drugs, tribal chiefs and fatherhood with his wit intact. (PAC168, $13.99)

In the South Seas

In the South Seas


by Robert Louis Stevenson

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 1999
  • PAPER
  • 283 PAGES

A set of Stevenson's personal sketches describing a year of travels in the Marquesas, Paumotus and the Gilberts, first written as magazine articles and then reworked to incorporate detail on local peoples and history, published posthumously. (PAC147, $16.00)

Paradise

Paradise


by Larry McMurtry

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2001
  • PAPER
  • 160 PAGES

McMurtry effortlessly weaves travel and biography in this absorbing account of his 1999 voyage aboard the Aranui from Tahiti to Fatu Hiva and the Marquesas. (PAC176, $13.00)

Moon and Sixpence

Moon and Sixpence


by Somerset Maugham

  • LITERATURE
  • 2005
  • PAPER
  • 204 PAGES

Maugham's well-regarded 1919 novel, inspired by the life of Gauguin; it's the powerful story of a man who relinquishes his family to pursue his dream of becoming a painter, eventually moving to the South Pacific. (PAC16, $14.00)

Mutiny on the Bounty

Mutiny on the Bounty


by James Norman Hall | Charles Nordhoff

  • LITERATURE
  • 1989
  • PAPER
  • 379 PAGES

The well-known (and loved) fictional account of the voyage of the HMS Bounty, greatly enjoyable despite its probable lack of accuracy regarding Bligh's personality. (PAC11, $15.99)

Tales of the South Pacific

Tales of the South Pacific


by James A. Michener

  • LITERATURE
  • 1989
  • PAPER
  • 384 PAGES

The first of the big Michener novels, set in World War II Polynesia. It's great fun, and the basis for the Rogers & Hammerstein musical "South Pacific." (PAC18, $7.99)

Typee, A Peep at Polynesian Life

Typee, A Peep at Polynesian Life


by Herman Melville

  • LITERATURE
  • 1996
  • PAPER
  • 328 PAGES

The most popular of Melville's books during his lifetime, this partly autobiographical work first published in 1846 tells the story of Tommo, a Yankee sailor who jumps ship and enters the flawed Pacific paradise of Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas. (PAC14, $14.00)

Typee, Omoo, Mardi

Typee, Omoo, Mardi


by Herman Melville

  • LITERATURE
  • 1982
  • HARD COVER
  • 1333 PAGES

Melville's South Pacific trilogy featuring a Yankee sailor who jumps ship and enters the flawed Pacific paradise of Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas. (PAC62, $45.00)

The Snorkeller's Guide to the Coral Reef, From the Red Sea to the Pacific Ocean

The Snorkeller's Guide to the Coral Reef, From the Red Sea to the Pacific Ocean


by Paddy Ryan

  • NATURAL HISTORY
  • 1994
  • PAPER
  • 184 PAGES

The best-selling, take-along guide to coral reefs, coral-reef fishes, invertebrates and plants of the Indo-Pacific. With 200 color photographs. (DIV18, $21.99)

A Field Guide to the Birds of Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific

A Field Guide to the Birds of Hawaii and the Tropical Pacific


by H. Douglas Pratt

  • FIELD GUIDE
  • 1987
  • PAPER
  • 409 PAGES

This landmark field guide with chapters on the islands and habitats features superb color plates by Pratt and a checklist of birds. (HWI32, $46.95)

Reef Fish Identification, Tropical Pacific

Reef Fish Identification, Tropical Pacific


by Paul Humann | Ned Deloach | Gerald Allen | Roger Steene

  • FIELD GUIDE
  • 2003
  • FLEXI-BOUND
  • 450 PAGES

This comprehensive guide to Indo-Pacific reef fishes features 2,500 color photographs. (DIV49, $48.00)

More Recommendations

Here are some other groups of books that might be of interest

Longitude provides recommended reading for travelers in partnership with the leading tour operators and travel programs for hundreds of destinations worldwide. We've got the classic, new and hard-to-find books and maps to help you get the most out of your adventures.