Book excerpt: Herman Melville’s picturesque account of the Galapagos Islands will make you want to abandon all responsibilities and travel there to see for yourself. Melville wrote this series of "sketches" – or short prose works – from his own experiences sailing around the islands, yet at the same time they are clearly a product of his extraordinary imagination. Originally appearing in Putnam’s Magazine in 1854, the novella was later published alongside five other Melville short stories in the collection ‘The Piazza Tales’, which was very well received. Herman Melville (1819-1891) was an American writer, best known for his whaling novel, ‘Moby Dick’, which was poorly received at the time but considered a classic today.