This book in fact, neither literal autobiography nor pure fiction. The author drew his material from his experiences, from his imagination, and from a variety of travel books when the memories of his experiences are inadequate. The three-week stay on which Typee is based takes place over the course of four months in the narrative. It captures extensively on contemporary accounts by Pacific explorers to add cultural detail to what might otherwise have been a straightforward story of escape, capture, and re-escape.