Billy Budd is among the greatest of Melville's works and, in its richness and ambiguity, among the most problematic. Outwardly a compelling narrative of events aboard a British man-of-war during the turmoil of the Napoleonic Wars, Billy Budd, Sailor is a nautical recasting of the Fall, a parable of good and evil, a meditation on justice and political governance, and a searching portrait of three extraordinary men. In this edition are also eight shorter tales, reprinted from the most authoritative recent editions and are supplemented by a penetrating introduction and full notes. Contents:
- Bartleby, the Scrivener
- Cock-A-Doodle-Doo!
- The Fiddler
- The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids
- The Lightning-Rod Man
- The Encantadas, or Enchanted Isles
- Benito Cereno
- I and My Chimney
- Billy Budd, Sailor (An Inside Narrative)
Author
There is more than one author with this name Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. His first two books gained much attention, though they were not bestsellers, and his popularity declined precipitously only a few years later. By the time of his death he had been almost completely forgotten, but his longest novel, Moby Dick—largely considered a failure during his lifetime, and most responsible for Melville's fall from favor with the reading public—was rediscovered in the 20th century as one of the chief literary masterpieces of both American and world literature.
