Billy Budd, Sailor by Herman Melville
It’s been said that Billy Budd, Sailor is the greatest short story ever written. Herman Melville creates a legal fable in his masterfully condensed style where reason and intelligence fail to uphold innocence in the face of evil. This heartbreaking tale of a lovely sailor who falls victim to man’s intransigence has special meaning for all people who feel threatened by a hostile and rigid environment.
Through an introduction and explanation of the work’s historical and cultural relevance, the author’s personal biography, and the influence this book had on later studies, Enriched Classics improves your engagement. Each book contains reading suggestions for additional research as well as discussion questions that help to clarify and reinforce the main concepts.
Billy Budd, Sailor by Herman Melville
73 used from $0.83
Free shipping
Amazon.com
More homoerotic literature that passes for a very different story than Melville’s Billy Budd is difficult to find. In all of Melville’s writings, including Moby Dick, homo-eroticism is undoubtedly a major concern. But Billy Budd outperforms them all; the rhythm of the entire story is the crew members’ peculiar attraction to the young sailor Billy Budd. His excellent nature is a secondary charm to his beauty, which is his most appealing quality. The narrator refers to him as an Adonis combined, and explains that without his clothing, he would resemble Adam in terms of physical perfection. In addition to being a pun on his name Billy, an elder sailor refers to him as a baby out of love.
Do you truly think that Billy Budd’s peculiar stammer, his irrational murder, and his execution all rely on his tremendous beauty—both the strength it conveys and the inability of other men to bear it without trickery or subterfuge? Answering this question is challenging.
This, I guess, contributes to the continuous interest in this brief, peculiar work. The plot itself has a weird, jumpy quality as if Melville is trying to fit things into a seamless whole, and there are Melville’s renowned asides on themes not entirely linked to the action. Those who have read Moby Dick will recognize this.
I was very happy to discover all of the supplemental content that is actually included with this edition because I previously purchased another edition (Billy Budd), which misrepresented itself as containing all kinds of historical and biographical information when it actually contained none and looked like it had been run off someone’s home printer as soon as my order came in. To anyone interested in reading the book, I’d suggest starting with this edition.
