Billy Budd: Short Story

· Sold by Harper Collins
4.6
5 reviews
Ebook
25
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

Billy Budd’s life takes an unexpected turn when he is pressed into service in the Royal Navy at the turn of the nineteenth century. Two recent mutinies and war with Revolutionary France make for tense conditions aboard HMS Bellipotent, and when the popular Billy inexplicably falls afoul of the jealous master-at-arms and commits a rash, though sorely provoked, act, it is up to Captain Vere to administer appropriate justice.

Herman Melville’s Billy Budd was unfinished at the time of the writer’s death, but was discovered in 1919 by Raymond Weaver, Melville’s first biographer. Transcription errors and difficulty interpreting Melville’s notes on the text meant an authoritative edition was not published until 1962. Billy Budd has been produced for film, stage, and television, with the most famous adaptation being the Benjamin Britten opera, with libretto by E.M. Forster and Eric Crozier.

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Ratings and reviews

4.6
5 reviews

About the author

Herman Melville (1819-1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet who received wide acclaim for his earliest novels, such as Typee and Redburn, but fell into relative obscurity by the end of his life. Today, Melville is hailed as one of the definitive masters of world literature for novels including Moby Dick and Billy Budd, as well as for enduringly popular short stories such as Bartleby, the Scrivener and The Bell-Tower.

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