Point Regarding Books Billy Budd and Other Stories
Title | : | Billy Budd and Other Stories |
Author | : | Herman Melville |
Book Format | : | Paperback |
Book Edition | : | Penguin Classics |
Pages | : | Pages: 416 pages |
Published | : | April 1st 1986 by Penguin Books (first published 1853) |
Categories | : | Fiction. Classics. Short Stories. Literature. 19th Century |
Herman Melville
Paperback | Pages: 416 pages Rating: 3.57 | 3592 Users | 172 Reviews
Description To Books Billy Budd and Other Stories
Tales of compelling power by one of America's greatest writersStung by the critical reception and lack of commercial success of his previous two works, Moby-Dick and Pierre, Herman Melville became obsessed with the difficulties of communicating his vision to readers. His sense of isolation lies at the heart of these later works. "Billy Budd, Sailor," a classic confrontation between good and evil, is the story of an innocent young man unable to defend himself against a wrongful accusation. The other selections here--"Bartleby," "The Encantadas," "Benito Cereno," and "The Piazza"--also illuminate, in varying guises, the way fictions are created and shared with a wider society.
In his introduction Frederick Busch discusses Melville's preoccupation with his "correspondence with the world," his quarrel with silence, and why fiction was, for Melville,"a matter of life and death."
Bartleby --
The piazza --
The Encantadas --
The bell-tower --
Benito Cereno --
The paradise of bachelors and the tartarus of maids --
Billy Budd, sailor.
Present Books During Billy Budd and Other Stories
Original Title: | Billy Budd and Other Stories |
ISBN: | 0140390537 (ISBN13: 9780140390537) |
Edition Language: | English |
Rating Regarding Books Billy Budd and Other Stories
Ratings: 3.57 From 3592 Users | 172 ReviewsWeigh Up Regarding Books Billy Budd and Other Stories
If you want a taste of Herman Melville's best work, then whatever you do, don't read Moby Dick. It's a massive, ambitious, cumbersome white whale of a book. Obviously there's some great writing there, but there's also no end of digressions. At the very least you should sample Melville before starting out, and his later stories are an excellent way to do that.I'll go further and claim that you shouldn't start with Billy Budd, which though a lot shorter than Moby Dick (about 100 pages in myDistinctly we see the difference of the colors, but where exactly does the one first blendingly enter into the other? So with sanity and insanity.Billy and Bartleby are old friends, portraits of bejeweled philosophy. Strange as it may appear, the selection which punched me in the jaw was Cock-A-Doodle-Do: a tale told by a fellow traveler (he drinks porter and reads Rabelais) about a magical fowl which is a fount of bliss, an actual agent of earthly happiness.
Herman Melville is one of my favourite authors in the realm of classic fiction in that his stories start off rather mundane, even almost boring, but suddenly in each of them, it becomes apparent that there's much more excitement in-store than meets the eye.
Melville can be tough reading sometimes, but there are some true gems in this collection! "Bartleby" and "The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids" offer some interesting critiques of modernity/industrialization. "The Encantadas" are a collection of 10 sketches loosely based on Melville's travels to the Galapagos. Some of the sketches are interesting, and they tend to mix travel literature with a kind of mythical storytelling. I found "The Piazza" and "The Bell-Tower" difficult to
These stories are dense, yes, but reward upon further readings. Particularly, the title story will give you quite a bit to think about if you allow it. When you read these, think of the nature of evil, the nature of ambiguity, the nature of interpretation. And plan a rereading.
I started this book for a class in 2006, reading the major stories ("Bartelby," "Benito Cereno," and "Billy Budd") then and putting the rest aside until last year. Those are all remarkable and have stayed with me pretty vividly ever since I read them. Of the remaining pieces, I was most taken with "The Encantadas," which has the feel of non-fiction travel literature until it gets very deep into its oddities. Brilliant story. The other three pieces are good but less smotheringly brilliant.
Bartleby was excellent -- an interesting departure from Melville's typical themes of the sea. However Billy Budd was essentially the perfect sailor's tale, and explored many mainstays of the removed and isolated world of the ship, sailor, and officer. I only wished it was longer -- I was continually surprised at how fast the events moved along -- however perhaps part of its charm was held in its ability to be succinct.
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