Billy Budd, Sailor (Dover Thrift Editions: Classic Novels)

Hard to imagine it took me 80 years to find this excellent tale. We are all of us at our best Billy Budd; fair, honest, brave.

I read this as a warm-up to Moby-Dick, and while it’s not a breezy read (Melville loves his allusions and rich vocabulary), it is undoubtedly a rich one with a fascinating question at its heart: can a man of innocent character be guilty of murder? Upon this question, Melville layers naval life in the late 18th century, which makes the text feel even richer and more detailed than a simple parable.

Nice inexpensive copy, but print is really tiny so be prepared!

My daughter loved it.

Title: A Thoughtful Moral Tale, but Sometimes Distant Rating: ★★★☆☆ Melville’s Billy Budd is rich with moral tension and philosophical themes: innocence vs corruption, duty vs conscience, law vs individual compassion. Billy, with his bright goodness and tragic fate, makes for a powerful protagonist, and Captain Vere’s dilemma adds real—and haunting—depth. The novella feels like an intense meditation more than a fast-paced story. Wikipedia +1 That said, the book can feel a bit slow and austere. Some parts are heavy with naval jargon and legalistic argument, which may make it harder for casual readers to stay engaged. Also, because the manuscript was unfinished and edited posthumously, there are moments where the structure or voice seems uneven.

Reading

Great book; easy-to-read print; small margins, wouldn’t recommend to anyone needing to annotate for school

I love it when favorite genres collide, and my affection for Age of Sail and legal thriller/courtroom drama fiction do that in "Billy Budd" - indeed, it is an iconic "law and literature" example and Scott Turow - writer of "Presumed Innocent" and other novels - considers it one of his Top 5 favorite legal thrillers. It also made good companion reading to some non-fiction books I have been reading about mutinies in the Royal Navy and US Navy. I'm giving it 4 stars mostly because of Melville's style, especially in the first 1/3 to 1/2 of the book, which is strained - asides, metaphors, literary allusions, etc., get in the way of the story - but when it gets into gear it is a very good read. And more than any book I've read in recent memory it really made me think. The subject here is a very "hard case" - but easy cases rarely make for interesting or thoughtful reading and thinking. I also like it because of the setting - the closed, isolated confines of a ship at sea - much like an Agatha Christie "closed room" murder or - even better - the "English country house mystery" genre. I found Billy Budd as a character to be impossible perfect, thus the tragedy of the end, but the other characters had more depth. Apart from the read itself, what makes it so interesting is how much ink has been spilled in analyzing the story. More than a hundred scholarly articles have been written as literary criticism/commentary on Billy Budd - I did read a few and found them quote interesting: "Captain Vere as Outsider and Insider: Military Leadership in Billy Budd, Sailor," and "The Hard Case: Billy Budd and the Judgment Intuitive" were two that helped me understand the story better. Likewise, there are debates over the editing of Melville's original manuscript, which was published several decades after he died. A relatively short read - it's no "Moby Dick"! - and receommended

Like melviles other books i just couldn't finish it.

Excellent classic story. We'll bound and printed

Oh dear. One of those rare ebook downloads that seems to cause problems on my Kindle. It tends to freeze like a PC trying to digest the ghastly enormity of Bill Gates's software. If I go to Beginning and hit Next Page the machine ponders a long time, then eventually goes to the end of the file. From here I can hit Previous Page which it happily copes with, but reading pages backwards is probably not the best way of appreciating "Billy Budd". If I try to do anything clever from Beginning, like Go to Location a bit further on, my Kindle freezes completely. AVOID!