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

Melville, Herman

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0486813630 ISBN 13: 9780486813639

Publisher: Dover Publications, 2017

Synopsis

Cheerful, hardworking, and handsome, Billy is pressed into naval service aboard a British ship during the Napoleonic wars. The innocent and lovable young man quickly wins the hearts of all his comrades, save one: Claggart, the implacably bitter master-at-arms, who falsely accuses Billy of inciting mutiny. Rich in ambiguities, Herman Melville's haunting parable of the clash between good and evil raises thought-provoking issues related to the conflict between the requirements of the law and the needs of humanity.
This is the definitive edition of Melville's classic tale. Billy Budd, Sailor was discovered unfinished in the author's desk shortly after his 1891 death and remained unpublished until 1924. This text is the result of years of study and scrupulous research by Melville scholars. It offers students and other lovers of literature the best and most authentic version of the American storyteller's final masterpiece.

About this title

About the Author:

Herman Melville (1819–1891) found early success with stories inspired by his adventures in the South Seas. His fortunes declined with the 1851 publication of Moby-Dick, now recognized as a masterpiece but scorned by Melville’s contemporaries. The author was obliged to work as a New York City customs inspector and died in obscurity, three decades before the critical reassessment of his work.

From AudioFile:

[Editor's Note: The following is a combined review with DEAD AIR and THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE.]--American religious organizations have long embraced radio drama as a vehicle for their messages. Now comes Focus on the Family, syndicating a variety of plays to religious stations on the low end of the FM dial, and now offering them on CD. Produced overseas, these are professional handsome offerings, with didacticism nearly invisible. Father Gilbert, a Scotland Yard detective turned Anglican minister, fights crime like any other shamus, only his perpetrators lurk in the bowels of hell. In DEAD AIR, while appearing on a "chat show," Gilbert receives a chilling phone call that appears connected to a set of murders. It turns out that he is the intended victim, his soul coveted by demons. It's a bit like PBS's "Mystery" series with a soupçon of FAUST. THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE and BILLY BUDD are faithful and endearing versions of C.S. Lewis and Melville, respectively. The former, first published in 1950, derives from Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, a series of sophisticated children's allegorical fantasies set in the mythical kingdom of Narnia. The author was a scholar as well as a writer and religious apologist. The latter presents the often dramatized allegory of good, evil, and self-sacrifice on the high seas of human destiny. Y.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0486813630
• ISBN 13: 9780486813639
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 80