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Billy Budd
(Paperback, 1972)
Other Editions...
Author: Herman Melville
Unpublished in Melville's lifetime, BILLY BUDD is considered one of his greatest works. It began as ...
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Format: Paperback
ISBN-10: 0671731440
ISBN-13: 9780671731441
Jun 1972
Publisher: Washington Square Pr
Grade:
From 7 to 9
Reissue
Language: English |
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Details
Synopsis
Unpublished in Melville's lifetime, BILLY BUDD is considered one of his greatest works. It began as a ballad, but grew into a short novel with an ambiguous plot that raises more questions than it answers, about good and evil, justice and injustice. Billy Budd, a handsome, angelic, and beloved young sailor, is wrongly accused of inciting mutiny. He lashes out in a rage and accidentally kills his accuser, the demonic Claggart, with one blow. The ship's commander, Captain Vere, a conflicted man of principle, cries, "Struck dead by an angel of God! Yet the angel must hang." And a court martial does indeed condemn the saintly Billy to death. His last words are, "God bless Captain Vere." Billy Budd is widely interpreted as a Christ figure, the victim of a kind of ritual sacrifice, after which order is restored. He is also seen as an innocent, Adam-like character who is destroyed by the evil that is inescapable in the world. When it was published, one critic called this novella "Melville's last will and spiritual testament."
| Size | | Height: | 6.8 in | | Width: | 4.3 in | | Thickness: | 0.5 in | | Weight: | 3.2 oz |
Industry Reviews
"BILLY BUDD has excited the most admiration and commentary of any work by Melville except MOBY-DICK. It has the translucence and the loose weave of last works. A lifetime sifts into it. Whenever Melville ventures onto shipboard, the reader feels the deck beneath his feet."
essay - John Updike
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