Billy Budd, Sailor
Editorial PENGUIN BOOKS
Mainland Spain
- Publisher PENGUIN BOOKS
- ISBN13 9780140390537
- ISBN10 0140390537
- Type Book
- Pages 385
- Collection Penguin classics
- Published 2003
- Language English
- Bookbinding Rustic
Sections
English LiteratureBilly Budd, Sailor
Editorial PENGUIN BOOKS
Mainland Spain
Book Details
Stung 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."