Customer Reviews

Billy Budd and Other Tales (Signet Classics)

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

This novella is difficult to read, with long and complex sentences and perhaps unnecessary diversions. But its power and depth reward the effort it takes to read it.

"Billy Budd" is an allegory of a young seaman who strikes and kills a superior officer when the officer's cruelty and treachery become unbearable. The focus of the story is the debate over whether to execute the seaman (Billy Budd) for his crime. With passionate and terrifying logic, Melville (through the voice of Captain Vere) demonstrates that human perfection is impossible - not because we humans are weak, but because perfection simply does not and cannot exist in this world. To make decisions based on our notion of "divine justice" is not only impractical and foolhardy, according to Melville, but even immoral.

If you like to think of yourself as an idealist, then reading this book will leave some unanswered questions in your mind, possibly for the rest of your life. I first read this story more than thirty years ago, and it still affects the way I think about almost everything to this day.

While much has been said about the value of the work itself, Billy Budd is important not only as an allegory, but as a fictionalized account of an actual event in the 1840s. The real Billy Budd was Philip Spencer, the son of the Secretary of War at the time. Spencer left Union College after founding the first social greek letter society, Chi Psi. He signed on with a training ship, the Brig of War Somers. The Somers was overcrowded with young recruits and captained by a paranoid zealot. Midshipman Spencer was falsely accused of fomenting mutiny and ultimately hung from the yard arm rather than betray the fact that he was recruiting for his fraternity. The need for secrecy was particularly keen, since his own father was famous for his prosecution of the Masons based on alleged murder to prevent the masonic secrets from being disseminated. His hanging was not only against the law at the time, but also offended all sense of fairness. Following the investigation of his murder, it became emphatically clear that it was necessary to change the way the United States was to train its navy. The direct result was the founding of the United States Naval Academy, in whose museum Midshipman Spencer's sword is on display.

The inmates of the 'Indomitable', the name of the ship, which is the centre stage of the evolving drama, have indomitable reactions.
Innocence as well as antipathies are 'spontaneous and profound'. Man is irrational. He is governed by the heart, not the brain, but the heart can be innocent or evil:
'though the man's even temper and discreet bearing seem to intimate a mind peculiarly subject to the law of reason, not the less in his heart he would seem to riot in complete exemption from the law, having apparently little to do with reason further than to employ it as an ambidexter implement for effecting the irrational. These men are true madmen.'
More, civilization is auspicious to natural depravity. It folds itself in the mantle of respectability.

The innocent Billy Budd (Adam before the Fall) is a victim of profound iniquity (pale ire, envy, despair) and his reaction is indomitable.
Starry Vere (fron the Latin 'Verus'), the captain of the ship, agrees that iniquity is a mystery, a matter for psychologic theologians, but for a military court only the prisoner's deed must be taken into account.

Herman Melville, as a true calvinist, is obsessed by the existence of evil. He wrote a profound and dramatic masterpiece.

*BILLY BUDD, a classic tale by America's Herman Melville, was written 40 years after his burst of creative energy. Melville still possessed the feeling for a good story, but he wrote it in a language so ornate and (to our modern eyes) stilted, that one can hardly absorb it. Nevertheless, BILLY BUDD deals with a timeless human issue---the nature of justice. Billy, a handsome young sailor, has been impressed into the British Navy where he incurs the jealousy or instinctive dislike of an officer. Billy has done nothing to warrant his wrath and is highly popular among everyone. This officer, rather more intellectual than most, proves tenaciously vindictive. He endeavors to trap Billy in a mutinous plot, but Billy rejects the idea. At last the officer goes to the captain and accuses Billy of mutiny directly. The captain too likes Billy and cannot believe the accuser. He calls Billy, who in tense circumstances is apt to stutter or be tongue-tied. When presented with the officer's accusations, Billy cannot speak. He strikes the officer. The conclusion is swift and sad. I should not reveal the ending, but the question of "what is justice ?" lies at the center of it.

*Other Tales---these are neither very enjoyable nor easy to read except for BARTLEBY THE SCRIVENER, an amusing story that might remind readers of one episode from "Sinbad the Sailor". Bartleby, a copyist or scrivener arrives at a lawyer's office and is hired. He seems to have no past, no present. We discover that he even lives at the office, never goes out. He gradually refuses to do all work, but will not leave the premises. How to get rid of him ? I could tell you the end, but in the immortal words of Bartleby himself, "I would prefer not to." This is a minor classic.

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Many lessons in the story of Billy Budd. And one is the personality of the master-in-arms, John Claggart. How does one explain in our current life persons who lash out at us for false reasons due to alterative motives? We can dispute the charges but when asked what reason we believe the reputable and well-respected person is accusing us for, what is our answer? This is where reading books, anything from philosophy, psychology, novels, biographies, etc., are so crucial in life. Crucial in all our endeavors, from cliché speech walking in our neighborhood to who we vote for politically. And so, here we are accused for motives beyond surface despite the respectability and dignity that the accuser so verily has. If we and our judges are familiar with the stories of the biblical Joseph and his brothers, and I find much more so, the story of John Claggart and Billy Budd, then our referral to such stories reaps far more insight than a lengthy explanation would do.

Another point that hit hard is at the end of the novel, where Melville quotes the fictitious Newspaper's account of the Billy Budd story potraying him as the culprit and I can't help but compare it to the stories of the media and journalism that conveys the right story but subtly changes. omits and slyly maneuvers the intents and motives and in many cases, outright falsifies the information as in "Billy Budd conspires mutiny and thus punished appropriately." But what makes matters so much worse is the believing public, "Billy Budd really is evil," naive, built on journalism where the reading of books is long forgotten.

Were Captain Vere and the three lieutenants correct in their decision to execute Billy Budd? Should the letter of the law been obeyed? Or did this incur extenuating circumstances to pardon either the official crime or the punishment? This was a time of recent mutinies and revolts on other ships, although nothing of the sort here happened, it pervaded the spirit of strict disciplinarian measures. In addition, the outcome of the obedience and servitude of the sailors and officers would have to be weighed ahead of the life of Billy Budd, despite is false accuser and impulsive blow to counter act his failure to use speech to defend himself. Does this support a zero tolerance law code? Or should flexibility and discernment above strict adherence to each and every case be determined by the spirit and purpose of the law broke rather than then the letter of the so-called infringement?

Subjectively, Billy Budd was a good man and innocent of the death by accident he incurred to Claggart and therefore should be either found guilty of a lesser charge or given lesser punishment. Billy Budd's last words, "God Bless Captain Vere." Objectively, Billy Budd broke a major law, killing a superior officer, which in turn, has a major influence on the entire fleet of sailors and officers and is therefore guilty and subject to hanging.

Personally, I thought this was a great book. This book follows a man named Billy Budd through the end of his life spent in the English navy. Although this book had some boring parts, it was overall a great story line. I was impressed with story more than the writing, which ran a little longer than I thought it should have in some parts. However, the main story was very clever and presented a lot of great ideas.
The story was set in 1797 during one of Britain's wars with France. Most of the story takes place on a ship called the Indomitable. There had been a lot of mutinies in the British navy, and the ship is overall a tense place. To add to it the men find the quarters too crowded. Billy Budd starts out on a boat called the Rights of Man, a merchant ship, and is put into service on the Indomitable.
The story to me is about good versus evil. The whole book seems to be a major analogy of the simplest form. Billy is good. Claggart is bad, and Vere is reason. The major plot involves Billy killing Claggart in response to evil. Billy seems to be completely unaware of badness. After being offended by Claggart, Billy punches him and accidentally kills him. Then a court is set up to determine Billy's punishment.
The characters have very obvious symbolism to the struggle of good and evil. When Billy joins the Indomitable he is about 20, handsome, kind, and basically personified innocence. Claggart is an older man who moved up in rank mainly because he could please people, but is clearly evil. I think that this is genius. Even in my life I can think of people who get ahead in life simply through attitude, which I find to be a horrible representation of a man. I believe men should be judged more on their values, or set of morals, which determine all of his endeavors. Even in schools the straight A students are not always the people who are most able to do jobs. However I use this more as an analogy than an example because this story deals mainly with good and evil. Finally, there is Captain Vere. He is an older man, who is implied to be intelligent although not directly show to be. He loves to read, and is a conserved man who is seen as fair, and well liked among the sailors. To me he doesn't represent a person. I see Vere as the challenge of judgment. He is a man given all the information, a just fairness, and intelligence. I find that even though not all people come off as having equal intelligence, it's more of a language barrier. Until you get to know someone its like looking at the surface of an ocean. When it comes to their ideas you can only see the tip of the iceberg, and it's impossible to tell for sure how deep those thoughts go, even if you think you have an idea. I think that most people have this reason and understanding, under the surface, that is represented by Vere. I must say that some people wouldn't like this book because they might find it stupid or boring, but the principles that are suggested by this book are real and true to today. So, even if you don't appreciate the style of the author, anyone who takes time to consider the idea of this story must find themselves lost in thought; riding on a train of thought that only great ideas can take you aboard, staring out the window with amazement.
The story itself beautifully illustrates this idea of the forces of good and evil in life. The men on the ship are like followers. Some of them follow Claggart, trying their best to please him, but the majority look up to Billy for his purity, and respect Vere for his fairness. The idea of mutiny is brought to Billy by one of his fellow seamen. Billy of course has no desire to partake in it, and is outraged by the idea. However, later, when the ship leaves the main fleet, Claggart tells Vere that he has heard of a mutiny developing. Vere who seems to admire Billy for his innocence and good heart, finds the claim ridiculous. It's never made clear why Claggart dislikes Billy, but I think that this is one of the key points of the book, that evil exists without instigation. Vere, determined to settle the dispute, brings both of them into his office one night, and tells them both the situation. Billy, who has no understanding of evil, is so offended by this accusation that in defense he out lashes and punches Claggart, killing him. Vere, a man of justice calls together a court for Billy's punishment. If you don't want to know the ending, skip the rest of this paragraph. In sight of fairness Billy is sentenced to a hanging. Also, later Vere dies in a fight with the ship Atheist. So, in the end evil is all that's left it seems. I don't think that this means that evil conquers goodness and fairness. I think it simply shows that goodness is rare, and fairness can be taken by evil, as with Billy's death and Vere's death. I think the reason evil is left at the end of this book is because evil will always exist.
Overall, this book was definitely a classic. I found the story interesting, and quite well written, but had it been poorly written, the concept of the book was enough to make this book well worth the reading. The book seemed boring to me at first, but the whole picture is needed to appreciate this work of art. I would recommend this book to anyone with an open mind.

Before asking students to tackle "Moby Dick," I have them read "Billy Budd" as part of the freshman high school curriculum. This novella is true to Melville's style: not always easy reading, but enormously rewarding. The drama unfolds with the digressions and character analysis which those who love Melville relish and those who do not find annoying. I am in the former group.

This edition has much to recommend it. There is en extended reader's supplement which contains biographical information, explanations of the nautical and naval terms and clarification of the biblical, mythological and historical allusions which fill its few pages.

A good follow-up to the novella is viewing the film with Peter Ustinov as Captain Vere and Terrence Stamp as the title character. The opera by Benjamin Britten also follows the book very closely and is available on cd and in video.

This book makes a good first introduction to Melville, and this edition is excellent. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.


Mass Market Paperback edition.

Reading, be the target novels, short stories, poems, or road maps, demands an investment from readers of a certain number of hours from their life spans. Perhaps I am too demanding, but I feel that, if I am to trade a portion of my life for the message left for me by an author, the message should be meaningful, and I should lay down the completed book feeling that I have gained something positive from having read it: a new insight, a new word added to my recognition vocabulary, or a new vicarious experience. I also detest having my attention diverted from the author's message by having to stumble around malapropisms, misspellings, or nonstandard punctuation. This collection of short stories (and I have no objection if one wishes to characterize "Billy Budd" as a novella) does not disappoint. From these eight stories I have gleaned new vocabulary and new vicarious experiences, and in none of them is the writing any less than superb.

This is not to claim that the writing is always easily read. The acceptable and educated writing style of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was far more periphrastic than is today's streamlined and, at times, abbreviated and almost staccato style. Simple sentences were not preferred over compound-complex sentences. Writers were not hesitant to select words that best fit their purpose, the number of syllables and the antiquity of a word notwithstanding. We tend to see such writing today as "dense, impenetrable and boring," but just think of the opportunity to expand one's vocabulary and to practice concentrating on the meaning being conveyed by those wonderfully detailed sentences! Communicating through the written word requires a joint effort on the part of both the author and the reader, and only those readers who are willing to put forth the effort are likely to truly enjoy Melville's stories.

I find it strange that most of the reviews posted here deal only with "Billy Budd" for the other seven stories are magnificent and deserve attention. Each one makes its own comment on the nature of mankind and of humanity's relationship with the universe. None is a "happy" story, for Melville did not see mankind's place in the cosmos as a happy one. "The Piazza" shows us how much our dreams and imaginations exceed reality and how mundane, unfulfilling and prosaic reality is compared with the gilded sheen with which we adorn our imagined perceptions of things unknown, being certain that they are better than our own reality.

"Bartleby" is, for me, the most demanding story to grasp, and it still defies my feeble attempts at explication. Bartleby certainly prefers (to use his own term) not to comply with the expectations and requirements of the society around him, and in fact he is quite successful in not conforming to the social norms--but at a terrible price. Is Melville commenting on the fact that individuals are never truly free to pursue their own preferences? I believe so, but I also believe that this too simplistic; there is more to be found in this story.

"Benito Cerino" is a surreal account of the captain of a slave ship who becomes the slave when the slaves become the masters. Eventually rescued, the captain remains a broken man, freed of his bondage only to face an early grave. The fascination of this story lies in the masterful way Melville reveals the true nature of things to us through the perceptions of Captain Amasa Delano, who boards the Spanish slaver with helpful intentions and a large measure of innocent naivete. The story slowly unfolds through his eyes and ears as, very slowly, his suspicions increase that all is not right aboard Don Benito's ship. This is by far one of the most suspenseful stories in print in the English language.

"The Lightning Rod Man" shows us how successful charlatans can be when they prey on the fears of their victims, unethical behavior made even worse by the fact that the charlatans create those fears themselves. Perhaps there is also an implied comment here on the gullibility of those who become such prey, for the successful man in this story is the charlatan himself.

For vivid description of a desolate and hostile environment, it would be difficult to trump the series of vignettes grouped under the title "The Encantadas." If there is an enchantment to these barren volcanic islands, it is surely an evil one in Melville's view. His introducing each vignette with an epigraph, largely from Spencer's Faerie Queene, effectively sets the tone and mood for what follows, and the tone is always somber.

"The Bell-Tower" is rather intriguing in that it could have emerged from a contemporary science fiction story, a genre quite unknown in Melville's day. It is a pithy commentary on man's increasing reliance on his own inventions and creations rather than nature's (or God's if one prefers). The message is, as we should now come to expect, that man suffers from such misplaced reliance.

"The Town-Ho's Story" is reminiscent of "Billy Budd" and the reader feels that one has strongly influenced the other, although the outcomes are surprisingly different. I'm a little surprised that none of the reviews that I've found here have drawn a parallel between Billy Budd (the handsome sailor) and Jesus Christ or between John Claggart and Judas Iscariot or between Captain Vere and Pontius Pilot. Now before another reader takes me to task, please note that I am not claiming that Melville intentionally made any such parallels, yet I believe that Melville's symbolic characters can be seen in a somewhat similar light as those of the Christian allegorists.

All of these stories reveal the amoral nature of the universe, an amorality that mankind sees as dark and painful because it does not cater to his desires. Melville's skills at drawing verbal pictures for his readers are masterful but, like an artist executing a complicated painting, he is not always quick and easy to interpret. If the reader will approach these stories slowly and thoughtfully--and with a dictionary at hand--then he or she will be rewarded with a memorable experience.

Billy Budd has never known a home beside the sea. Orphaned, and apparently un-cared for, even though he has a personal innocence, and beauty about him, he is at one with the sea.

In his innocence, he is unaware that his superior, Claggert, is also his nemesis, and one can only speculate why Claggert has such antipathy towards him.

Although there is nothing Captain Vere can do to save the poor boy, after Billy Budd unexpectedly lashes out at Claggert, we are waiting for something to happen to avoid the unfair morality of the story. While Vere has right in his decision to condemn Billy Budd, it is an immoral decision. Is what is right and what is moral it always the same thing? Not in this case, and perhaps that is Melville's point. Well meaning people can do what is right, can act in a manner that is correct, but isn't there a higher consideration. Why does there have to be a conflict with morality and correctness, with humanity and duty.

This short novel provides yet another addition to the literature in which to question right and wrong, good and evil. I think that this is an unanswerable question.

While the themes within this story and universal, and well presented, the language is nineteenth century. Parts of the narrative are difficult to get through, and many of the metaphors require a nineteenth century outlook. But the issues it raises are worth thinking about, and that certainly comes through, at least to me,

In Billy Budd, it is a time of war between the nations, but on one ship, a smaller battle is being fought between two men: John Claggart and William Buddd. Claggart, jealous of Bill's Budd and the destruction of himself. This stroy is recommended greatly because the reader clearly sees the parallel between the innocent and the evil. In Bartleby, Melvillle wrote during a time his life was at ruins, and this stroy reflects his pessimism. The narrator, a succesful Wall street Lawyer, hires a scrivener, named Bartleby, to copy legal documents. One day, when asked to proofread, his responds, "I would prefer not to." As time progresses, Bartleby repeatedly "would prefer noto" do anything aksed of him. He dies in jail, being there for vagrancy, of self-negelct.IT SHOWS society's views on people who are segregated and discriminated. In Benito Cereno, the story is about a slave vessel taken over by the Negroes. The co-captain of the ship is Benito Cereno, who is secretly blackmailed by the head Negro ringleader, Babo ( also known as Benito's "close companion") Fortunately, another ship was there with another Captain named Amasa Delano, who feels suspcious and frightened of his own life and his own ship because of this new and strange unity between the Spaniards and the Negroes. The author gives the reader hidden clues foreshadowing what is really happening. The story is mysterious and cunningly written by Herman Melville. All three stories are greatly Recommmended. email: EJDVS98@aol.com