Billy Budd, Sailor, Herman Melville
Billy Budd, Sailor, Herman Melville
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Billy Budd, Sailor

Author: Herman Melville

Narrator: Paul Giamatti

Unabridged: 3 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/06/2025

Synopsis

Billy Budd, Sailor (An Inside Narrative), also known as Billy Budd, Foretopman, is a novella by American writer Herman Melville, left unfinished at his death in 1891. Acclaimed by critics as a masterpiece when a hastily transcribed version was finally published in 1924, it quickly took its place as a classic second only to Moby-Dick among Melville's works. Billy Budd is a "handsome sailor" who strikes and inadvertently kills his false accuser, Master-at-arms John Claggart. The ship's Captain, Edward Vere, recognizes Billy's lack of intent, but claims that the law of mutiny requires him to sentence Billy to be hanged. Billy is the protagonist of the novella and a perfect example of the type of person the narrator calls the Handsome Sailor. His beautiful appearance reflects his upstanding character and because of this he earns the admiration of almost all of those he serves with aboard both the Rights-of-Man and the Bellipotent/Indomitable. Billy is an innocent, child-like young man, whom the narrator often compares to Adam before the fall of man. His innocent nature ends up being a liability aboard the Bellipotent/Indomitable, though, as he is unable to understand or even notice the wickedness of Claggart, who irrationally hates Billy. His death is represented as a tragic martyrdom by the narrator, and although the only official record of his death condemns him as a criminal, he is remembered more sympathetically in the sailors' ballad with which Melville's story ends, "Billy in the Darbies."

About Herman Melville

Herman Melville (1819–1891) was an American novelist, short-story writer, essayist, and poet who is often classified as part of dark romanticism. He is best known for his novel Moby Dick and novella Billy Budd, the latter which was published posthumously. His first three books gained much attention, the first becoming a bestseller, but after a fast-blooming literary success in the late 1840s, his popularity declined precipitously in the mid-1850s and never recovered during his lifetime. When he died, he was almost completely forgotten. It was not until the "Melville Revival" in the early twentieth century that his work won recognition, most notably Moby Dick, which was hailed as one of the chief literary masterpieces of both American and world literature.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Federico on April 22, 2024

Master side tracker. Billy Budd is possibly the best sailor ever, skilled, respectful, athletic, good natured and charismatic; always happy to do his job, and help others with theirs. But his handsome qualities and warmhearted personality frequently shadows his peers, and arises the jealousy and r......more

Goodreads review by Rob on August 19, 2007

Dear High School Curriculum Writers: I am positive that you can find a better novel than this one to use when introducing symbolism and extended metaphor to developing readers. "Christ-figure" is the most over-used of these extended metaphors; over-used to the point where its offensiveness ceases to......more

Goodreads review by Werner on August 28, 2015

Herman Melville's place in the literary canon is secure today, mainly on the strength of his novel Moby Dick; but ironically, that work was largely panned by critics and regular readers alike when it was published, and in the last decades of his life (he died in 1891) the author turned away from try......more

Goodreads review by Sasha on July 05, 2016

Billy Budd, another in Melville's oeuvre of nautical tales of gay passion, is shorter than his masterpiece and not as rewarding. The problem is that it's kindof boring and not much happens. It was Melville's last work, and he never really finished it - he just left a ton of scribbles and sketches and......more

Goodreads review by Marcus on July 06, 2009

Billy Budd adds to the evidence in Moby Dick that Melville was a master of the English language and a master of all things nautical. It's a great, short tale of good, evil and the sometimes harrowing injustice of circumstance. It was fascinating to see in Melville's last work, the dramatic differenc......more

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