Billy Budd

Name: Billy Budd
Brand: Blackstone Audiobooks
Availability: InStock
Author: Herman Melville
ISBN: 9781441714558

Author: Herman Melville

Narrator: Stefan Rudnicki; directed by Emily Janice Card

Unabridged: 3 hr 31 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Published: 07/08/2009

Categories: Fiction, Classic

Synopsis

Billy Budd, an orphaned, illegitimate child suffused with innocence, openness, and natural charisma, has been impressed into service aboard the HMS Bellipotent. He is adored by the crew, but for unexplained reasons arouses the antagonism of the ship's MasteratArms John Claggart, who falsely accuses Billy of conspiracy to mutiny. Set in 1797, Herman Melvilles Billy Budd exploits the tension of this period during the war between England and France to create a tale of satanic treachery, tragedy, and great pathos that explores human relationships and the inherently ambiguous nature of manmade justice.

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 Roy on June 29, 2021

For me, Moby Dick is compelling for its flaws as much as its genius. It is somehow both brilliant and overly-ambitious. One can feel, on every page, Melville straining to write something Miltonic, Shakespearean, even Biblical in its reach and power. But like some over-educated Icarus, his soaring fl......more

Goodreads review by Jonathan on August 19, 2016

This, ladies and gents, is what we call round these parts a darn good sentence: "By the side of pebbly waters--waters the cheerier for their solitude; beneath swaying fir-boughs, petted by no season, but still green in all, on I journeyed--my horse and I; on, by an old saw-mill, bound down and hushe......more

Goodreads review by Jonfaith on May 01, 2016

Distinctly we see the difference of the colors, but where exactly does the one first blendingly enter into the other? So with sanity and insanity. Billy and Bartleby are old friends, portraits of bejeweled philosophy. Strange as it may appear, the selection which punched me in the jaw was Cock-A-Dood......more

Goodreads review by Bob on January 01, 2018

Sailors' Favorite Framed, Takes Rap *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 a......more

Goodreads review by Christine on September 29, 2020

One of Melville's finest. I like to think it took his whole life to write this short piece because it condenses his finest diction, symbolism, and commentary on human nature. By story’s end, Melville’s descriptions have created a singular character of innocence, one he calls a “childman” of simple-m......more