Billy Budd

Plot

IN 1911 TWENTY YEARS AFTER HERMAN MELVILLE'S DEATH, THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA ALLOTTED THE AMERICAN NOVELIST A MERE THIRTY THREE LINES AND DID NOT DISTINGUISH MOBY DICK FROM MELVILLE'S OTHER WORKS. TODAY THE BRITANNICA HAS INCREASED ITS COVERAGE NINE TIMES AND MOBY DICK IS SEEN AS ON THE GREATES WORKS OF AMERICAN LITERATURE. THE CRITICAL RESURRECTION OF HERMAN MELVILLE IS PRIMARILY THE RESULT OF CHANGING TIMES. THE WORK SPOKE TO THE PEOPLE OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. CRITICS BEGAN TO RE-EXAMINE AND ACCLAIM THE GREATNESS OF MELVILL'S PROSE. BOTH PLAYING A PART IN THIS REVIVAL AND GAINING FROM IT WAS BILLY BUDD . COMPLETED A FEW MONTHS BEFORE HIS DEATH, THIS CAREFULLY CONSTRUCTED TRAGEDY WAS FOUND AMONG MELVILL'E PAPERS, BUT IT WAS NOT PUBLISHED UNTIL 1924. BILLY BUDD IS A NARRATIVE, A TRAGEDY, AND AN ALLEGORY. IT IS ALSO A MAN'S TESTAMENT ON LIFE. THE ENCANTADAS, OR ENCHANTED ISLES A BOOK OF TEN SKETCHES ALL LAID IN THE LONELY GALAPAGOS ISLANDS OFF THE COAST OF EUCADOR REPRESENTS HERMAN MELVILLE AT HIS HIGHTEST POINT OF ACHIEVEMENT AS A WRITER. FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE PIAZZA TALES, EACH SKETCH IS A GEM BY ITSELF. COMPASSION AND WITH MINGLE WITH ANGER AS MELVILLE PRESENTS HIS TWO MAJOR THEMES THE PWER OF EVIL AND MAN ISOLATION.