Description
Set against the stark moral machinery of the sea, this collection gathers Herman Melville’s unfinished and lesser-known works alongside the enduring novella “Billy Budd,” a tale of innocence colliding with corruption. When a gifted young sailor is drawn into a conflict he cannot fully understand, his fate becomes a crucible for questions of justice, authority, and the terrifying ease with which truth can be distorted. Across the included poems and fragments, Melville’s restless imagination returns again and again to the same haunting concerns—human fallibility, the cost of righteousness, and the way communities manufacture guilt. Written in Melville’s distinctive, high-stakes style—part courtroom drama, part moral parable—these works invite readers to contemplate what it means to be both blameless and condemned.
Available Editions
mass_market
Signet Classic/New American Library
Published Jan 1, 1979
334 pages
ISBN: 9780451522375
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Details
First Published
1924
Language
eng
Content Warnings
Content and trigger warnings for Billy Budd and Other Tales by Herman Melville.