Billy Budd & Other Stories (Wordsworth Classics) Paperback – December 5, 1999

Melville and I have a complicated relationship. He was undoubted brilliant and a great writer. His work is much deeper, and more complex and nuanced than it often appears on the surface of a first reading. The enjoyment of reading Melville is for me personally in the subsequent analysis of it. The reading of it, however, (for me) feels like slow and deliberate torture. I often beg and plead for him to get the point. Sometimes it seems he goes on and on saying the same thing, or mundane details that seem irritatingly dry and irrelevant -- of course on further examination it is purposeful, but that is not always initially apparent until I go back and ask what the point was. I would therefore characterize Melville as a challenging read, rather than an enjoyable read; but a valuable read --well worth the time and effort, if the reader is so inclined to read beneath the surface.This is a nice collection, and I look forward to returning to it to read some of the selections which I did not this time. (Melville in small doses for me).

I got this collection because it contains one of my favorite stories, "Bartleby, the Scrivener". It might be the first story about the modern day worker :) What do you do when confronted with someone who suddenly refuses to conform to societal expectations? What if this person will not lift a finger to help himself? Whose responsibility does he become?Maybe we each have a breaking point, some boundary beyond which the spirit would rebel and scream "I have received enough neglect and I won't take it anymore!" If I ever reached that breaking point, would my cries also go unanswered?

Good classic book.

I wanted to read this classic because somehow I missed it in high school. I heard the Sopranos talking about it with their 2 kids and when Meadow said it was about a gay guy, etc. Mother Carmella was shocked and denied the fact completely. It was an enjoyable read later in my life.Buy with confidence. Very smooth transaction

Had to purchase for school. Not a fan.

I bought this book for the Benito Cereno novella that's included, as I had to read it for a class-- that story alone makes this collection worth it. Alarming and chilling, but satisfyingly written, that's a short novel that I think everyone should read-- the perfect merging of the the more formal/literary aspects of the writing with Melville's political intentions.

Who can forget Moby-Dick? Well, you will truly enjoy the novella Billy Budd and how he enchants the crewmen on the HMS Avenger. Melville's vocabulary in all of his writing's are rich, steadfast and rhythmic. Melville's elaborate sentences are magnetized with the unexplainable truthfulness of life, and vanishes with the beating of his heart.

Bill Budd is one of my favorite stories. The story of Billy and Captain Vere is a perfect allegory for many relationships that exist between young people and society and vice versa. Well worth reading between the lines.

le livre est en tres bon etat, il n'y a pas de defaut apparent sur la couverture ou à l'interieur

Ce n'est qu'en abordant la page 330 que je me suis aperçu qu'il manquait 30 pages, on passe directement à la page 361! Je comptais retourner cet exemplaire défectueux, mais je m'aperçois qu'il faut le faire dans le mois qui suit la réception.... damn! trop tard!Ce délai d'un mois me semble très court et j'apprécierais le geste commercial si Amazon m'en envoyait un exemplaire COMPLET!

as expected

fantastic

good copy