Zusammenfassung
Zusammenfassung von Billy Budd und andere Prosastücke
Für wen es gedacht ist
For readers who love sea stories, moral puzzles, and questions of duty and justice. It also suits anyone curious about Melville beyond Moby-Dick.
Worum es in diesem Buch geht
Billy Budd is the last story Herman Melville wrote. He worked on it from about 1888 until his death in 1891 and left the manuscript unfinished among his papers. It was not printed until 1924, more than thirty years later. The title piece is a short novel set on a British warship in 1797, and the volume gathers it with shorter prose by the same hand. Melville drew on his own years at sea in the 1840s, and it shows in the detail of rope, deck and watch.
Here you meet a young sailor whom nearly everyone likes, an officer who cannot bear him, and a captain who must act under the harsh rules of wartime. The book gives you a story you can follow in an evening and questions that stay with you much longer. What does a good man owe the law? What does the law owe an innocent man? Let us begin with the sailor himself and the merchant ship he leaves behind.
In dieser Zusammenfassung
- 1A beloved sailor leaves the Rights of ManFree
- 2The warship Bellipotent in anxious times
- 3Claggart, the master-at-arms, takes a dislike
- 4Captain Vere, a thoughtful man of duty
- 5Law, conscience and the limits of fairness
- 6How Melville tells it and what the other pieces add
Punkt 1 von 6
A beloved sailor leaves the Rights of Man
The story opens with a portrait of Billy Budd, a young seaman of about twenty-one who serves on a merchant ship called the Rights of Man. He is strikingly handsome, strong, cheerful and good-natured. The crew treat him almost as a favorite child, and even the rough men on board soften around him.
Then a British warship stops the merchant vessel. In those years Britain was at war with France and short of sailors, so naval officers could take men from passing ships. This was called impressment. Billy is chosen, and to the surprise of his shipmates he goes without complaint, bidding farewell to the ship he is leaving in a cheerful way that carries an irony Melville does not miss.
Melville takes care to show us what kind of man Billy is. He cannot read or write. He was a foundling, a baby left without known parents, and he seems to have been raised by no one in particular. He has a natural goodness that has never been tested by suspicion or cunning. He has one flaw. When he is strongly moved, he stammers badly and cannot get words out.
This opening matters because the whole book rests on our knowing Billy well. Melville compares him to an unfallen man from the first days of the world, someone who has never learned to expect evil in others. That simple nature is both his charm and his danger. A person who cannot imagine malice is poorly armed against it, and Melville lets us feel that unease from the very first pages.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- Billy Budd
- Billy is a handsome, trusting young sailor impressed into the navy, whose innocence contrasts with Claggart’s hostility.
- John Claggart
- Claggart is the feared master-at-arms aboard the Bellipotent, who feels an unexplained hatred for Billy.
- Captain Edward Fairfax Vere
- Vere is the reserved, bookish captain of the Bellipotent, drawn to Billy but devoted to naval law.
- The Dansker
- The Dansker is a wary, experienced sailor who watches Billy with sour amusement and senses approaching trouble.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 120,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 8 h
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 13 other languages
Questions about Billy Budd und andere Prosastücke
What is Billy Budd about?
It is a short novel about a young, innocent sailor on a British warship in 1797. He is hated by the master-at-arms, and the captain must weigh naval law against conscience when trouble comes.
When did Melville write Billy Budd and when was it published?
Melville worked on it from about 1888 until he died in 1891 and left it unfinished. It was first published in 1924, long after his death.
Is Billy Budd a true story?
It is fiction, though built on real history. The setting is the British navy in 1797 after the Spithead and Nore mutinies, and Melville drew on his own experience at sea.
Who is Captain Vere in Billy Budd?
Captain Edward Fairfax Vere commands the Bellipotent. He is a thoughtful, bookish and dutiful officer who values order and the law of the service, and the story tests his judgment.
Is Billy Budd hard to read?
It is short. It is clear and rewarding, and the plot itself is simple to follow.