- Published: 1 May 2016
- ISBN: 9780143107606
- Imprint: Penguin Classics
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 368
- RRP: $24.99
Billy Budd, Bartleby, and Other Stories
A new Penguin Classics black spine edition of Herman Melville's virtuosic short stories--American classics wrought with scorching fury, grim humor, and profound beauty
A new, definitive edition of Herman Melville’s virtuosic short stories—American classics wrought with scorching fury, grim humor, and profound beauty
Though best-known for his epic masterpiece Moby-Dick, Herman Melville also left a body of short stories arguably unmatched in American fiction. In the sorrowful tragedy of Billy Budd, Sailor; the controlled rage of Benito Cereno; and the tantalizing enigma of Bartleby, the Scrivener; Melville reveals himself as a singular storyteller of tremendous range and compelling power. In these stories, Melville cuts to the heart of race, class, capitalism, and globalism in America, deftly navigating political and social issues that resonate as clearly in our time as they did in Melville’s. Also including The Piazza Tales in full, this collection demonstrates why Melville stands not only among the greatest writers of the nineteenth century, but also as one of our greatest contemporaries.
This Penguin Classics edition features the Reading Text of Billy Budd, Sailor, as edited from a genetic study of the manuscript by Harrison Hayford and Merton M. Sealts, Jr., and the authoritative Northwestern-Newberry text of The Piazza Tales.
For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
- Published: 1 May 2016
- ISBN: 9780143107606
- Imprint: Penguin Classics
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 368
- RRP: $24.99
Other books in the series
About the author
Herman Melville was born on 1st August 1819. He went on his first sea voyage in 1839 as cabin boy on the St Lawrence bound for Liverpool. He later became a teacher before taking to the seas again on the Achushnet. On this voyage he abandoned ship and lived among the natives of the Marquesas Islands for some time. This sojourn inspired his books Typee and Omoo which were published to great success. He became close friends with the writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, to whom he dedicated Moby-Dick. Moby-Dick and his later works and poetry were not particularly successful in his lifetime. Moby-Dick did not sell out its first print run of 3,000 copies. It was not until the 1920s that his work was properly appreciated. Moby-Dick is now considered one of the most important American novels of all time. Melville died on 28th September 1891.
