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Billy Budd, Sailor (An Inside Narrative), also known as Billy Budd, Foretopman, is a novella by American writer Herman Melville, left unfinished at his death in 1891.
A classic short story by Herman Melville about a young sailor who accidentally kills the master-at-arms of his ship and is condemned to death by his captain. Learn about the plot, characters, themes, and historical context of this literary masterpiece.
- Lawrence Thompson, Herman Melville, Harrison Hayford, Merton M. Sealts
- 1924
The narrator describes Billy Budd, a handsome, good-natured young sailor who is taken from his merchant ship, the Rights-of-Man, into service on a British Royal Navy warship, the Indomitable (in some editions, the Bellipotent).
In certain matters, some sailors even in mature life remain unsophisticated enough. But a young seafarer of the disposition of our athletic Foretopman, is much of a child-man. And yet a child’s utter innocence is but its blank ignorance, and the innocence more or less wanes as intelligence waxes.
Billy Budd, Sailor is a novel by Herman Melville that the author was working on at the time of his death in 1891 and that was first published in 1924.
Melville portrays Billy’s innocence as something to be both admired and pitied. In a number of ways, Billy’s fate parallels that of Jesus Christ, suggesting that the sacrifice of Billy’s innocence represents both a significant loss for the world and a hope for mankind’s redemption.
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Billy Budd, Sailor. Herman Melville. 3.17. 18,119 ratings1,320 reviews. A handsome young sailor is unjustly accused of plotting mutiny in this timeless tale of the sea. --back cover. Genres Classics Fiction Literature Historical Fiction American 19th Century School. ...more. 166 pages, Mass Market Paperback. First published January 1, 1924.
