New Essays on Billy Budd

Billy Budd is Herman Melville’s most read work after Moby-Dick. Melville wrote the novella during the 5 years before his death, and it was published posthumously in 1924. The essays collected here provide a multifaceted introduction to the work. Areas investigated include nineteenth-century political and social dynamics and the literary response they provoked, as well as the relevance of mythology and the histories of classical world and Judaeo-Christian civilization to Melville’s book. Also examined are Melville’s later writing, including the late poetry, the text’s development, and its ambiguities. This collection will prove an invaluable resource for students of this major American writer.

• Accessibly written in a clear jargon-free style • Introduction to a widely taught work by one of the most important American writers of the nineteenth century • Offers a multi-faceted introduction to Billy Budd

Introduction Donald Yannella; 1. Melville’s indirection: Billy Budd, the Genetic text, and ‘the deadly space between’ John Wenke; 2. Billy Budd and American labour unrest: the case for striking back Larry J. Reynolds; 3. Religion, myth and meaning in the art of Billy Budd, Sailor Gail Coffler; 4. Old man Melville: the rose and the cross R. Milder; Selected Bibliography.