Long celebrated as a revelatory work second only to his great epic, Moby-Dick, Herman Melville’s tragic novella Billy Budd has endured periods of extravagant praise, bitter criticism, and overwrought analysis. From the time it first appeared in printed form in 1924, the tale of the “handsome sailor” has been interpreted as a morality tale, a deathbed confession, an exploration of colonialism or homosexuality, and even a failed attempt to redeem Melville’s magnum opus. But Billy Budd is more than this, and it stands alone, not as Melville’s final revelation or his greatest work, but as a parting gift, with the author at his most sympathetic.
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