Tres novelas cortas diferentes y maravillosas a su manera. Personajes, construcción de personajes, añorables y detestables en simultáneo. En Benito Cereno se encuentra una historia confusa, que juega con quien la lee y lo mantiene a la expectativa. Una maravillosa construcción de lo expectativo, quiero decir. En Billy Budd se encuentra, quien lee el libro, con la historia de la injusticia y un debate filosófico sobre la envidia y la justicia. Maravilloso. Por último, en Bartleby se encuentra un precedente a los artistas de Kafka, el del trapecio y el del hambre, con un precedente a los espacios asfixiantes y grises que son frecuentes en las obras del checo. No puedo decir que haya sido una lectura fluida ¡no lo fue! Incluso, después de leer por primera vez a Melville, me lleno de temor al imaginar la tarea titánica que, imagino, es leer su obra máxima, Moby Dick. En cualquier caso, tres historias interesantes.

Benito Cereno and Billy Budd, check. Bartleby, still left to go.

I first encountered Melville as a young boy - a simplified 'Moby-Dick' was a great read at the age of 6.

Fast-forward to present day, and I find Melville an inspiring, fantastic writer, starting with this volume. I will review the stories in order as I have read them just so any readers can follow.

The first story in the collection, "Bartleby," is a terrific examination of many things in Melville's writing, and perhaps the foremost is his tendency towards a surplus of possible readings, philosophical conflicts, as well as narrators who cause us to question the perception of reality being presented. A lawyer narrates, and he constantly likes to reassure the reader that he is of sound Christian mould, and strives towards finding sympathy with his workmates and profession. But also: he's a lawyer! That should cause a reader to question many things at once - the narrative seems too saccharine to me on a first glance even. Quickly, the careful reader can deduce that perhaps the lawyer, pious as he tells us he is, may in fact not be so pious. Granted, he tolerates Bartleby's "preferring not to" for some time, but he also is the type who uses Christian morality as something to excuse himself from having to fire Bartleby, as well as convince the reader that he truly cares about other people. This overrides that the narrator truly wants rid of Bartleby - he simply keeps using his "lawyerly" tactics of delay so it appears he is giving Bartleby multiple chances. Another question: why does the narrator tolerate Bartleby for so long? Is he like him, or repulsed by him? Any reader of "Bartleby" should question everything the narrator says and does on a first, second, third, fourth reading - you name it! He is not the "Ah Bartleby! ah humanity" sympathizer he seems - Melville in fact may be critiquing how Christian doctrines in the 19th Century (and through so much of its history) have veiled reason-based selfishness with charitable generosity. The narrator's role is one I definitely will keep considering!

One interesting reading I have heard of "Bartleby" is whether it is an allegory of Melville's experiences as a writer. He was not popularly-loved so much in his lifetime - and did not perform financially as well as he would have liked. Enter Bartleby, the character. Was Melville a poor man who preferred not to follow the writers of his day and struck against them much to his own dismay and ruin? Perhaps. Though the story is far more rich than to be confined to a mere allegory for its author's career. A compelling view - though perhaps not what I want to see it as. I like the absurdist bent of the fiction, as it anticipates Kafka and Beckett, among others. I will have to see what I think about it after giving further thought.

Bartleby: decent. Billy Budd and Benito Cereno: snooze fest except for a few scenes. I am just not a Melville fan.

I already read Typee and loved it! Oomo is the sequel dealing with his adventures in Tahiti. It's a wonderful study of the effect of the missionaries on Tahitian culture, which was in the process of disappearing in only a generation! The Tahitians were master canoe builders and they had stopped by the time Melville visited them. The missionaries from Protestant denominations were at war with the Catholic fathers from France and preached more about how bad the other sect was than about being Christian!
Splendid reading and really insiteful. I wish they'd make a movie or miniseries of it.

Bartleby: 3⭐️
Billy Budd: 3.5 ⭐️
After reading Robinson Crusoe, the only way literature can go is up. Alas, one must descend into bad literature before ascending into good literature.

Canon Letraheridos Revista #16 (abril de 2021).

Always good to be reminded of how world views have changed over time. And context is so important for better understanding what Melville was trying to do.

Benito Cereno es la historia de un barco a la deriva que es abordado por el capitan Amasa Delano (sic) que viendo la embarcación en problemas se acerca a ayudar y desde que aborda todo resulta sospechoso. Allí conoce al capitán Benito Cereno, un hombre muy desmejorado acompañado siempre por Babo, su fiel asistente, esclavo, compañero. La narración como tiene por costumbre Melville abunda en detalles marineros, hay mucha tensión en el relato como Amasa se perturba por la desconfianza de la escena, el relato colmado de claroscuros. Al final la angustia se extrema y tiene un desenlace previsible. Lo que más me incomodó de este relato es que como muchos de aquella época tiene muy estereotipado al negro, al subordinado, al incivilizado. Pasa mucho con Kipling, Haggard, hasta Verne volcaba esta visión la cual no termino de acostumbrarme a pesar de contextualizarla en su tiempo. Por eso no termino de disfrutar del todo relatos del estilo.
De Bartleby ya escribí hace un tiempo y me parece un relato abierto a muchas interpretaciones, es genial.
Billy Budd es otro relato marítimo, el último escrito por Melville siendo de publicación póstuma.
Muestra un autor distinto, apuntando a las desigualdades sociales, prejuicios, excesos de autoridad. Se me hizo un poco largo pero despierta la reflexión sobre condiciones sociales que se repiten aún hoy en día. Excelente!
Bajé un par de estrellas por lo xenófobo de Benito Cereno,, :P

Bartleby, the Scrivener is one of those stories that--unexpectedly--draws you in and won't spit you back out till it's through. It's hilarious, infuriating, enthralling, and, in the end, somewhat devastating. The social commentary, or challenge thereof, is brilliantly subversive, offering that the only way to survive in our society is through conformity and acquiescence. As many others have said, Melville invented Kafka before Kafka was even around.

Benito Cereno is, for one, an engaging work. Melville's ability to employ conventions of suspense and eeriness, seemingly without cause or explicit distress, is top-notch. I couldn't wait for the events to unfold; it was so marvelously structured. The descriptions of the Black people in the story are undeniably racist. As I've read, there are many that suggest that the story is critical and remonstrative of The Atlantic Slave Trade, and I can certainly see that angle, although, at first glance, it felt a bit obscured, since Benito is more or less seen as the tragic victim... (I'm aware that this was written in the 19th century, and that, for the time, Melville was considered more progressive and critical in terms of how he viewed and discussed race, just wanted to comment on how I felt as a modern reader.)

Billy Budd is dense. Probably my least favorite of the three, although that isn't saying very much--I loved them all. The prose is the most challenging in terms of legibility, and that gave me some pause and hindered my overall comprehension and retention, but the psychological profile of Claggart (or Jimmy Legs) is a profound one, and one that has stayed remarkably intact over time. The tragedy of Billy Budd is sad, yes, but I also found it grimly funny. That he couldn't speak in defense of himself and therefore struck out makes an interesting (and incisive) commentary about masculinity, and the dangers of reactivity. I read this because I wanted to watch 'Beau Travail', and I felt that the two heightened each other; knowing the subtext of Billy Budd elevated the sprawling beauty and tension of Beau Travail, and Beau Travail leaned into the homoeroticism and confusion in spite of oneself that Billy Budd lays down all but explicitly.

God, I love Melville.

Bartleby, The Scrivener, pp. 3-33
Benito Cereno, pp. 34-102
Billy Budd, Sailor, pp. 103-170

The last half of the book is comprised of critical texts. I did not read them.

Bartleby desepera por su caracter, pero al igual que en Benito las divagaciones que nos conducen por la trama son un prodigio que te enredan y zarandean provocando angustia y casi saltar para zarandear a los protagonistas e intervenir en la historia.