"I am not certain whether to know the world and to know human nature be not two distinct branches of knowledge." -Mellville, in Billy Budd.

The best story in this collection is Bartleby The Scrivner...an absolute classic in turns both funny and existential. It was so far ahead of its time and shows the genius of Mellville, a writer not fully appreciated until well after his death. I'm not sure why when I was in High School we read Billy Budd instead of Bartleby?

All three stories (Bartleby, Benito Cereno, and Billy Budd) are as good as any other 19th-century fiction as I've read, especially Bartleby and Billy Budd. The complexity with which Melville deals with questions of reliability, epistemology, truth/fiction, narrative form, interpretation, etc is mesmerizing, and it's hard to fathom how ahead of his time he was. In addition to these broader philosophical/meta-literary themes each story contains their own interesting ideas on work/modernity (Bartleby), slavery/ownership/power (Benito), and law/justice/authority (Billy). There also are fascinating cross-text themes about the role of silence, and I'm sure many other things I'm forgetting or didn't pick up on. Because the stories are so layered and rich with ideas they aren't "easy reading," but when in the right headspace they are stimulating like few other works, and when I allowed myself to get into the stories the unique mystery/oddity of them is magnetic. He's not my favorite prose stylist, but his style is singular, and creates some wonderful images. Definitely worth going back to and reading in the future.

I have to say, I wasn't a big fan of Melville before I had to read these stories for a class. I'd read "Bartleby, The Scrivener" and thought it was pretty good (quirky), but other than that... Eh. But reading these short stories ("Bartleby," "Billy Budd," and "Benito Cereno"), I was surprised. Melville's short stories didn't suck as much as I thought they would ;) Most of them were even somewhat enjoyable! Shocking!!

But you can get the short stories other places. The reason you buy the Norton's version is for the essays, and I found the critical essays dry and boring.

Bartleby The Scrivener, Benito Cereno, Billy Budd by Herman Melville (1996)

Melville is depressing. I kept expecting Bartleby the Scrivener to have an exciting twist at the end and I was disappointed. The stories are well written, but not my cup of tea.

Eh, the best thing I can say about these short stories is that they’ve made me intrigued about Melville’s use of colors in all of his descriptions (not just people, but things, emotions.) I suspect he might have been a closet abolitionist? The irony is interesting, but still didn’t love the stories. Someone should write a book about that.

I preferred Bartleby the Scrivener over the other two stories. There is only so much ship-related drama that I can stand.

ت. ش: ۹ / ۹ / ۱۴۰۳
ت. پ: ۱۴ / ۱۰ / ۱۴۰۳

A man's manic search for a goal...I'd never read it again. Sorry, it was painful experience to read this.

Nearly the perfect book because three deeply perplexing narratives of our time are contained all in one book with a sampling of criticism from equally compelling authors as diverse as Hannah Arrendt and CLR James.

An excellent norton edition, the scope of the essay are varied and extremely detailed.

Melville’s language is historically accurate of the time he is writing about. References to the French Revolution and the Navies of the time are sprinkled throughout almost every sentence. Also, there are many allusions to both the Bible and classical mythology both of which I have a limited understanding. Without any knowledge of this time in history, ships, mythology, etc I struggled a bit in understanding the story. In fact, I had to read the whole thing over several times to fully comprehend it. The first time through with my dictionary close at hand because to top it all off Melville’s vocabulary is incredibly extensive. The narrator moves from character to character frequently and is thus very inconsistent in style. One chapter may be a million times more coherent than the next.

Here is my “three second summary” of the story; Billy Budd is loved by all of his shipmates except for Claggart. Claggart’s only reason for his dislike of Billy is his jealousy of the young sailor. This hatred leads him to wrongly accuse Billy of inciting the crew to mutiny. When Claggart and Vere charge him of this he is shocked and enraged but he can’t say anything because of his stammer. He hits Claggart, killing him and his penalty is death.

It took me quite a long time to put everything together and understand that basic premise. The thing is, I believe there are innumerable amounts of underlying messages some more hidden than others and some most obvious. Perhaps if I read the story another ten times I will be able to pick up on some of them!