Billy Budd and Other Stories

In many ways it is an early prototype for courtroom drama, altering the reader’s perception of the main character based on the evidence as it is revealed. Melville’s tale is partly an analysis of the moral judgment of others—emphasizing that it is human nature to oscillate between contradictory opinions of a person, whether in a court of law or otherwise—and it is this that makes the tale so intriguing.

And Other Stories

After the publication of his epic masterpiece Moby Dick in 1851, Melville experimented in short fiction, a style that had been popularized in America by Edgar Allan Poe. A departure from the maritime settings of his previous novels, Bartleby, the Scrivener explores the mundane existence of Bartleby, a Wall Street pen pusher. In Las Encantadas Melville employs the short story form in ten philosophical sketches, narrated by an anonymous voice and each exploring a different, and increasingly darker, side of life on the enchanted Galapagos Islands. In Benito Cereno Melville is back in familiar territory as he examines the life of a sea captain in the midst of a slave rebellion. Encompassing a range of themes and characters, Melville’s novellas showcase his distinctive writing style in shorter form.

CONTENTS

Cover (#ua72aa57f-e18e-516c-a4a9-dae70ea971d4)

Title Page (#u9ca2fefe-45f2-5229-a12c-8818ade86a6d)

Copyright (#u0d506190-4379-50b4-b294-57e8270dab25)

History of Collins (#ub1e1463d-fa56-547f-b366-93ce69aac788)

Life & Times (#ua661fdd8-733f-5577-adbb-101017c8a976)

BARTLEBY, THE SCRIVENER (#u3fb8878a-0c89-5c14-9cd2-fdb8e3ff0e4f)

BENITO CERENO (#u46a68f09-438c-5f14-82a4-d93cc70cc595)

LAS ENCANTADAS OR, ENCHANTED ISLES (#litres_trial_promo)

BILLY BUDD (#litres_trial_promo)

Dedication (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 1 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 2 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 3 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 4 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 5 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 6 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 7 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 8 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 20 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 21 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 22 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 23 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 24 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 25 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 26 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 27 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 28 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 29 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 30 (#litres_trial_promo)

CLASSIC LITERATURE: WORDS AND PHRASES adapted from the Collins English Dictionary (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

BARTLEBY, THE SCRIVENER (#ulink_41fc06fd-6882-5181-8548-2e7928588bd8)

I am a rather elderly man. The nature of my avocations, for the last thirty years, has brought me into more than ordinary contact with what would seem an interesting and somewhat singular set of men, of whom, as yet, nothing, that I know of, has ever been written—I mean, the law-copyists, or scriveners. I have known very many of them, professionally and privately, and, if I pleased, could relate divers histories, at which good-natured gentlemen might smile, and sentimental souls might weep. But I waive the biographies of all other scriveners, for a few passages in the life of Bartleby, who was a scrivener, the strangest I ever saw, or heard of. While, of other law-copyists, I might write the complete life, of Bartleby nothing of that sort can be done. I believe that no materials exist, for a full and satisfactory biography of this man. It is an irreparable loss to literature. Bartleby was one of those beings of whom nothing is ascertainable, except from the original sources, and, in his case, those are very small. What my own astonished eyes saw of Bartleby, that is all I know of him, except, indeed, one vague report, which will appear in the sequel.

Ere introducing the scrivener, as he first appeared to me, it is fit I make some mention of myself, my employés, my business, my chambers, and general surroundings; because some such description is indispensable to an adequate understanding of the chief character about to be presented. Imprimis: I am a man who, from his youth upwards, has been filled with a profound conviction that the easiest way of life is the best. Hence, though I belong to a profession proverbially energetic and nervous, even to turbulence, at times, yet nothing of that sort have I ever suffered to invade my peace. I am one of those unambitious lawyers who never addresses a jury, or in any way draws down public applause; but, in the cool tranquillity of a snug retreat, do a snug business among rich men’s bonds, and mortgages, and title-deeds. All who know me, consider me an eminently safe man. The late John Jacob Astor, a personage little given to poetic enthusiasm, had no hesitation in pronouncing my first grand point to be prudence; my next, method. I do not speak it in vanity, but simply record the fact, that I was not unemployed in my profession by the late John Jacob Astor; a name which, I admit, I love to repeat; for it hath a rounded and orbicular sound to it, and rings like unto bullion. I will freely add, that I was not insensible to the late John Jacob Astor’s good opinion.

Some time prior to the period at which this little history begins, my avocations had been largely increased. The good old office, now extinct in the State of New York, of a Master in Chancery, had been conferred upon me. It was not a very arduous office, but very pleasantly remunerative. I seldom lose my temper; much more seldom indulge in dangerous indignation at wrongs and outrages; but, I must be permitted to be rash here, and declare, that I consider the sudden and violent abrogation of the office of Master in Chancery, by the new Constitution, as a —— premature act; inasmuch as I had counted upon a life-lease of the profits, whereas I only received those of a few short years. But this is by the way.