num_pages: 127
description: "Billy Budd, Sailor" has been called the best short novel ever written. In his brilliantly condensed narrative prose, Herman Melville fashions a legal parable in which reason and intellect prove incapable of preserving innocence in the face of evil. For all those who feel themselves threatened by a hostile and inflexible environment, there is special significance in this haunting story of a handsome sailor who becomes a victim of man's intransigence.Since its posthumous publication in 1924, "Billy Budd" has become one of the acknowledged masterpieces of American literature.
language: English
title: Billy Budd, Sailor
titlecomplete: Billy Budd, Sailor
characters: Captain Edward Fairfax Vere, John Claggart, Billy Budd
genres: American, Short Stories, Historical Fiction, Novella, School, Novels, Literature, Classics, Fiction, 19th Century
ratings_count: 17523
places: Mediterranean Sea
publisher: Turtleback Books