num_pages: 334
description: This Signet Classics edition contains, in edition to Billy Budd, The Piazza, Bartleby, Benito Cereno, The Lightning-Rod Man, The Encantadas (or Enchanted Islands), The Bell-Tower, and The Town-Ho's Story from Moby Dick.Melville's short stories, somewhat neglected during his lifetime, are today considered to be among the small masterpieces of American fiction.His imagination is inventive, ironic, and extraordinarily attuned to our times. His settings and themes are various: the limits of artistic creation; the opposition of innocence and evil; fear of isolation; the inviolate sanctity of the human heart; the fearfulness and fascination with the "enchanted isles"; the ferocity of the white whale; Calvinist hellfire and damnation. His stories are unique in narrative method, profound in theme, and full of delights at all levels.
language: English
title: Billy Budd and Other Tales
titlecomplete: Billy Budd and Other Tales
genres: Classics, Adventure, Fiction, Short Stories, High School, Read For School, Historical Fiction, Literature, 19th Century, American
ratings_count: 869
publisher: Signet Classic