Billy Budd and a Piazza

I keep a record of what books I read and when I read them. From this I know from September 7th-10th of last year I read Billy Budd (An inside narrative) by Herman Melville. This novella talked about a young sailor who is impressed into service on a British warship. The book has a lot of references to naval history and nautical terms. It is good I spent a lot of time watching the History Channel a long time ago. Otherwise I would not have known what was meant by the star on the deck of the Victory.

The used copy I have has some lines underlined and comments written in the margins. I tried to ignore them for the most part, but it ended up pointing out things I wanted to discover for myself. The story can be read allegorically and I wish I could have developed my own theories of the story free from influence. If you follow the link below to the Unnamed Geniuses only the first two paragraphs on their site are safe to read before reading the story.

Billy Budd's Journey
How Billy Budd got published is a story in itself. It was written in Melville's twilight years and still only a manuscript at his death in 1891. The work was published in 1924, when it was uncovered by Raymond Weaver while researching Melville. Since it was not a finished work, many versions with small differences have worked their way to publication. Apparently I have a version that had been deemed less than perfect. The ship in my copy is called the Indomitable, not the Bellipotent. Despite my version, I liked the story and would recommend it.

My Signet Classic edition is titled Billy Budd and Other Tales and also includes a set of short stories as well as The Town-Ho's Story (chapter 54 from Moby-Dick).

The Piazza Tales
The second part of the book is a collection of stories that were published under the title The Piazza Tales. I have a few words about each of them.

• "The Piazza"- The worst of this story bunch.
• "Bartleby"- A good story about what happens when a person "prefers not" to.
• "Benito Cereno"- This good story starts when a captain boards a haggard ship. What happens next should not be missed.
• "The Lightening-Rod Man"- Lightening-rod salesmen must have been the Nineteenth Century's equivalent of the Twentieth Century's vacuum salesmen.
• "The Encantadas or Enchanted Isles"- A series of ten sketches focused on a group of islands. Overall, the collection was OK but not as good as "Bartleby" and "Benito Cereno." I liked the sixth through ninth sketches because they told specific stories about people instead of waxing poetic about the isles themselves or their aspects. The Enchanted Isles spoken of are better known as the Galápagos Islands.
• "The Bell-Tower"- Some guy builds a bell-tower in Italy. I had to reread a few parts of it and still think I missed something relevant.

From my reading log I know I read the first four of these in late October before putting the book down until this past week when I finished the last two. However, most of my comments about the stories were written immediately after reading them.

When I read Melville affects how much I like it. Compared to other authors, the writing is harder to follow and the sentences can be choppy instead of flowing.

When I read the short stories during the day I could easily keep reading them. In contrast, reading at night when I was tired felt like a struggle. I was easily distracted from the plot by asides or awkward phrasing. Since I read "The Piazza" during the night, I might have an unfounded negative opinion of it.

If you pick up these Melville stories, I recommend you start with the Bs Billy Budd, "Bartleby," and "Benito Cereno."