Opening leaf of the story portion of the Billy Budd manuscript with pencil notations
Author
Herman Melville
Language
English
Genre
Adventure fiction, sea story
Publisher
London: Constable & Co.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Publication date
1924 (London)
1962 (Chicago)
Publication place
United States, England
Text
Billy Budd at Wikisource
Billy Budd, Sailor (An Inside Narrative), also known as Billy Budd, Foretopman, is a novella by American writer Herman Melville, left unfinished at his death in 1891. Acclaimed by critics as a masterpiece when a hastily transcribed version was finally published in 1924, it quickly took its place as a classic second only to Moby-Dick among Melville's works. Billy Budd is a "handsome sailor" who strikes and inadvertently kills his false accuser, Master-at-arms John Claggart. The ship's Captain, Edward Vere, recognizes Billy's lack of intent, but claims that the law of mutiny requires him to sentence Billy to be hanged.
Melville began work on the novella in November 1886, revising and expanding it from time to time, but he left the manuscript in disarray. Melville's widow Elizabeth began to edit the manuscript for publication, but was not able to discern her husband's intentions at key points, even as to the book's title. Raymond M. Weaver, Melville's first biographer, was given the manuscript and published the 1924 version, which was marred by misinterpretation of Elizabeth's queries, misreadings of Melville's difficult handwriting, and even inclusion of a preface Melville had cut. Melville scholars Harrison Hayford and Merton M. Sealts Jr. published what is considered the best transcription and critical reading text in 1962.[1] In 2017, Northwestern University Press published a "new reading text" based on a "corrected version" of Hayford and Sealts' genetic text prepared by G. Thomas Tanselle.[2]
Billy Budd has been adapted into film, a stage play, and an opera.
^Parker, Hershel (Winter 1990). "'Billy Budd, Foretopman' and the Dynamics of Canonization". College Literature. 1. 17 (1): 21–32. JSTOR 25111840.
^Melville, Herman (2017). Hayford, Harrison; MacDougall, Alma; Sandberg, Robert; Tanselle, G. Thomas (eds.). Billy Budd, Sailor and Other Uncompleted Writings. The Writings of Herman Melville The Northwestern-Newberry Edition Volume Thirteen. Evanston, Il: Northwestern University Press. ISBN 978-0810111134.
BillyBudd, Sailor (An Inside Narrative), also known as BillyBudd, Foretopman, is a novella by American writer Herman Melville, left unfinished at his...
Typee (1846), a romanticized account of his experiences in Polynesia; and BillyBudd, Sailor, a posthumously published novella. At the time of his death, Melville...
brooding silence" by The Guardian. His performance in the title role of BillyBudd, his film debut, earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting...
starred in notable films such as Quo Vadis (1951), The Sundowners (1960), BillyBudd (1962), and Hot Millions (1968). He portrayed Hercule Poirot in Death...
on stage in a production of Uniform of Flesh, the original version of BillyBudd (1949). It was performed at the Experimental Theatre, where a few months...
London youth club. The line "Don't leave us in the dark" at the end of "BillyBudd" is sampled from the 1948 David Lean film adaptation of Dickens' Oliver...
Claire Denis that is loosely based on Herman Melville's 1888 novella BillyBudd. The story is set in Djibouti, where the protagonists are soldiers in...
John Huston, which was shortly followed by a role in Peter Ustinov's BillyBudd. McCallum played Lt. Cmdr. Eric Ashley-Pitt (a.k.a., "Dispersal") in The...
Fancher describes as "a cross between Psycho's Norman Bates, Melville's BillyBudd and Being There's Chauncey Gardner". Vann Siegert is a wandering serial...
important discovery among these papers was the unfinished manuscript for BillyBudd on which Melville had been working at the time of his death in 1891. Herman...
Nicholas Ray; was the villainous Claggart in Peter Ustinov's adaptation of BillyBudd (1962) for which he was nominated for a BAFTA. He also appeared in the...
funds for the Global Angels charity. On August 30, 2012 Sailing yacht BillyBudd, 110 feet (34 m), an English SY, successfully completed the Northwest...
Vic School. Montague's film credits include The Camp on Blood Island, BillyBudd, The Secret of Blood Island, Deadlier Than the Male, Brother Sun, Sister...
Tony Award twice: for his choreography of Billy, a 1969 musical version of the Herman Melville novella, BillyBudd, and his direction of The Magic Show. As...
verge of completing the manuscript for his first novel in three decades, BillyBudd, and had accumulated several large folders of unpublished verse. The year...
Sharif Sherif Ali ibn el Kharish Lawrence of Arabia Terence Stamp BillyBuddBillyBudd 1963 (36th) Melvyn Douglas ‡ Homer Bannon Hud Nick Adams Ben Brown...
films included A Night to Remember (1958), Village of the Damned (1960), BillyBudd (1962), A Man for All Seasons (1966), Night of the Big Heat (1967) and...
1935, after the conclusion of his trial for the Budd murder and his confession to the killing of Billy Gaffney, that he confirmed to investigators that...
from the fictional character "BillyBudd" from Herman Melville's novel "BillyBudd, Sailor". In this novel BillyBudd is described as "renowned for his...
Broadway and off, including Ridiculous Fraud at the McCarter Theatre, BillyBudd at the Circle in the Square Theatre, Someone to Watch Over Me with the...
then began to get regular work on television, including an adaptation of BillyBudd. He also joined the Actors Studio. In July 1956, he successfully auditioned...