In 1797, young Billy Budd is impressed into naval service. It is a perilous time for a British Royal Navy still reeling from mutinies and marauding French ships. When Billy is forcibly transferred to HMS Bellipotent, he evokes the wrath of John Claggart, the ship’s master-at-arms. Claggart falsely accuses Billy of conspiracy to mutiny, a charge that will have a profound effect on the fates of both seamen.
Download and start listening now!
"I think that I was one of the only students in my high school American Lit. class that liked Billy Budd. It's actually my favorite Melville story. It's just packed full of injustice and bravery in the face of unbeatable odds. Just the kind of thing that can really hit that nerve that teenagers have that makes them acutely aware of injustice and persecution. Reading Melville is no cakewalk, and I would never claim that he's one of my favorite authors. But I did like Billy Budd."
— Amy (4 out of 5 stars)
" The edition I read was 99 pages. The longest 99 pages of my life. Should have been about 89 pages shorter. Ugh. "
— Katherine, 2/14/2014" this makes me want to vapor in the groggeries along the towpath... whatever that means. yay melville! "
— Fawn, 2/12/2014" Read in my "Jurisprudence and the Law" class with Professor Powers at UT Law. "
— Versel, 2/8/2014" As much as I love reading classics, I kind of hated this one. It was so confusing and hard to understand :( At least I got a 100% on my Literary Analysis Paper! "
— Meri, 2/1/2014" I read this as part of a Humanities course on Law and Language. I do not remember being particularly blown away; was happier reading Cabeza de Vaca. "
— Chelsea, 1/30/2014" Why didn't I love this enough! What did I do wrong! Herman . . . I am sorry. Maybe I will read it again sometime. "
— Hannah, 1/30/2014" The only people I would recommend this book to are those who wish to sample Melville's writing without having to commit to wading through Moby Dick. Amazing how the man could take a relatively simple plot that would occupy a few pages and stretch it to novella length. "
— Eden, 1/28/2014" This book opened my eyes in high school. It made methaphor tangible. "
— Melanie, 1/26/2014" I had a boyfriend who was the lead character in a college play...I think I could have recited lines from this in my sleep. I attended a preposterous amount of rehearsals and performances...and I don't think the play (as it was performed) was all that great at the time but hard to tell, I was too deeply in like... "
— Susan, 1/21/2014" Listened to this on the way to Hilton Head for fall break, 2007. Exciting story. "
— Rob, 1/16/2014" The worst punishment I could imagine my hell to be is reading this book. "
— Demosthenes, 1/16/2014Herman Melville (1819–1891) was born in New York City. Family hardships forced him to leave school for various occupations, including shipping as a cabin boy to Liverpool in 1839—a voyage that sparked his love for the sea. A shrewd social critic and philosopher in his fiction, he is considered an outstanding writer of the sea and a great stylist who mastered both realistic narrative and a rich, rhythmical prose. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick and the posthumously published novella Billy Budd.
Michael Lackey has more than thirty-five years of professional theater and music experience. He is a stage veteran of more than forty productions and has performed with four companies of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, doing more than three thousand performances and playing the title role more than two hundred times. He can also be heard on national television as an announcer for skating specials on NBC and USA, as well as in several commercials.