Join us on a literary world trip!
Add this book to bookshelf
Grey
Write a new comment Default profile 50px
Grey
Subscribe to read the full book or read the first pages for free!
I want to read the book!
All characters reduced
Billy Budd - Sea Adventure Novel - cover

Billy Budd - Sea Adventure Novel

Herman Melville

Publisher: e-artnow

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Summary

Billy Budd is a seaman impressed into service aboard HMS Bellipotent in the year 1797, when the Royal Navy was reeling from two major mutinies and was threatened by the Revolutionary French Republic's military ambitions. He is impressed to this large warship from another, smaller, merchant ship, The Rights of Man. Billy, a foundling from Bristol, has innocence, good looks and a natural charisma that make him popular with the crew. His only physical defect is a stutter which grows worse when under intense emotion. He arouses the antagonism of the ship's master-at-arms, John Claggart. Claggart, while not unattractive, seems somehow "defective or abnormal in the constitution", possessing a "natural depravity." Envy is Claggart's explicitly stated emotion toward Budd, foremost because of his "significant personal beauty," and also for his innocence and general popularity. This leads Claggart to falsely charge Billy with conspiracy to mutiny. When the captain, Edward Fairfax "Starry" Vere, is presented with Claggart's charges, he summons Claggart and Billy to his cabin for a private meeting. Claggart makes his case and Billy, astounded, is unable to respond, due to his stutter. In his extreme frustration he strikes out at Claggart, killing him instantly. Despite Billy's moral innocence, he must face a trial.
Available since: 01/09/2020.
Print length: 108 pages.

Other books that might interest you

  • Dark Night in Big Rock - cover

    Dark Night in Big Rock

    William W. Johnstone, J.A....

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    Johnstone Country. Guns and Money. And Sometimes, Lawyers.The long-awaited return of Smoke Jensen's son ignites a powder keg of problems for the town of Big Rock, Colorado. This time, it's personal—and definitely fatal . . .DARK NIGHT IN BIG ROCKSmoke Jensen is mighty proud of his son Louis for finishing law school. But he can't help being a little disappointed that Louis isn't returning to the Sugarloaf Ranch. Instead, he's setting up his own law practice in nearby Big Rock—a career choice that turns out to be every bit as dangerous as fending off cattle rustlers. The boy's first case lands him smack in the middle of a heated dispute between two riled-up ranchers over water rights. If Louis can't settle them down, the whole thing could blow up into a bloody range war. Then a scheming con man shows up in town to stir up trouble—and ends up dead. Now Louis has to defend his sister's boyfriend on murder charges. What's worse, the real killer is still out there. And he's ready to slaughter again . . .Smoke Jensen's son may be a lawyer now. But if there's one thing he learned from his daddy, it's that in places like Big Rock, men live and die by one law alone: the law of the gun . . .
    Show book
  • Child of the Phoenix - cover

    Child of the Phoenix

    Barbara Erskine

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    Not Yet Available
    Show book
  • The Drop of the Dice - cover

    The Drop of the Dice

    Philippa Carr

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    The Jacobite Rebellion sets the stage for a deadly love triangle—“This sweeping story . . . provides some twists along the way” (A Love So True).   Clarissa Field never knew her mother, but hears whispers that she was a notorious femme fatale. Unknowingly, the girl follows her mother’s passionate path and loses her heart to Jacobite rebel Dickon Frenshaw. But 1715 England is a dangerous place to be a young woman in love. Dickon is caught and exiled to Virginia, and Clarissa is married off to rakish soldier Lance Clavering. Caught between two men, Clarissa must navigate a hotbed of scandal, treachery, and betrayal. As civil strife threatens to ignite revolution, Clarissa is accused of being a spy. She faces a terrible choice, and must transform her life to prepare her daughter, Zipporah, for her legacy.  
    Show book
  • Revelation - Book Three of the Unchained Trilogy - cover

    Revelation - Book Three of the...

    Maria McKenzie

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    Light-skinned Selina Standish lives a life of emotional pain and torment. In 1906, at the age of eight, she is convinced by her mother, actress Lavinia Standish, the daughter of a slave, to pass as white. Although Selina yields to her mother's insistence to pass, she refuses to cut ties completely with her "Negro" relatives, including her twin brother, a child her mother deems too dark.  However, at age seventeen, in the year 1915, Selina meets wealthy southerner Jack Cosgrove, the man of her dreams. Keeping her ancestry a secret, Selina is conflicted by Jack's negative attitude toward her race. She must determine if happiness with him could ever be a possibility, especially if she were to reveal her bloodline.  Later, a chance encounter with Pastor Tony Manning opens Selina's eyes to real love. Although he is a progressive thinker regarding race relations, Tony appears to draw the line at interracial marriage. In order to live as his wife, Selina decides she must completely disassociate herself from all her "colored" relatives. While bound to a chain of secrecy, Selina struggles to live in honesty. How true can she be to her husband, if she can never reveal the truth about herself?
    Show book
  • Invasion - cover

    Invasion

    Julian Stockwin

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    Napoleon's forces are poised to invade Britain, and Commander Thomas Kydd's ship is at the forefront of the fleet. Then Kydd is abruptly withdrawn from the fleet and sent back to Dover on a secret mission to guard a mysterious American inventor. He is furious to find he will miss his opportunity to prove himself in battle. Yet Kydd's role in the approaching war may be the most crucial part he has ever played.
    Show book
  • On Old Olympus Towering Top - Coping With Four Decades Of Privation - cover

    On Old Olympus Towering Top -...

    Richard R Gonzalez

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    This book describes the lives of persons from three separate cultures persevering during WW I, the Great Depression, and WW II. The central character is Louis the only son of Lourdes and Joseph. Lourdes is the oldest daughter of an opulent Mexican landowner during the Mexican Revolution. Her family flees to the Border town of Paso del Notre. Lourdes’ father dies suddenly. The family is saved from ruin because Lourdes smuggled 50 gold coins hidden under her skirt. Lourdes falls in love with Joseph, a Tigua Indian who previously served in the Army during WW I. Joseph’s sister, Flor, is married to the governor of the Tigua Indian Community and they have a daughter, Rosalia, who is very close to Joseph. Rosalia abandons the Tigua community. Louis’ family survives the depression years and he finishes college. Louis meets a friend, Manfred, who introduces him to his father, a physician. Manfred teaches Louis mnemonics as a memory tool. Louis is accepted to medical school. In medical school during WW II, Louis befriends Izzy Schefter who introduces him to his family. Izzy’s father, Arthur, is a Jewish forensic pathologist who emigrated from Germany after being imprisoned in Russia during WWI. His wife, Madeline, is a doctoral student and their daughter, Anne, is a violist who is a senior in high school. She is infatuated with Louis but the feeling is not reciprocated. Both struggle with a fragile liaison stifled by too many cultural and philosophical differences and they decide to go their separate ways.
    Show book