| This website is dedicated to helping students of literature -- at all
levels -- better understand Herman Melville's complex short novel,
Billy Budd. Decidedly, these pages are not designed as an
on-line "Cliff's Notes" edition of the work. Nowhere will you find
synopses which "explain" the story or reveal some "hidden meaning."
Nothing in this site will provide definitive answers to the difficult
questions which this text raises, nor will it provide a template for the
student seeking a quick and easy solution to the various problems it
poses. Rather, this site should serve merely to enrich one's reading of
Billy Budd by providing readily more information than otherwise
might be accessible to most students. The designer of this site has
brought together resources which might help clarify Melville's dense
vocabulary, provide a framework for some of the lines of allusion, help
the student better visualize the naval scenes, and generally provide some
structure for the student so that his reading is as full as possible. One
should note, however, that everything included here presupposes that
reading and understanding Billy Budd can ultimately only be the
product of hard work and attention to detail. There can never be a
substitute for engagement between reader and text. Still, one can
better understand this story by grasping some key vocabulary, recognizing
some key literary conventions, and being able to picture the flow of
action. It is my hope that by employing this website as complementary to
one's own reading that each student of Melville can to some extent better
understand the skill and artistry of Billy Budd.
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| Introduction | The Text | Resources |
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