A saintly young sailor, falsely accused by a malignant officer, strikes and kills him and is hanged under naval law. Melville's posthumous meditation on innocence and justice.
Books mentioned in Billy Budd (24)
Twice-Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: “I have thus far omitted all mention of his _Twice Told Tales_, and _Scarlet Letter_. Both are excellent”
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne: “I have thus far omitted all mention of his _Twice Told Tales_, and _Scarlet Letter_. Both are excellent”
A Select Party by Nathaniel Hawthorne: “The other piece of the two referred to, is entitled _A Select Party_”
Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne: “who in the name of thunder, would anticipate any marvel in a piece entitled _Young Goodman Brown_?”
Mosses from an Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne: “'Why, this,' said I, spilling my raspberries, 'this is the _Mosses from an Old Manse_.'”
The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser: “Read any canto in _The Faerie Queene_ and then read _A Select Party_, and decide which pleases you most”
Rights of Man by Thomas Paine: “a staunch admirer of Thomas Paine, whose book in rejoinder to Burke’s arraignment of the French Revolution had then been published for some time”
Buds and Bird Voices by Nathaniel Hawthorne: “_Buds and Bird Voices._ What a delicious thing is that!”
Fire-Worship by Nathaniel Hawthorne: “And the _Fire Worship_. Was ever the hearth so glorified into an altar before?”
The Old Apple-Dealer by Nathaniel Hawthorne: “The sketch of _The Old Apple Dealer_ is conceived in the subtlest spirit of sadness”
Monsieur du Miroir by Nathaniel Hawthorne: “What, to all readers, can be more charming than the piece entitled _Monsieur du Miroir_”
Earth's Holocaust by Nathaniel Hawthorne: “How profound, nay, appalling, is the moral evolved by the _Earth's Holocaust_”
The Intelligence Office by Nathaniel Hawthorne: “Of a piece with this, is the _Intelligence Office_, a wondrous symbolising of the secret workings in men's souls.”
The Christmas Banquet by Nathaniel Hawthorne: “_The Christmas Banquet_, and _The Bosom Serpent_, would be fine subjects for a curio”
The Bosom Serpent by Nathaniel Hawthorne: “_The Christmas Banquet_, and _The Bosom Serpent_, would be fine subjects for a curio”
The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton: “From my window, where I was reading Burton's _Anatomy of Melancholy_, I saw him in the act.”
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage by Byron: “con over the latter portion of the first canto of _Childe Harold_, and ransack your intellectual repository for the liveliest visions of the Fairy Land”
The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio: “some going to their neighbouring chambers to turn over the _Decameron_ ere retiring for the night”
The Fredoniad by Richard Emmons: “I would stand by Pop Emmons and his _Fredoniad_, and till a better epic came along”
Iliad by Homer: “till a better epic came along, swear it was not very far behind the _Iliad_.”
Magnalia Christi Americana by Cotton Mather: “how strangely looked the mouldy old book in the middle--Cotton Mather’s _Magnalia_.”
Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: “I was reading _Tristram Shandy_, and could not go down under the”
The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan: “I felt with Bob Acres in the _Rivals_, that 'my valour was certainly going.'”
Books that mention Billy Budd (3)
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger: “Well, great, then let s embark on Billy Budd. In 1851, Herman Melville published Moby-Dick, or, The Whale”
Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan: “Nick browses a mahogany bookcase of nautical-themed titles: 'Lieutenant Hornblower. Islands in the Stream. Billy Budd.'”
On Literature by Umberto Eco: Cited as an eternal literary fact: "Billy Budd hanged"