Billy Budd, Sailor Book download in PDF, ePub & Mobi

Billy Budd, Sailor is a novella written by Herman Melville unfinished after the author's death and later published in 1924.

Set during the Napoleonic Wars, the novel introduces us to a young 21 year old seaman named Billy Budd. He is forced to join a Royal Navy warship after the latest mutinies.

He, with previous experience on merchant ships, is a strong and handsome young man and quickly gains the respect of the crew and especially that of the master-at-arms, John Claggart.

Claggart, although initially very friendly with Billy, sets him up to participate in a mutiny of sailors and is accused of organizing the mutiny. However, the ship's captain does not believe Billy capable of it and summons both of them to clarify the situation.

Billy, who has a stutter, is unable to respond with arguments to Claggart's accusation and, filled with impotence, decides to beat him. This fact will change the fate of young Billy...

"In the time before steamships, or then more frequently than now, a stroller along the docks of any considerable sea-port would occasionally have his attention arrested by a group of bronzed mariners, man-of-war's men or merchant-sailors in holiday attire ashore on liberty."