Reading Billy Budd

Hershel Parker

Northwestern University Press, 1990 - Literary Criticism - 190 pages

In this study of Melville'sBilly Budd, Sailor,renowned Melville scholar Hershel Parker provides the fullest introduction to and analysis of this work to date. It is the first complete reading ofBilly Buddto draw on the definitive but neglected Hayford-Sealts Genetic Text. For the first time, it placesBilly Buddin the context of Melville's writings and projects of the last decade of his life; and it is the first to present the work as a product of the post-Gilded Age andfin-de-siecleperiod rather than of the mid-century high romanticism ofMoby-Dick.

Contents

• Melville and the Historical Background of Billy: 13
• Billy Budd in Melvilles Working Life: 29
• Preservation and Transcription: 41
• The Dynamics of the Canonization of Billy Budd: 53
• CloseReading a Flawed Text: 73
• Textual Curiosity in the New Critical 1950s: 79
• The HayfordSealts Edition 1962: 85
• A ChapterbyChapter Reading of Billy Budd: 97
• Textual Problems and Interpretation: 163
• A Melville Chronology: 179
• Bibliographical Note: 189

About the author

Hershel Parker is H. Fletcher Brown Professor of American Romanticism at the University of Delaware and Associate General Editor of the Northwestern-Newberry Edition ofThe Writings of Herman Melville.He is editor of several collections on Melville, including collaborations with Harrison Hayford on the Norton Critical Edition ofMoby-Dickand Norton"Moby-Dick" as Dubloonand with Brian Higgins on the G. K. HallCritical Essays on Hermann Melville's "Pierre"andCritical Essays on Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick,"and is also editor of the 1820-65 section in theNorton Anthology of American Literature.HisFlawed Texts and Verbal Icons: Literary Authority in American Fictionwas published in 1984 by Northwestern University Press.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Reading Billy Budd
• Author: Hershel Parker
• Publisher: Northwestern University Press, 1990
• ISBN: 081010962X, 9780810109629
• Length: 190 pages
• Subjects: Literary Criticism / American / General