A centenary study of Melville’s Billy Budd.

Billy Budd, Sailor (An Inside Narrative) is Herman Melville’s most-read book after Moby-Dick and is regularly taught in literature courses. A century after publication its textual history and interpretive criticism as a literary artifact continue to evolve. This book traces the bibliography of this evolution through numerous “reading,” “genetic,” and “fluid” editions, as well as critical and biographical works illustrating the ranges of approaches to and appreciation of Melville’s great unfinished text.

Featuring frontispiece illustration by Barry Moser.