Billy Budd

By: Herman Melville

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki

Length: 3 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

Billy Budd, an orphaned, illegitimate child suffused with innocence, openness, and natural charisma, has been impressed into service aboard the HMS Bellipotent. He is adored by the crew, but for unexplained reasons arouses the antagonism of the ship's Master-at-Arms John Claggart, who falsely accuses Billy of conspiracy to mutiny.

Set in 1797, Herman Melville's Billy Budd exploits the tension of this period during the war between England and France to create a tale of satanic treachery, tragedy and great pathos that explores human relationships and the inherently ambiguous nature of man-made justice.

Public Domain (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

" Billy Budd has excited the most admiration and commentary of any work by Melville except Moby-Dick. It has the translucence and the loose weave of last works. A lifetime sifts into it. Whenever Melville ventures onto shipboard, the reader feels the deck beneath his feet." (John Updike)
"In this last of Melville's works, published posthumously, the author dramatized the clash between natural goodness and innocence as personified by Billy Budd, and unprovoked evil as embodied in Claggart." ( Masterpieces of World Literature)

Didactic

The story of Billy Budd is timeless and burns with a gemlike flame but the writing feels instructive and preachy. The performance here is strangely wooden, more recitation than embodiment.

Verbose

It seems the author was fond of using as many syllables as possible when fewer would suffice.

The story is great; Rudnicki not so much

Melville's novella is a work of quiet power; it is clearly an unfinished work but that quality fits the mood of melancholy that the story is infused with. I enjoyed the story much more than the audio book.

Rudnicki has a very monotone delivery that hampers the story a great deal. His voice is not unpleasant to listen too but the reading is dramatically inert. I think this style of reading is better suited to nonfiction.

The story

The story it was really really really really really interesting to me and I got a prompt for my essay

Sad but beautiful story

Didn’t expect this story would be as moving as it is. Available for free. Thank you.

Delivers a punch!

Whew! Quite a powerful short story! Set in 1997 aboard a English war ship this story about a an able seaman held appeal to me as an aficionado of sailing ships & its crews. This fiction occurs in that labile period shortly after the English Navy mutinies & not long before Nelson’s feats. I found it necessary to plow through excessive descriptive sentences characteristic of the writing style of Melville’s time but after all the characters were developed the storyline smooths out to become a gripping tale that I won’t soon forget. 

Wow

So many words. It was difficult to hear the story through all of those unnecessary words.

Intriguing narration, classic historical fiction.

The narrator’s voice is rich and soothing, but the English accent he imitated was poorly done. Good consistency in the uniqueness of each voice of the characters.

a great Voyage of a story

a wonderful day all the voyage and a life Billy Budd. another great story by Herman Melville

A great book

A wonderful book that I found to be developmental and maturative for a young man coming of age such as myself. I found this book to be relatable and generally intelligent. I further highly recommend this book.