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Billy Budd
- Narrated by: Peter Joyce
- Length: 3 hrs and 54 mins
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Publisher's summary
On one level... Melville’s tale is an historical adventure telling the story of life aboard ship shortly after the mutiny at Spithead in 1797. Billy is taken from a homeward bound merchantman to serve on the ‘Seventy Four’ HMS Indomitable. He falls foul of Claggart, the ‘Master at Arms’, and the final confrontation results in death. Billy becomes an unwilling martyr - what passes for justice must be implemented because of the rebellious climate of the time. However, below the surface lie some of Melville’s thematic obsessions: the aristocratic savage placed against an inhumanity born of service in time of war, innocence overtaken by fate and the worthy encompassed by the inevitable. The natures of evil and conscience are explored and ‘Billy Budd’ is the author’s “last word upon the strange mystery of himself and human destiny”. Melville is regarded by many as the finest author America has produced.
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About Assembled Stories: Over the years the national press have reviewed Assembled Stories titles as "excellent", "remarkable", "entrancing", "superb", "magic for sure", "masterly", "wonderful", "a class act" and "a splendid example of audio at its best".
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What listeners say about Billy Budd
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Kindle Customer
- 10-17-18
Well done, a pleasure to listen to!
My son is reading this for his freshman year (Classical Conversations Challenge I) American Literature strand and I needed to get housework done so I went ahead and downloaded the audible version to listen to while I worked. I am so glad I did and will be choosing this method of keeping up with my kids' literature selections again!
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- Tad Davis
- 09-02-19
Fine reading
Peter Joyce gives a fine reading of this sad, sad story. I first read it 40 years ago, and it’s not quite how I remembered it: my image of Captain Vere was of a tortured soul wrestling with a terrible moral dilemma. Moral dilemma he has, but he doesn’t do much wrestling. He’s a bookish man, and he goes by the book; what wrestling he does is mostly with others as he tries to convince them to do the same.
There’s a compelling and unsolved mystery here: Claggart is “down” on Billy Budd, but why? It may be “motiveless malignity,” a condition famously attributed to Iago. But there are clues here and there that Claggart may be attracted to Billy and is down on him for exactly that reason. (On the other hand, that might just be a lingering memory of the film by Peter Ustinov that hinted strongly at this.)
I have a single complaint: the stirring patriotic music used to segment the story is too loud and is out of keeping with the somber mood of the story itself.
Even so, of the many recordings of Billy Budd on Audible, this is one of the best.
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- Erika B.
- 11-09-21
TERRIBLE
Great narrator, terrible story. Literally 3/4 of this book is Melville's pointless ramblings. I can literally summarize the entire book in three points: Billy Budd is handsome, Claggart is mean, and ( I'm going to try to write this in code) something terrible happens and someone is executed despite it being an accident. Everything besides that is pointless.
I just wanted to shout:
NO ONE CARES HERMAN!
Also, the editor of the book described it as "not distinguished" when he first read the book.
The most exciting part in the book was realizing it was almost over.
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- JustBill
- 04-06-21
The English And Their Oddities
A good sold yarn, I'll tell you. Teach your teenager true honesty, despite the perilous sea life cast upon you in the English Navy, that has never regained its luster after the 19th century. Find out about the caste system that England still maintains in some circles, and learn the duties of a young lady caught in the middle of it all, and the price he paid.
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- Tammy Enns
- 10-10-20
Too many words too little happening
I realize this book is saying something about the cost of society to individual rights, and I think it could be said with few words!
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- Eric
- 07-26-20
Well Done
The narrator, Peter Joyce, is very well suited to a tale taking place on a British ship. This is one of Melville’s masterpieces, along with Moby Dick and Bartleby, the Scrivener. Excellent audiobook.
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- Nick Thompson
- 05-09-23
Riveting Tale of Naval Life
Having just read Moby Dick, I was keen to hear more of Herman Melville‘s inimitable prose. This lovely, if sad tale did exactly that. Full of the characters of the Navy at the sea, at that time, full of the peculiarities of life aboard a naval ship and replete with Stories and allusions to ancient history as is typical of Melville. Thoroughly enjoyed it. If you enjoyed Moby Dick, I think you will like this short tale.
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In this definitive collection of essays, including the poignant title essay "Self-Reliance," Ralph Waldo Emerson expounds on the importance of trusting your soul, as well as divine providence, to carve out a life. A firm believer in nonconformity, Emerson celebrates the individual and stresses the value of listening to the inner voice unique to each of us - even when it defies society's expectations.
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This book is like a series of great quotes!
- By M. Allen on 01-16-19
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Starship Troopers
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Join the Army and See the Universe. That is the motto of The Third Space War, also known as The First Interstellar War, but most commonly as The Bug War. In one of Robert Heinlein's most controversial best sellers, a recruit of the future goes through the toughest boot camp in the universe - and into battle with the Terrain Mobile Infantry against mankind's most alarming enemy.
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Book is awesome. Narration was MIND-NUMBING
- By Geoff on 08-13-16
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Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street
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Herman Melville’s tale of corporate discontent, Bartleby, the Scrivener, tells the story of a quiet, hardworking legal copyist who works in an office in the Wall Street area of New York City. The business where he works handles the official financial paperwork of wealthy men. One day, Bartleby’s employer requests he proofread one of the documents he has copied. Bartleby declines the assignment with the inscrutable “I would prefer not,” the first of what will become many refusals.
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Very strange, very haunting
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Nostromo
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One of the great adventure novels of our language creates a most engaging central character, Nostromo. A picturesque man of action and popular hero, Nostromo lives to be "well-spoken of" by the citizens of Costaguana, the mythical South American banana republic where the story takes place. Around this figure, Conrad spins a story of revolution, politics, and racial conflict as complex as Nostromo, the man whose greatest enemy is himself.
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Wow!
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Benito Cereno
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This is the epic sea adventure, a harrowing tale of slavery and revolt aboard a Spanish ship, is often regarded as Melville's finest short story. The balance of forces is complete, the atmosphere one of epic significance, the light cast upon the hero intense to the highest degree, the realization of the human soul profound, and the telling of the story orchestrated like a great symphony.
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The literary equivalent of a caste painting from the same time
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The Chronicles of Captain Blood
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Further adventures from the much-loved Captain Blood, the 'Robin Hood' of the Spanish Seas. In his latest exploits, The Chronicles of Captain Blood takes Peter to new adventures with as much excitement and swashbuckling adventure as ever before. Winning invaluable treasures, rescuing his crew from almost certain death and saving an English settlement are all in a day's work for this remarkable hero of land and sea.
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Fantastic
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Master and Commander
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This, the first in the splendid series of Jack Aubrey novels, establishes the friendship between Captain Aubrey, Royal Navy, and Stephen Maturin, ship's surgeon and intelligence agent, against the thrilling backdrop of the Napoleonic wars. Details of life aboard a man-of-war in Nelson's navy are faultlessly rendered: the conversational idiom of the officers in the ward room and the men on the lower deck, the food, the floggings, the mysteries of the wind and the rigging, and the road of broadsides as the great ships close in battle.
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Choice of Narrators
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The Captain of the Pole Star
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Word goes among the crew of the Pole Star that the captain is haunted by demons. And after the days turn into weeks in the frigid Arctic Ocean, stories begin to circulate of ghosts and midnight hauntings.
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Conan Doyle wrote more than Mr. Holmes.
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Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street
- By: Herman Melville
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- Length: 1 hr and 48 mins
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Herman Melville’s tale of corporate discontent, Bartleby, the Scrivener, tells the story of a quiet, hardworking legal copyist who works in an office in the Wall Street area of New York City. The business where he works handles the official financial paperwork of wealthy men. One day, Bartleby’s employer requests he proofread one of the documents he has copied. Bartleby declines the assignment with the inscrutable “I would prefer not,” the first of what will become many refusals.
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Very strange, very haunting
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Nostromo
- By: Joseph Conrad
- Narrated by: Frank Muller
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Overall
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Performance
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One of the great adventure novels of our language creates a most engaging central character, Nostromo. A picturesque man of action and popular hero, Nostromo lives to be "well-spoken of" by the citizens of Costaguana, the mythical South American banana republic where the story takes place. Around this figure, Conrad spins a story of revolution, politics, and racial conflict as complex as Nostromo, the man whose greatest enemy is himself.
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Wow!
- By Amazon Customer