Moby-Dick
Herman Melville
Moby-Dick
Melville's other great book about life on a ship, where a captain's will decides everyone's fate.
Read our takeBilly Budd
Herman Melville
Billy Budd
A well-loved young sailor on a British warship is falsely accused of plotting mutiny, and answers with a single blow.
- 1924
- 368
- Elegiac
- Melancholy
- dark
- challenging
- political
About Herman Melville
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeBilly Budd is a cheerful young sailor, taken off a merchant ship in 1797 to serve on a British warship. Everyone likes him except John Claggart, the master-at-arms, who accuses him of plotting a mutiny. Billy cannot get his words out, and he strikes Claggart dead. Captain Vere believes Billy is innocent at heart, and still pushes a court on board to hang him. Herman Melville marked the manuscript finished in April 1891, a few months before he died. The story was first printed in 1924.
The story, in more detail
The manuscript carries its own dates. Melville began it on Friday, 16 November 1888, started revising on 2 March 1889, and wrote "Finished" on 19 April 1891. He dedicated it to Jack Chase, the Englishman who had been captain of the main-top on the American frigate United States in 1843.[1] Melville had sailed with Chase on that ship.[2]
The story is set in 1797, the year of two great mutinies in the British navy, at Spithead and at the Nore. Melville's short preface says the sailors caught something of the spirit of the French Revolution. The ringleaders at the Nore were hanged in front of the fleet as a warning.[1]
Melville calls the story "an inside Narrative" and keeps interrupting it. He stops to talk about Admiral Nelson, and about where sanity ends and madness begins. He tells the reader that each person must judge Captain Vere for himself.[1]
Nothing of it appeared while Melville lived. In his 1921 biography, Raymond Weaver described the novel, then existing only in manuscript, and judged the result "not distinguished."[2] Three years later Weaver edited the first printing himself, in a London edition limited to 750 copies.[1]
The full plot
Billy Budd is twenty-one, strong and handsome, and he cannot read. On the merchant ship Rights-of-Man he has made peace among a quarrelsome crew. A lieutenant from the warship Indomitable, short of men, takes him off to serve the King. As the boat pulls away Billy waves his hat and calls, "And good-bye to you too, old Rights-of-Man!"[1]
Billy was found as a baby and does not know who his parents were. He has one flaw. When he is very upset, his voice fails him and he stutters or cannot speak at all. On the warship he is popular with the crew and does his work well.[1]
The ship's policeman is John Claggart, the master-at-arms, a pale, clever man of about thirty-five. An old Danish sailor, known as the Dansker, warns Billy that Claggart is "down on" him. Billy does not believe it. When Billy spills his soup on the deck in front of Claggart, the master-at-arms says pleasantly, "Handsomely done, my lad!"[1]
One night a sailor Billy barely knows wakes him and whispers about a gang of pressed men. He holds up two small coins that look like gold guineas. Billy stutters with anger and drives him off. He does not report the approach, because he does not want to inform on a shipmate.[1]
Soon after, Claggart goes to Captain Edward Fairfax Vere and says that Billy is plotting a mutiny. Vere doubts him. He calls Billy to his cabin and tells Claggart to repeat the charge to Billy's face. Billy tries to speak and cannot. Then his right arm shoots out and hits Claggart on the forehead. Claggart falls and does not get up.[1]
How it ends — spoilers ahead
The surgeon finds Claggart dead. Vere cries, "Struck dead by an angel of God. Yet the angel must hang!" The surgeon thinks the case should wait for the admiral. Vere calls a court on board at once, made up of the first lieutenant, the captain of marines and the sailing master.
Billy tells the court he never meant to kill anyone: "Could I have used my tongue I would not have struck him." The officers want to spare him. Vere argues that they serve the King, not their own feelings. He warns that the crew, so soon after the Nore, would read mercy as fear. The court sentences Billy to hang at dawn.
Vere tells Billy the verdict himself, alone. Nobody ever learns what the two men said. At dawn Billy is hanged from the main-yard. His last words are "God bless Captain Vere!" and the whole crew repeats them. His body is buried at sea.
Later the Indomitable fights a French ship called the Athéiste. Vere is hit by a musket-ball and dies ashore at Gibraltar some days later, murmuring "Billy Budd, Billy Budd." A naval newspaper reports that Billy had stabbed Claggart with a knife. A sailor in Billy's watch writes a ballad about him, Billy in the Darbies, which is printed at Portsmouth.
Themes and analysis
A manuscript found after Melville's death
Melville left Billy Budd among his papers. The 1924 volume, the thirteenth in Constable's Standard Edition of his works, printed it for the first time. The editor's note says the text was "finished by Melville five months before his death in 1891, and never before published."
The pages were heavily corrected, and Weaver admits he made small changes to Melville's wording here and there. His footnotes also show that Melville had not settled on the ship's name. The 1924 text calls her the Indomitable, while the manuscript sometimes calls her the Bellipotent.
In 1962 the University of Chicago Press published a new text by Harrison Hayford and Merton M. Sealts Jr., under the title Billy Budd, Sailor (An Inside Narrative). Their reading text is the one Penguin Classics uses today. The quotations here follow Weaver's 1924 text, as transcribed by Project Gutenberg.
The real mutinies behind the story
Melville gives the Great Mutiny of 1797 a whole chapter. The sailors at Spithead rose first, against real and long-standing abuses. The rising at the Nore followed in May. To the Empire, Melville writes, the Nore mutiny was like a strike by the fire brigade in a London threatened by arson.
He also names an American case. In 1842 the commander of the United States brig Somers hanged a midshipman and two petty officers at sea as mutineers, in peacetime and a few days from home. A naval court of inquiry later cleared him. Melville says only that the officers on the Indomitable felt the same kind of pressure.
Readers have argued about Captain Vere ever since. Melville lets the ship's surgeon wonder whether Vere has lost his balance, and then refuses to settle it. "Who in the rainbow can draw the line where the violet tint ends and the orange tint begins?"
Billy Budd in France
Pierre Leyris translated the story into French as Billy Budd, gabier de misaine. Victor Attinger published it in Neuchâtel and Paris in 1935. Gallimard in Paris brought out a second edition in 1937.
Benjamin Britten turned the story into an opera, with a libretto by E. M. Forster and Eric Crozier. The opera opened at Covent Garden in London on 1 December 1951. In May 1952 the Paris magazine La Revue musicale printed a synopsis of it. The Opéra de Paris first staged it on 10 April 1996, and revived it in 1998, 2001 and 2010.
The French director Claire Denis drew on the story for her 1999 film Beau travail, written with Jean-Pol Fargeau. The film follows soldiers of the French Foreign Legion and was shot in Djibouti. Its soundtrack mixes dance music with Britten's opera. The film won the César for best cinematography in 2001.
Quotes from Billy Budd
And good-bye to you too, old Rights-of-Man!
Struck dead by an angel of God. Yet the angel must hang!
Could I have used my tongue I would not have struck him.
Why we recommend it
A courtroom drama in one cabin
The trial takes place in the captain's cabin, with the body in the next room, and every argument for and against hanging Billy is spelled out.
Melville's last word
The manuscript is dated from November 1888 to April 1891, the last years of Melville's life.
Three unforgettable characters
Billy cannot speak when it matters, Claggart hates him for no reason he can name, and Captain Vere believes he has no choice.
An opera and a French film
Benjamin Britten's opera is still staged in Paris. Claire Denis's film Beau travail follows soldiers of the French Foreign Legion.
What this book explores
The people in its pages
Billy Budd
A twenty-one-year-old foretopman, handsome, strong and trusting. He cannot read, and he stutters when he is upset.
Captain Edward Fairfax Vere
Captain of the Indomitable, a bookish bachelor of about forty. The sailors call him Starry Vere.
John Claggart
The master-at-arms, a kind of police chief on the lower decks. He is about thirty-five, pale and clever, and nobody knows much about his past.
The Dansker
An old Danish sailor with a scar across his face, who served under Nelson. He takes a liking to Billy but says very little.
Captain Graveling
Master of the merchant ship Rights-of-Man, a peaceful man who is sorry to lose Billy.
The surgeon
The ship's doctor, calm and dry, who has doubts about the captain's haste.
Bring it to book club
- Was Captain Vere right to insist on a trial that night? What else could he have done?
- Why do you think Billy's voice fails him at exactly the wrong moment?
- Melville never explains why Claggart hates Billy. Does the story need an explanation?
- Billy's last words are "God bless Captain Vere!" What do you make of them?
- The naval newspaper gets the facts wrong, and the sailors' ballad gets them half right. Which version would most people remember?
Timeline
1843
Melville serves on the American frigate United States with Jack Chase, captain of the main-top.
16 November 1888
Melville begins the manuscript.
19 April 1891
Melville marks the manuscript finished. He dies later that year without publishing it.
1921
Raymond Weaver describes the unpublished novel in his biography of Melville.
1924
Constable in London prints Billy Budd, Foretopman for the first time, edited by Weaver.
1935
Pierre Leyris's French translation is published in Neuchâtel and Paris.
1 December 1951
Benjamin Britten's opera Billy Budd opens at Covent Garden.
1962
The University of Chicago Press publishes the Hayford and Sealts text, Billy Budd, Sailor.
10 April 1996
The Opéra de Paris stages Britten's opera for the first time.
1999
Claire Denis makes Beau travail, set in the French Foreign Legion.
Book editions
Hardcover
- Hardcover
- Constable and Company
- 1924
- Paperback
- University of Chicago Press
- 1962
- 9780226321325
- Paperback
- Penguin Classics
- 2016
- 9780143107606
Ebook
- Ebook
- Project Gutenberg
- 2025
Reader reviews
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Read our takeBilly Budd: frequently asked questions
What is Billy Budd about?
A young sailor on a British warship in 1797 is falsely accused of plotting a mutiny. Unable to speak in his own defence, he strikes his accuser dead. The captain believes he is innocent at heart but has him tried and hanged.
When was Billy Budd published?
Not until 1924, thirty-three years after Melville's death. Raymond Weaver edited it from the manuscript for Constable in London, as Billy Budd, Foretopman.
Why are there different titles?
Melville left an unfinished, heavily corrected manuscript. The 1924 edition used the title Billy Budd, Foretopman. The 1962 Chicago edition by Harrison Hayford and Merton M. Sealts Jr. used Billy Budd, Sailor (An Inside Narrative).
Why does Captain Vere hang Billy?
Vere tells the court that they serve the King's law, not their own feelings. He also fears that the crew, after the mutiny at the Nore that year, would see mercy as weakness.
Who was Jack Chase?
The captain of the main-top on the frigate United States in 1843, when Melville served aboard. Melville dedicated Billy Budd to him.
Does Billy Budd have a Paris connection?
Through its French life. Pierre Leyris's translation was published in Neuchâtel and Paris in 1935, the Opéra de Paris has staged Britten's opera since 1996, and Claire Denis based her film Beau travail on the story.
Which edition has this ISBN?
ISBN 9780143107606 is Penguin Classics' Billy Budd, Bartleby, and Other Stories (2016), 368 pages, which uses the Hayford and Sealts text.
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References
References
The sources below include the primary text, editions, scholarship, archival materials, and other records that informed this page. They document Billy Budd, its publication, and its place in literary history.
1abcdefghiBilly Budd and Other Prose Pieces, ed. Raymond W. Weaver (Constable, 1924; Works of Herman Melville, Standard Edition, vol. XIII) — primary text, Project Gutenberg ebook 76513
NovelProject Gutenberg transcription, 1924Used forPrimary text of the 1924 first printing, for the plot, characters, dates of composition and quotations.
3Billy Budd, Sailor (An Inside Narrative), ed. Harrison Hayford and Merton M. Sealts Jr. (University of Chicago Press) — Open Library edition record OL16842197M
WebsiteOpen Library, Internet ArchiveUsed forEdition record for the Hayford and Sealts text.
4Billy Budd, Bartleby, and Other Stories: Penguin Classics paperback, ISBN 9780143107606
WebsitePenguin Random House Library MarketingUsed forContents and text basis of the Penguin Classics collection.
5Billy Budd, Bartleby, and Other Stories (Penguin Classics) — Library of Congress catalog record (LCCN 2015034976)
ArchiveLibrary of Congress, 2016Used forLibrary record confirming ISBN 9780143107606.
6Billy Budd, gabier de misaine, traduit de l'anglais par Pierre Leyris (Neuchâtel and Paris: Victor Attinger, 1935) — catalogue record
Official recordBibliothèque nationale de France, 1935Used forCatalogue record for the first French translation.
7Billy Budd, gabier de misaine, traduit par Pierre Leyris, 2e édition (Paris: Gallimard, 1937) — catalogue record
Official recordBibliothèque nationale de France, 1937Used forCatalogue record for Gallimard's second edition.
8Benjamin Britten, Billy Budd, an opera in four acts, libretto by E. M. Forster and Eric Crozier, vocal score (London: Hawkes and Son, 1952) — catalogue record
Official recordBibliothèque nationale de France, 1952Used forCatalogue record for Britten's opera, with its librettists.
9Wozzeck, argument par Pierre-Jean Jouve; Benjamin Britten, Billy Budd, opéra en 4 actes, synopsis — La Revue musicale, no. 213 (Paris: Richard-Masse, May 1952) — catalogue record
Official recordBibliothèque nationale de France, 1952Used forCatalogue record for the 1952 Paris synopsis of the opera.
10Billy Budd, Benjamin Britten — performance history at the Opéra de Paris (MémOpéra)
WebsiteOpéra national de ParisUsed forThe Opéra de Paris's own record of the opera's premiere and its Paris performances.
11Beau travail, Claire Denis, réalisatrice; Herman Melville, auteur adapté (DVD, 2003) — catalogue record
Official recordBibliothèque nationale de FranceUsed forCatalogue record for Beau travail, naming Melville as the adapted author.
12"Desire is violence": Claire Denis on Beau Travail (Sight and Sound, July 2000; republished online 13 June 2023)
PeriodicalBritish Film Institute, 2000Used forInterview with Claire Denis on the film's setting and music.
13Billy Budd
NovelHerman Melville, 1924Used forThe primary text represented by this page, used for descriptions of the work’s contents and for any quoted passages shown here.
i
Why these sources are here
The primary text is the baseline reference for every book page. Additional references document publication history, interpretation, and historical context where that evidence is available.
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