Billy Budd

I had to read this story for a class and at first, I was really angry that the audio version was abridged. I immediately returned it in a fit of outrage...but then I sat down to read the book version (which i already had) and I quickly changed my tune and ended up re-purchasing because thank god for the abridged version!Needless to say, this was not my fave Melville story. The abridged audio version might be "abridged" but it's enough that you'll know what happened in the story and it's only 1 hr and 17 mins. I mean, if you're going to write an essay or something on it or you're actually one of those people that reads Melville in your leisure time, then clearly, you'll want the real version, but I was assuming I'd only need this for a class discussion. It was more informative than Sparknotes or Shmoop in any case, and I think it was only $1.99, so it was worth it to me.

This edition of Melville's Billy Budd is useless and alarming inauthentic. I ordered it for school, and I chose this edition largely due to the listing's inclusion of this quote in the description:“This is the most teachable edition of Billy Budd available. It lucidly situates Melville’s novella within its legal, literary, and historical contexts, providing a variety of compelling ways to approach the text. Michael J. Everton’s introduction is also incisive and engaging. This edition is an impressive achievement.” ―Cody Marrs, University of GeorgiaWhat I didn't notice was that several lines beneath this quote is the disclaimer that the quote is not actually about this edition. What about this quote is relevant to a description of any edition of the book OTHER than the one to which it specifically refers? This disclaimer appears again after the two quotations provided under “From the Back Cover,” neither of which is on the back cover of THIS edition. Whoever wrote the description for this edition is clearly misleading buyers by including several multi-line quotations about other editions of the book accompanied by a terse disclaimer that is easy to miss. I am ashamed to have been deceived this way.The entire printing of this edition is of dubious quality. On the front cover, the words "A Novel" are about four times bigger than "Herman Melville," which many people might not mind, but as a graphic design enthusiast, I do.On the title page, "By" is erroneously capitalized. Below that, Herman Melville is credited as also being "The Author of: 'Redburn.'" Yes, he wrote it, but the publisher puts the title of the book in quotation marks. It is a full novel, not a short story or poem, and should be either underlined or italicized. And in my personal opinion and experience, the author’s most recognizable title should be included in this context. Again, in my opinion, Moby Dick is Melville’s best-known work. Then “(1924)”—in font several times larger than the authorial attribution directly above it—is not attached to any other text indicating the significance of that year. It is the year Melville’s story was published, but this date is is followed by two ISBNs that separate it from the word “Copyrighted.” The book doesn’t contain a legitimate copyright! There is no clear copyright date, copyright holder, or publisher listed, which leads me to the conclusion that this is a counterfeit edition of Melville’s work. The final text on the page is the page number—“1.” It’s probably just another pet peeve of mine, but there should not be a page number on the title page.The rest of this edition appears to be little more than the text of the novella printed out on a home printer and bound together at Kinko’s. There are no footnotes, no contextual information, no introduction. There are barely even any margins! I'm an American Literature major at UCLA, so I annotate my books like crazy, and this edition leaves little to no room to do this save for the last page of each chapter, which almost invariably contains only half a page or less of text and frequently a scant three or four lines. This poor formatting could have been avoided if the printer had used a typical size paper for such a short work instead of 6 inches by 9 inches. And all of the page numbers are centered on the bottoms of the pages except “2” and “4,” which are inexplicably in the top left hand corners. How do you even set your word processor to do that?Furthermore, the plot summary and the author bio on the back cover are plagiarized from Wikipedia. They are printed in about 18 pt type, ostensibly because they didn’t have enough stolen text to fill the 6” x 9” back cover. I also found that the entire description included on this product page is taken straight from the Wikipedia page for Billy Budd.The real kicker is on the last page of the book. It is dated “22 December 2017”—the day after I ordered it!I have never in my life purchased a book that was so unprofessionally and suspiciously produced. I am returning this edition.

Had to get this for my son to do a report on. I had to read it too because I told him it wasn't so bad. I lied. Its terrible. I'm not telling you this because I'm not educated, it just sucks.

The language and sentence structure of this book is very difficult to understand. Additionally, the author often interjects to state his opinion about the events happening in his book rather than displaying it through the character's actions, which disrupts the flow of the story and, personally, is a mark of a poor story.

Melville classic,a beautifully written look at life below decks in the British Navy during the early 1800's. Examines the tough choices Captains (GODS) had to make to ensure discipline among their fighting forces.The threat of Mutiny was on the mind of every Captain of the "Ships of the Line".

Great edition of this classic novel.

The product came the next day after I purchased it. The book was clean and new. I had no problems with it. 10/10 would recommend to buy!

It was very messed up when i got it. I only needed it for school so i didn’t care, i could still read it but i was very squished.

Excellent as a preview to going to see it today at a local cinema in an modern production, to get an idea of the story etc..

WORST EDITION OF A NOVEL I HAVE EVER WITNESSED. NO INDEX, NO FORMATTING OF THE PAGE WHATSOEVER. IT IS JUST A BETRAYAL AND EXTREMELY DISRISPECTFUL ACT TOWARDS SUCH A CLASSIC AS BILLY BUDD.