REPRINTS AND NEW EDITIONS

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26515, 1 September 1951, Page 3

REPRINTS AND NEW EDITIONS

BiUy Budd and Other Stories. By Herman Melville. With an introduction

by Rex Warner. Lehmann. 304 pp.

After “Moby Dick,” “Billy Budd” is Melville’s finest work. And since it was written at the end of his life, after a gap of 20 years during which he wrote nothing, it may be taken as embodying his final comment on human experience. Although the story is based on a series of true happenings In the British Navy in the year 1797, it becomes in Melville's hands a great poetic allegory containing endlessly suggestive reflections on the nature of authority and justice in a civilised society. Undoubtedly relevant to our own times, it is nevertheless very much of its own time. Melville emphasises at several points in his tragic tale the fact that the French Revolution was very recent, and that 1797 was the year of the mutinies at Spithead and the Nore; it was a time of crisis, in which authority was being challenged. Authority, in the story, is represented by Captain Vere—a humane, thoughtful man who shirks none of the frightful penalties and responsibilities that authority brings. That Captain Vere must uphold authority and order the execution at sea of such a man as Billy Budd, foretopman, is as much the tragedy of the story as the death of Billy himself Billy represents Innocence and Good; his moral nature is in keeping with the fine manly beauty of his physique. It is the simplicity of his goodness that makes him the target of the envy of Claggart, the Master-at-Arms on board H.M.S. Indomitable; Claggart -represents Evil, inate and ineradicable. When Claggart manufactures a false tale of Billy’s alleged disloyalty, Billy strikes him and accidentally kills him. In spite of Billy’s patent innocence. Captain Vere must obey the letter of military law and execute summary justice. It would seem that society, in carrying out what it calls justice, is capable of gross injustice. This rebellious thought, however, though it is lesponsible for the tragic tension of the story, is not the final thought. The final thought is embodied in the scene of “reconciliation” in the Anal interview between Billy Budd and Captain Vere, and in Billy Budd’s last words as he stood with the rope about his neck and shouted “God bless Captain Vere. This acquiescence of simple goodness in the necessity of its own sacrifice is Melville’s last word on the dignity and tragedy of the human condition. The other stories contained in this volume (which is a production of the excellent Chiitem Library) were written shortly after the publication of “Moby Dick” when Melville was in his middle thirties. They are limited m scope and until recently have never received much critical attention: but they show much of the same power and penetration, in spite of their more restricted subjects, that was evident in “Moby Dick.”