Author

Herman Melville

Portrait of Herman Melville.
Portrait of Herman Melville. Source · Public domain

Frequently Cited

Billy Budd and Other Stories

1924 (written 1886–1891); stories 1850s · 19th Century · Collection

This collection pairs Melville's posthumous novella Billy Budd, Sailor with the best of the short fiction he published in magazines in the 1850s, usually including Bartleby, the Scrivener, Benito Cereno and The Encantadas (contents vary by edition). Bartleby (1853) is narrated by a comfortable Wall Street lawyer who hires a pale, quiet copyist.