Billy Budd
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Narrated by:
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Peter Joyce
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By:
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Herman Melville
About this listen
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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At the time of the French Revolution, one of Britain's most skillful naval officers, Charles Saunders Hayden, is a young lieutenant, the son of an English father and a French mother. His abilities and his loyalty to the king of England are beyond dispute, yet his career seems doomed by his "mixed" heritage and lack of political connections. Consequently, Hayden is assigned to an aging frigate, the Themis, under the command of Captain Josiah Hart, a man known as "Faint Hart" throughout the service.
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Perfect for first timer
- By Blackmac on 08-07-08
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Mutiny on the Bounty
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Michael Carman
- Length: 22 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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The mutiny on HMS Bounty, in the South Pacific on 28 April 1789, is one of history's truly great stories - a tale of human drama, intrigue and adventure of the highest order - and in the hands of Peter FitzSimons it comes to life as never before. Commissioned by the Royal Navy to collect breadfruit plants from Tahiti and take them to the West Indies, the Bounty's crew found themselves in a tropical paradise. Five months later, they did not want to leave.
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You don't know the whole story.
- By Justin Sluyter on 05-01-19
By: Peter FitzSimons
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The Lion of St. Mark
- By: G.A. Henty
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Of The Lion of St. Mark, G.A. Henty wrote: "I have laid my story in the time not of the triumphs of Venice but of her hardest struggle for existence, when she defended herself successfully against the coalition of Hungary, Padua, and Genoa, for never at any time were the virtues of Venice, her steadfastness, her patriotism, and her willingness to make all sacrifice for her independence more brilliantly shown.
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A Great Listen
- By Jef on 04-04-05
By: G.A. Henty
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The Deerslayer
- By: James Fenimore Cooper
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 21 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Natty Bumppo , one of the greatest heroes in American literature, is the rugged frontiersman of James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales, a series of five novels that includes The Last of the Mohicans and The Deerslayer. Although it was the final volume to be written, The Deerslayer is the first in the chronology of Natty Bumppo’s life, depicting the character as a young man testing himself in the wilderness and against enemies for the first time.
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A careful writing but uncareful reading
- By reball01 on 02-03-13
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By the Mast Divided
- John Pearce, Book 1
- By: David Donachie
- Narrated by: Peter Wickham
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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London: 1793. Young firebrand John Pearce, on the run from the authorities, is illegally press-ganged from the Pelican tavern into brutal life aboard HMS Brilliant, a frigate on her way to war. In the first few days, Pearce discovers the Navy is a world in which he can prosper. And he is not alone; he is drawn to a group of men who eventually form an exclusive gun crew, the Pelicans, with Pearce their elected leader.
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Didn't work for me
- By Michael E on 07-23-08
By: David Donachie
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Mr Midshipman Hornblower
- By: C. S. Forester
- Narrated by: Christian Rodska
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Shaking off this label, a shy and lonely 17-year-old, Horatio Hornblower, embarks on a memorable career in Nelson's navy on HMS Justinian. In action, adventure, and battle he is forged into one of the most formidable junior officers in the service.
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First rate historical fiction
- By Jason on 04-30-17
By: C. S. Forester
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The Sea Wolf
- By: Jack London
- Narrated by: Will Patton
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Abridged
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Jack London worshiped strong and virtuous heroes, and his stories give great weight to the inevitable triumph of good over evil. His telling of the adventures of Humphrey van Weydon in The Sea Wolf is in keeping with this theme of moral man. His powerful and gripping saga of van Weydon's capture by a seal-hunting ship and the ensuing tangles with its dreaded captain, Wolf Larsen, makes this a classic American tale of peril and victory.
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I won the lottery!
- By Bill on 08-11-17
By: Jack London
What listeners say about Billy Budd
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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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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- 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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2 people found this helpful
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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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- 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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1 person found this helpful
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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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- 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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