Billy Budd SOS!

[misskenton]

Has anyone read Billy Budd by Herman Melville? I have to read it this summer for an Honors English Class and am afraid to read it... I've heard it's terribly difficult and BORING? Any sugestions? SOS What shall I do?

[Everyman]

Opinion about Billy Budd is very much mixed, some people thinking it's the most boring dreck possible, others thinking it's a brilliant work of psychology.

If you read it only as a story, looking for a coherent plot, you'll be disappointed. If you read it with intelligence, examining it for its allegorical content and working through Melville's admittedly challenging writing style, you may or may not think its brilliant, but you will certainly not think its stupid.

Your choice.

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misskenton wrote:

Has anyone read Billy Budd by Herman Melville? I have to read it this summer for an Honors English Class and am afraid to read it... I've heard it's terribly difficult and BORING? Any sugestions? SOS What shall I do?

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[misskenton]

Thanks for the vice. I was really not looking at reading it like that but looking for the coherent plot... I'll definately not be doing that now! Im a little less weary about reading the book now but is their anymore perspectives on the book such as the vocabulary and literature?