If Melville had never written "Moby Dick," his place in literature would have been assured by his short fiction. "Billy Budd, Sailor" is his last work and his masterpiece -- a brilliant study of the tragic clash between social authority and individual freedom, human justice and abstract good. In "Bartleby the Scivener," a Wall Street law clerk takes passive resistance to a comic -- and tragic -- extreme. Completing the beautiful collection are: "Benito Cerino, " "The Encantatas, " "The Plaza, " and finally, Melville s ...
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If Melville had never written "Moby Dick," his place in literature would have been assured by his short fiction. "Billy Budd, Sailor" is his last work and his masterpiece -- a brilliant study of the tragic clash between social authority and individual freedom, human justice and abstract good. In "Bartleby the Scivener," a Wall Street law clerk takes passive resistance to a comic -- and tragic -- extreme. Completing the beautiful collection are: "Benito Cerino, " "The Encantatas, " "The Plaza, " and finally, Melville s chilling science fiction parable, "The Bell Tower."
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