The Complete Shorter Fiction by Herman Melville

The Complete Shorter Fiction by Herman Melville. This complete collection of Melville’s shorter fiction contains several relatively unknown masterpieces and a number of other stories which throw fascinating light on the author. Billy Budd is quite simply one of the nineteenth century’s greatest works of fiction, combining all that age’s moral fervor with an unparalleled visionary intensity. The very singular achievement of Benito Cereno reveals a different aspect to Melville’s nature, while the other delightful Piazza Tales suggest his unexpected taste for comedy and fantasy. Those who know Melville only from the grandeur of Moby-Dick will find in this volume a writer who is certainly complex and profound but also many-sided, light-hearted and surprising.