221 reviews for:

Benito Cereno

Herman Melville

3.19 AVERAGE


I, very much to my own surprise, really dig Melville.

3.5, read for a class
adventurous informative mysterious tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
adventurous dark tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

bro likes his nautical stories I'll tell you that
dark mysterious tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I didn't really understand what was happening until the very end, and by that point, I was just too confused to care.


Expand filter menu Content Warnings
mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Summary: This fictional story, inspired by real events, centers on the interaction of a ship captain, Captain Delano, with a captain of another run-down slave ship that has just docked in the same harbor. At first, Delano notices nothing out of place on this ship, but, as the story progresses, there are glimpses of something more mysterious.

Not Melville's best, indeed. It is a somewhat passive story whose "pot-aux-roses" is fairly quickly predictable. Still, it never ceases to reveal itself to the detriment of the real story and the circumstances of the mutiny, about which we will not ultimately know much. But, once again, we remain in awe of Melville's ability to invent and tell such different human stories in a maritime and exotic context. Incidentally, I am surprised that some readers reject this book under the pretext of the systematic use of the word negro. Indeed, we must place it in the context of its time and its history, still largely imbued with colonialism, slavery, and racism. Who are the writers of this era who escaped this terrible apartheid? Mark Twain, maybe? Should we burn others for simply using a word considered - rightly - here and now as infamous?
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

my favorite enemies to lovers story