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ahalsnad 's review for:
Billy Budd
by Herman Melville
The story was straightforward, but the writing was a little cumbersome for me. Sometimes the underlying reasons for descriptions of certain things were hard to understand. The characters are simple in their vices and virtues that set the course for future events. The story is full of jealousy, politics, and following the law reaching up to the climax. If only Billy Budd had controlled his burst of emotions with actions! An important lesson to keep in mind, for sure.
I loved a couple of paragraphs that were beautiful that stopped me in the tracks.
I loved a couple of paragraphs that were beautiful that stopped me in the tracks.
"Well, though many an arraigned mortal has in hopes of mitigated penalty pleaded guilty to horrible actions, did ever anybody seriously confess to envy? Something there is in it universally felt to be more shameful than even felonious crime. And not only does everybody disown it, but the better sort are inclined to incredulity when it is in earnest imputed to an intelligent man. But since its lodgement is in the heart not the brain, no degree of intellect supplies a guarantee against it."
"Forty years after a battle it is easy for a non-combatant to reason about how it ought to have been fought. It is another thing personally and under fire to direct the fighting while involved in the obscuring smoke of it. Much so with respect to other emergencies involving considerations both practical and moral, and when it is imperative promptly to act. The greater the fog the more it imperils the steamer, and speed is put on tho' at the hazard of running somebody down. Little ween the snug card-players in the cabin of the responsibilities of the sleepless man on the bridge."