Unpublished in Melville's lifetime, BILLY BUDD is considered one of his greatest works. It began as a ballad, but grew into a short novel with an ambiguous plot that raises more questions than it answers, about good and evil, justice ...

Melville's 'Bartleby' is a classic American short story, a strange tale of an assiduous copyist whose catch-phrase is 'I would prefer not to.' It is joined here by two other stores from 'The Piazza Tales', Melville's idiosyncratic col...