After reading this book - I officially will not be reading Herman Melville. The style is too flowery and I had a hard time keeping track of who was who, and the roll they played in the story.

However, there are three stories in this book. Benito Cereno and Billy Budd are set on ships, and its clear that Melville knows his ships. There was too much sailing ship jargon for me to fully understand what was happening.

However, Bartleby the Scrivener was quite amazing - from Bartleby's "I'd rather not" to the description of the two clerks. In the introduction, there was a comparison to Kafka - an in this story, the comparison holds true. There is a feeling of being trapped in the process, and Bartleby is tragic figure with comedic inflections.

Benito Cereno was a challenge for me - It was evident what happened to the other ship right off, but Benito was blind to it based on his assumptions. I'm not sure if this story is against slavery or not, but I was rooting for the slaves and thought they were in the right the whole time.

Billy Bud is the story I really struggled with. Initially, describing characters that didn't seem to matter to the actual story, lots of characters that were minor, and the jargon left me loss. Billy Budd is a tragic figure - an innocent who happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time - and there seems to be a Claggert in every group of people. But, between the difficult language, and the story that did not end, I found the story quite tedious. ( )

NARRATIVA NORTEAMERICANA. Tras un periodo de injustificado olvido, la figura de Herman Melville (1819-1891) fue rescatada por la critica de los años 20, para situarle entre los grandes escritores del siglo XIX. Las tres obras conjugan magistralmente los elementos caracteristicos de su estilo: la omniscencia del narrador, las perspectivas contrastadas y las bruscas rupturas formales. Todo ello se combina en un modelo unico de indagacion metafisica sobre los efectos aniquiladores para el ser humano de la opresion y el aislamiento. ( )