"Bartleby the Scrivener was first published in 1853. Benito Cereno was first published in 1855. Billy Budd, Foretopman was first published in 1924."--T.p. verso.

These three short works represents the last flowering of Herman Melville's genius. By the time "Bartleby the Scrivener" (1853) and "Benito Cereno" (1855) were published, Melville's career as a successful author was effectively over, even though he was still in his mid-thirties (Billy Budd, Foretopman, was not published until 1924, more than three decades after its author's death.) The exotic adventures that had launched Melville's fame had given way to what many readers of the day regarded as obscure philosophizing. Today we can see in the somber image of the poor scrivener who "would prefer not to" an existential figure foreshadowing the imagination of Kafka decades before that writer's birth. In the credulous Captain Delano's distorted vision of reality in "Benito Cereno," and the despair of Claggart as he looks upon the inarticulate purity of Billy Budd, today's readers confront the great philosophical and literary issues of our time -- of all time -- expressed with the profundity of feeling rarely equaled in the greatest works of the world's literature. - Back cover.