There are two great masterpieces in this book, "Billy Budd" and "Bartleby, the Scrivener" ."Benito Cereno"is perhaps a third.
"Billy Budd" was Melville's last work of genius. It is a complex tale of Innocent and Evil, of the seemingly perfect and pure hero, Billy Budd, and his nemesis , the evil Claggart. In between and acting as judge but unable to prevent the tragedy is Captain Vere, the man of truth.
"Billy Budd" has always had me a certain enigmatic and troubling feeling. And despite sensing its greatness I have not identified with the work the way I always have with 'Bartleby the Scriver'.
In this tale the scribe who says "I prefer not to" and seems yet another variant of Lonely, Isolated , anomic Western Man( Dostoevsky's "The Underground Man" to Camus' "The Stranger) is at once infuriating, pathetic, and admirable. He is the American hero of Thoreau "hearing the sound of a different drummer". And yet he is the pathetic lonely figure similar to Gogol's Akaky Akakayevich in " The Overcoat".
His stubborness while driving us crazy, is somehow felt to be admirable , and a sign of his integrity. He somehow cannot be bought and co-opted.
Melville himself was too a lonely, lonely figure especially in the long years when he wrote no prose, worked in the New York harbor, and did not receive recognition for the masterpieces he had already written, including what most consider the greatest of all American Novels,"Moby Dick."

This collection of short stories gives a very fair view of Herman Melville's literary capacities as well as his vision of the world and humanity.

In Billy Budd (BB) the main character 'Adam before the Fall' is a victim of natural human depravity.
Bartleby's (B) perfectly harmless passivity is the personification of humanity's lost hopes.
In 'Benito Cereno' (BC) the black revolt is crushed by 'superior' whites.
'The Piazza' is a description of a fairyland inhabited only by 'like some Tahiti girl'.
In 'The Lighning-Rod Man' (LR) the author doesn't need a lightning conductor, because 'In thunder as in sunshine, I stand at ease in the hands of my God.'
In 'The Bell-Tower' (BT) the great mechanician, the unblest foundling Bannadonna, wants to become a new Prometheus, 'man, the true God'. He is killed by his own robot. The whole tower crashes in an earthquake.
'The Encantadas' are 'Apples of Sodom'.

Herman Melville's worldview is that of a true calvinist. His religion is the dominant theme in these stories: 'All is owing to Providence' (BC), also the alleged superiority of the white man. After the Fall, man became naturally depraved. More, 'civilization is auspicious to depravity, because the latter can fold itself in the mantle of respectability.' (BB)
Melville's anti-rational, anti-scientific and anti-progress stance is clearly exposed in the fate of Bannadonna and his realisations(BT).

So, why should we still read an outspoken 19th century conservative author? Because Calvinism poses the fundamental question of evil-'owing to Providence'. Melville is obsessed by evil. For him, it is an irrational 'mystery, a matter for psychologic theologians.' (BB)

Melville is a master in staging characters driven by 'pale ire, envy, despair' (BB) or 'pride' (BT). The deception in BC is formidably sketched; the indomitable reaction of the stuttering Billy Budd is a lightning blow and the suicidal behaviour of Bartleby is baffling.
These are the main reasons why some of his stories continue to be fascinating reads.

Billy Budd is NOT a story of "good versus evil"! If you read it and only get that out, you're an idiot. Furthermore, this was Melville's very last work and was not found until after his death; it is heralded as being just as well-written and compelling as "Moby Dick". The ship is a microcosm for our world, and each character represents different people/ideas. It is not a story of protagonist and antagonist. Melville was not concerned with Claggart or Budd, but rather Captain Veere. Heck, just read until the court martial scene; you'll see.

In closing: Forget the loon who told you this book was nonesense. He/she apparently has never READ the book for UNDERSTANDING.

PS: I'm a college sophomore majoring in English. I should know what I'm talking about. Toodles.

If you are an English teacher who is looking for a good punishment for their students, I highly recommend that you assign them 'Billy Budd.'

Not only is this book extremly hard to understand, it's theme is also quite depressing... it's your basic everyday, good vs. evil, but in this book: Evil conquers all.

Save your time.. don't read this book....

Though this fine collection contains the justly famous work, Billy Budd, and the amazing story of Bartleby, I would like to focus on Benito Cereno. This story is less well-known than these others, but it is equally great. And I want to focus on it also because I noticed a review here that stated that this story reveals that Melville was indifferent to the horror of slavery. It is difficult for me to read such a view without distress. This is not only not true, but nothing could be further from the truth. A more compassionate and profound commentary on slavery and on human blindness has never been written and never will be. Please consider my view of this story:
First of all consider the seeming irony of the title, Benito Cereno. In the story itself all the direct focus is on Captain Amasa Delano. He is seen here endlessly as the embodiment of large-minded nobility and generosity. He seems to be the real hero of the story, (just as Babo, the negro who master-minds the mutiny, seems to be a stereotypical villain). But the story is not called, Amasa Delano, it is called, Benito Cereno. Why? Because the ultimate subject here is what happens inside Benito Cereno. The surface focus on Delano is a distracting screen that Melville deliberately and carefully constructs. Melville allows this screen to distract us because the type of 'decency' that Delano represents in real life is exactly what allows people who consider themselves 'civilized' and basically 'good' to be blind and distracted from the real horror of slavery or any other evil. Please recall that Delano " took to negroes, not philanthropically, buy genially, just as other men to Newfoundland dogs." And consider the scene where Babo is shaving Captain Cereno. Delano thinks he is watching an agreeable but basically simple-minded negro doing a job that perfectly suits his one-dimensional, inferior being. And in reality we are watching a charade devised by Babo's brain, a "hive of subtlety" that has Delano fooled. When Delano notices that Babo has used the Spanish flag as a barber towell to cover Cereno, he comments on it in a forgiving, playful way and Babo laughs and plays the clown, but in fact it is a revelation of how painfully aware Babo really is. Delano can not quite see the truth about anything. All of his confusion and uncertainty throughout most of the story, and the vaporous mists of the sea-scape, are meant by Melville to be reflective of Delano's deeper blindness. Delano has one moment in the story where he almost sees reality and says, "Ah, this slavery breeds ugly passions in man...," but he slips back again into his smug blindness. And his certainty and cheerfulness at the end of the story are part of this blindness. No, he is not the hero of this story. The real hero is the feeling/consciousness that rises in the heart of Benito Cereno. Delano thinks, and the reader may think with him, that what afflicts and almost paralyzes Cereno through most of the story is that he is simply afraid that if he makes the wrong move then Delano will be killed. But this is only a fraction of what really afflicts Cereno. Cereno, through his experience with Babo, sees the truth about slavery and he can never be blind again. Look at the last part of the story: After the mutiny has been crushed and the negroes are brought to 'justice' and Delano is then out of danger Cereno is still buried in shadow and pain.
Why? Please read very carefully the last conversation between Delano and Cereno here. Cereno explains so movingly how Delano is blind, but Delano still does not see. Delano asks why he, Cereno, is so melancholy. Cereno answers simply,"The negro." At the trial Cereno refuses to identify Babo and faints when he is forced to look at him. Three months later Cereno dies of inner pain and darkness in a monastery. The monastery is on Mount Agonia. Agonia gives us the English word, agony, and in Greek in means a wrestling contest. Here the struggle is between tuth and falsehood. Crereno dies in the struggle, but he dies on the right side. This is why the story is called Benito Cereno.