Billy Budd is Herman Melville's last work, and it was finished shortly before his death in 1891 when the author was 72. It was first published in 1924, helping to reestablish the critical reputation that Melville now has received.
One has to remember that Melville was an artist who wrote and published Moby-Dick when he was 31. Though the book is heralded as a masterpiece today (and rightfully so), Melville enjoyed no fitting recognition during his lifetime, spending nearly his last two decades in New York City as a customs inspector.
For an author of an unquestionable masterpiece and numerous other excellent literary efforts to go through so much of his life in silence had to have been a great burden. To see how Melville might have dealt with the life forces that created his frustrated career, it is instructive to look to Billy Budd for the writer's final pronouncement.
It is quite possible to read the work as a symbolic tale cry-ing out that evil is defeat in the world and that natural goodness (here in the character of Billy Budd) is immune to actions of men (Captain Vere and the Indomitable crew). This statement appears to be what Melville held faith in during his last years: that his apparent defeat at the hands of fate could still be a victory. Because Melville wrote Billy Budd, he triumphed in the end.
The life of Melville must be stressed just a bit further be-fore entering into the text. The author's late years were endured in obscurity and silence. He was faithful in his official duty, and he read widely in search of answers to life's mysteries. It is speculation, but there is an interesting coincidence between life and art with Herman Melville. His son Malcolm committed suicide at 18, while his son Stanwix aimlessly drifted until he died of tuberculosis at 35. Both sons must have been affected deeply by the overwhelmingly fierce intensity of the Melville household, and one can draw conclusions about difficult fat...