For many people the shorter novels of Herman Melville hav ebeen lost in the gigantic shadow of his universally recognized masterpiece, Moby Dick. Yet in the short novels in this volume, written after his popularity had begun to wane, actually represented the peak of Melville's artistic development. The compelling story line, the profound symbolism, the brilliant character delineation are all in evidence and there is a tightness and precision in these stories of which the author had not been capable before. Billy Budd, the last of Melville's works, is considered by many scholars to be his greatest.