In 1797, Billy Budd is forced into compulsory service aboard the HMS Bellipotent. Billy, a foundling from Bristol, has an innocence, good looks and a natural charisma that make him popular with the crew. After arousing the antagonism of the ship's master-at-arms, Billy is placed into a precarious situation where truth and justice are intertwined in a moral dilemma that will decide his very fate.

Billy Budd, Sailor is the final novel by Herman Melville, first published posthumously in London in 1924. Created slowly over the last five years of his life, Billy Budd represents Melville's return to prose fiction after three decades of only writing poetry. Melville had begun writing the original work in November 1888, but left it unfinished at his death in 1891. Acclaimed by British critics as a masterpiece when published in London, it quickly took its place as a classic literary work in the United States.

This case laminate collector's edition includes a Victorian inspired dust-jacket.