Three different periods of Herman Melville’s literary history are represented in this selection: Typee, his first novel, Billy Budd, Foretopman, his last, and the fifteen short stories which account for all of his finished work in this form. Typee has always been one of Melville’s most popular books, and Bill Budd, Foretopman, completed five months before his death and unpublished until thirty years after it, has won constantly increasing favor among discriminating readers. These two novels, with Moby Dick (Modern Library Giant G64. illustrated by Rockwell Kent), are the works by which Herman Melville has earned the world’s acclaim. The short stories in this volume include all The Piazza Tales. Here for the delight of the connoisseur are “Benito Cereno,” “The Bell tower,” “The Encantadas,” “Bartleby,” “The Lightning-Rod Man,” “The Apple-Tree” and other stories.