Reviews

Benito Cereno by Herman Melville

xini's review against another edition

1.0

la lectura obligatoria más aburrida del año con diferencia. demasiadas descripciones para mi gusto, no ocurre nada. además, no sé vocabulario náutico en castellano, así que en inglés menos, y eso dificultó la comprensión. la historia no está mal pero podía haberla contado en la mitad de páginas.

agoldman's review against another edition

5.0

Reading this several times for a narrative theory class. Postponing my review until the end.

9/12/22
Just read Grandin’s Empire of Necessity. Nevermind, this novella is so good. Crazy because I was not a fan of Moby Dick. Also, this is a very spectacular substrate for analyzing the story-discourse relationship in narrative.

drachendingsi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Violence

adeleighpenguin's review against another edition

Hm. Not certain I ever need to read Moby Dick

whatleoreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

1.0

Boring, predictable, awful writing style 

strawberryvenus's review against another edition

1.0

not a fan of melvilles writing style sorry reading this felt like an eternity even though i respect what he was doing here

topbob's review against another edition

5.0

My favorite story to re-read. I missed a lot of details on my first read-through. This novella is brilliant, I love how the introduction props up the story. The distressed ship slowly docking upon the coast, and Delano boarded the dilapidated vessel. The middle was often tedious to read through the first time, but there are a lot of excellent moments. The ending is where this novella shines-- perhaps I was as ignorant as Delano going through this, because I didn't expect that the ship was already controlled by the slaves. As such, all of my confusion cleared and I felt called to re-read it. I just appreciated how much Melville pulled a fast one on me and the story weighs on my thoughts a bit sometimes, one of my favorite works of short fiction.

payaut's review against another edition

challenging dark informative tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

read for eng242…interesting to analyze/listen to my instructor analyze it; but not interesting to read for most of it, the first 60-70% could be SOOOO much shorter, like i get it, but also why

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Slavery

angrybookworm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Had to read for class. It's long and old and not my favorite but there's something to be learned from it I guess. 

flisss's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75