Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Benito Cereno | - | Herman Melville | Buy |
“Benito Cereno” first appeared in “Putnam’s Monthly Magazine” in 1855 and was later collected in “The Piazza Tales.” The story is told from the perspective of the well-meaning but oblivious American captain Amasa Delano, who interprets mounting evidence of danger through a lens of comfortable assumptions rather than clear sight.
The novella is set entirely aboard a single ship, and the sense of dread builds slowly as details accumulate. Melville based the story on a real account by the actual Amasa Delano, whose memoirs described an encounter with a ship called the Tryal in 1805. Melville altered the details, tightened the narrative, and turned a straightforward account into something far more unsettling.
Scholars have written extensively about “Benito Cereno” as a meditation on race, perception, and moral blindness. The story says as much about what Delano refuses to see as it does about the events themselves. It remains one of Melville’s most analyzed works alongside “Moby Dick” and “Bartleby.”