Benito Cereno

The audio edition of Herman Melville’s masterwork Benito Cereno.


Benito Cereno is a novella by Herman Melville. It was first serialized in Putnam's Monthly in 1855 and later included a slightly revised version in his collection The Piazza Tales (1856). In developing the novella, Melville drew almost exclusively on the memoir of the real Captain Amasa Delano, whom Melville depicts as the main protagonist and focal character. Delano recounts how in 1805, his vessel Perseverance encountered the Spanish Tryal (not to be confused with the 17th-century British Tryall), a ship whose slaves had overthrown the Spanish sailors. The narrative of events in the novel closely follows the actual event.


LEARN ENGLISH AS YOU READ AND LISTEN TO THE SHORT STORIES BY ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS AMERICAN AUTHORS. ADAPTATIONS ARE WRITTEN AT THE INTERMEDIATE AND UPPER-BEGINNER LEVEL AND ARE READ ONE-THIRD SLOWER THAN REGULAR ENGLISH.