Seven years after starting work on his second book, Dr. Russell Weaver has finally published The Moral World of Billy Budd. 

“It is an analysis of Melville’s novel that shows how the way in which the novel poses a problem but complicates the evidence so that judgment becomes extremely difficult,” said Weaver. 

The book, Weaver said, was written primarily for other professors and graduate students, but any student can read it. He said that his students may have a better understanding of the book since they know the way in which he works. 

“It would be fine for my students to read it,” he said. “They would have a head start as they understand how I approach things.” 

This book was originally started per suggestion of another professor. Weaver was given the idea to write a book using an essay by a former teacher and unexpectedly found excitement. 

“That essay used Billy Budd to illustrate his philosophical points,” he said. “I ended up not wanting to work on literature and ethics, but I found in looking more deeply into Billy Budd that it was a lot more interesting than I had previously thought.” 

Weaver said that was his favorite part about the entire process of writing his book. He said he learned more than he ever expected.

“My favorite part was discovering that a book I thought was only marginally interesting was in fact really interesting,” he said. 

Weaver encourages his students to read his book and said that there are many things they can learn from it. 

“People can learn how much work it takes to read a text carefully, and how difficult the task is when you are, what I call, drilling into the text as deeply as you can,” he said. 

For the future, Weaver already has plans for more books. He is currently working on Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, and plans on two other books as well: Austen’s Mansfield Park and Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Pt. 1. 

“I have found that I really like doing this kind of work contrary to how I felt 20 years ago,” he said.