Benito Cereno by Herman Melville audiobook.

Genre: mystery

Off the coast of Chile in the late 1700s, American sea captain Amasa Delano encounters a battered Spanish merchant ship drifting in uneasy silence. Its commander, Don Benito Cereno, appears sickly, distracted, and strangely dependent on his enslaved attendants, while the vessel itself seems plagued by shortages, confusion, and simmering disorder. Delano, practical and good-natured, boards to offer aid and quickly finds himself trying to make sense of contradictory details: whispered conversations that stop when he approaches, inexplicable weapons on deck, sailors who seem fearful, and a captain whose authority feels more theatrical than real. As Delano attempts to arrange supplies and repairs, he must decide whom to trust and what story to believe, even as his own assumptions shape every conclusion. Herman Melville builds a taut, atmospheric moral puzzle about perception, power, and the violence embedded in maritime empire, where the surface of polite cooperation hides a far more dangerous struggle. With mounting tension and an ever-tightening sense of menace, Benito Cereno draws listeners into a slow-burn confrontation between appearance and reality at sea.

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Chapters (Approximate)

(00:00:00) Chapter 01

(00:10:37) Chapter 02

(00:28:19) Chapter 03

(00:37:30) Chapter 04

(00:55:25) Chapter 05

(01:14:17) Chapter 06

(01:37:59) Chapter 07

(01:53:59) Chapter 08

(02:21:10) Chapter 09

(02:27:39) Chapter 10

(02:45:34) Chapter 11

(02:57:06) Chapter 12

(03:05:52) Chapter 13

(03:44:27) Chapter 14

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