Product Description

A lush edition of this short classic novel gains new perspective with the inclusion of black-and-white photographs depicting nineteenth-century Wall Street and the prison called the Tombs, where the story takes place. 15,000 first printing.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #986097 in Books
• Published on: 1997-04-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 80 pages

Review
(in full Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street) Short story by Herman Melville, published anonymously in 1853 in Putnam's Monthly Magazine. It was collected in his 1856 volume The Piazza Tales. Melville wrote "Bartleby" at a time when his career seemed to be in ruins, and the story reflects his pessimism. The narrator, a successful Wall Street lawyer, hires a scrivener named Bartleby to copy legal documents. Though Bartleby is initially a hard worker, one day, when asked to proofread, he responds, "I would prefer not to." As time progresses, Bartleby increasingly "prefers not to" do anything asked of him. Eventually he dies of self-neglect, refusing offers of help, while jailed for vagrancy. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature

About the Author
Herman Melville is considered one of the greatest writers in American history. His most popular works include Benito Cereno, Billy Budd, Sailor, and Moby Dick.

Customer Reviews

Seemingly simple story about the choices we make daily
Herman Melville wrote this story in 1853, two years after Moby Dick had been published and his writing career was beginning to lose its luster. Subtitled, "A Story of Wall Street", it is a seemingly simple story about a lawyer who hires a gentleman named Bartleby as a scrivener in his office. This was way back in the days before photocopy machines and scriveners performed the necessary tasks of tediously hand copying documents over and over. Bartleby was good at the copying part of his job, but when asked to proofread aloud one day he simply replied, "I prefer not to." From that moment forward, he used the phrase "I prefer not to" for every task requested of him, eventually "preferring not to" do any work whatsoever. The lawyer, who is astounded by Bartleby's attitude, tells the story in the first person.

The story is rich in language and yet spare in actual action. The reader is forced to think, and think seriously about the choices we make daily. Bartleby chose to rebel and become an anti-hero. But the real protagonist of the story is the lawyer, who is drawn into Bartleby's power and grows to admire him. The conclusion is sad, but inevitable. Recommended.

Imagine yourself in the Dead Letter Office
The story of Bartleby is simply about a man loosing his will to live. It is intended to show the reader a dark side in all of us when the meaning of our existence is allowed to be challenged. The chilling image of Bartleby in his previous job at the Dead Letter Office leaves my imagination running wild, wondering about the contents of the letters and how Bartleby must have gone from concern to sadness to indifference about his own mortality as he read the messages written to those who can no longer receive them. I'm glad Melville left Bartleby's reason for being (or not being) a mystery. This way, any reader can relate to the story by drawing on their own experience.

A Good One
I'm not very big into fiction; in fact, I dislike most of it. But, Bartleby the Scrivener is one of those rare works I actually enjoy to read and reread. There are many theories on what this short narrative is "about" ... from Bartleby being a representation of the pokings of the socially-numbed narrator's "Higher Self" to a portrait of the four humor personality types (Bartleby being the melancholic). Whatever it is, I know I can relate to it. Anyone who has ever felt unhappy, trapped, confined in a drudge of a job yet deeply in touch with themselves, their spirit and passions, or unwittingly conscious of "the game" (i.e., most of your idealists) will probably swoon at this well-written tale of an imprisoned free-spirit.