Another masterful story by Melville about the American obsessive character (obsession? a story of Wall Street..). Listened to the LibriVox reading by Bob Tassinari which is pretty good. The first half is sort of dull as Melville sets up the scene, but then one realizes how absurd the whole thing is as the narrator becomes increasingly exasperated. It's actually great comical writing. Then it goes beyond believable and enters the realm of fable as the only thing Bartleby says is "I prefer not to". Well, I "prefer" to think of Bartleby as the White Whale, and the narrator Cpt Ahab, a short possibly even satirical version of Moby-Dick. Perhaps Melville's way to saying "screw you" (which sort of sounds like "scrivener", but nah..) to everyone who didn't read his masterpiece. ( )

Interesting that nobody reviews the other story in this book (it doesn't even appear on the title page) which I also found very interesting. I guess there are some post-Civil War sensitivities about a leading American literary figure from New York (Union) who expresses such racist views about "The Negro". But if you don't read it as a warning to white Americans about the threat to their civilisation that is unfolding right under their noses, it is a fascinating and gripping story about the blindness induced by deep-rooted prejudice. Captain Delano can see that something is not quite right, but it only dawns upon him at a very late stage what, to an unbiased person, should have been bleeding obvious from the start.

Both stories are very well done.

It's shocking, but I don't remember reading any other Herman Melville (no, not even Moby Dick - although it is on my shelf waiting to be read). I've heard while Moby Dick was a worthy read, during his life Melville's other works weren't well received. That's unfortunate, because I did enjoy Bartleby. It's a short story, but it reminded me a bit of [The Hunger Artist] by Kafka. ( )

Bartleby is hired to make hand-written copies of documents in a Wall Street law office in 1850s New York City. Early on, he declines his boss's assignment to proofread colleagues' copies by declaring, "I would prefer not to." Before long, he also prefers not to write his own copies, or leave the office, or even eat. Events follow to the logical conclusion (which is well beyond his being fired), and the boss's (the narrator) dealings with Bartleby are interesting psychology.

I love any story set in a workplace, and while this one was only long enough and developed enough to earn 3 stars, I'm glad to have read it -- if only to have earned the right to quote Bartleby's catch phrase :) I also think it would deepen upon repeated readings -- critics assign all sorts of themes to it (capitalism, materialism, employment practices, mental depression) which would make for a good group discussion.

This shorter-than-a-novella, longer-than-a-short-story -- a novelette? -- is available as its own little book, or bound with other Melville stories, or online here. ( )

Reminds me a lot of Beckett... I would also recommend an essay on the semiology in Bartleby by Gilles Deleuze, it opened the book to me in a new way: why Bartleby doesn't simply say no (or yes) and why he thinks it's obvious he has to stop copying (or doing anything) as well? It's the only way to survive. Bartleby decides it's better not to want anything than surrender to the capitalistic society and its rules dictating us to want things that don't even exist (see what happened to Ahab in Moby Dick). ( )