"Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street" is a short story by Herman Melville. The story first appeared, anonymously, in Putnam's Magazine in two parts. The first part appeared in November 1853, with the conclusion published in December 1853. It was reprinted in Melville's The Piazza Tales in 1856 with minor textual alterations. The work is said to have been inspired, in part, by Melville's reading of Emerson, and some have pointed to specific parallels to Emerson's essay, "The Transcendentalist." The story has been adapted twice: once in 1970, starring Paul Scofield, and again in 2001, starring Crispin Glover. This article is in need of attention. ... Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. ... Putnam’s Monthly Magazine of American Literature, Science and Art was a monthly periodical published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons featuring American literature and articles on science, art, and politics. ... 1853 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... 1853 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... The Piazza Tales is a collection of short stories by Herman Melville, which he published with Dix & Edwards in 1856 in the United States. ... 1856 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882) was an American essayist, poet, and leader of the Transcendentalist movement in the early nineteenth century. ... Ralph Waldo Emersons The Transcendentalist is one of the essays he wrote while establishing the doctrine of American Transcendentalism. ... Year 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link shows full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... David Paul Scofield, CH, CBE (born 21 January 1922) is a British actor who was born in Hurstpierpoint, Sussex, England. ... Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 2001 Gregorian calendar). ... For the Scarling. ...

Plot summary

The narrator, an elderly lawyer who does a comfortable business helping wealthy men deal with mortgages, title deeds, and bonds, relates the story of the strangest man he has ever known. Bartleby is a new addition to the narrator's staff. The narrator already employs two scriveners, Nippers and Turkey. Nippers suffers from indigestion, and Turkey is a drunk, but the office survives because in the mornings Turkey is sober even though Nippers is irritable, and in the afternoon Nippers has calmed down even though Turkey is drunk. Ginger Nut, the office boy, gets his name from the little cakes he brings the men. Bartleby comes in answer to ad, and the narrator hires the forlorn looking young man in hopes that his calmness will soothe the temperaments of the other scriveners.

One day, when Bartleby is asked to help proofread one of the documents he copied, he answers simply, "I would prefer not to." It is the first of many refusals. To the dismay of the narrator and the irritation of the other employees, Bartleby takes part in fewer and fewer duties around the office. The narrator makes several attempts to reason with Bartleby and learn about him, but Bartleby always responds the same way when asked to do a task or give out information about himself: "I would prefer not to." One weekend, when the narrator stops in at the office, he discovers that Bartleby is living at the office. The loneliness of Bartleby's life strikes the narrator: at night and on Sundays, Wall Street is as desolate as a ghost town. He alternates between pity and revulsion for Bartleby's bizarre behavior.

Bartleby continues to refuse duties, until finally he is doing no work at all. And yet the narrator cannot get him to leave. The scrivener has a strange power over his employer, and the narrator feels he cannot do anything to harm this forlorn man. But his business associates begin to wonder at Bartleby's presence at the office, since he does no work, and the threat of a ruined reputation forces the narrator to do something. His attempts to get Bartleby to go are fruitless. So the narrator moves his offices to a new location. But soon afterward, the new tenants of the narrator's old offices come to him asking for help: Bartleby will not move. When they oust him from the offices, Bartleby haunts the hallways. The narrator goes to see Bartleby in one last attempt to reason with him, but Bartleby rejects him. For fear of being bothered by the anti-Bartleby folks, the narrator stays away from work for a few days. When he returns, he learns that Bartleby has been put in prison.

At the prison, Bartleby seems even more glum than usual. The narrator's friendliness is rebuffed. The narrator bribes a turnkey to make sure Bartleby stays well fed. But when the narrator returns a few days later, Bartleby has died. He preferred not to eat.

Some time afterward, the narrator hears a rumor that Bartleby worked in a Dead Letter Office. The narrator reflects that the dead letters would have made anyone of Bartleby's temperament sink into an even darker gloom. The letters are emblems for our mortality and the failure of our best intentions. Through Bartleby, the narrator has glimpsed the world as the miserable scrivener must have seen it. The closing words of the story are the narrator's resigned and pained sigh: "Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity

Influence

"Bartleby the Scrivener" is among the most famous of American short stories. It has been considered a precursor to existentialist and absurdist literature although the story was not very popular at the time it was published. "Bartleby" touches on many of the themes extant in the work of Franz Kafka, particularly in The Trial and "A Hunger Artist." However, there exists nothing to indicate that the German-language writer was at all familiar with Melville, who was largely forgotten until after Kafka's death. Existentialism is a philosophical movement which claims that individual human beings create the meanings of their own lives. ... Absurdism is a philosophy stating that the efforts of humanity to find meaning in the universe will ultimately fail (and, hence, are absurd) because no such meaning exists, at least in relation to humanity. ... “Kafka” redirects here. ... This article is about the novel by Kafka. ... A Hunger Artist (Ein Hungerkünstler), also translated as A Fasting Artist, is a short story by Franz Kafka published in Die Neue Rundschau in 1922. ... German (called Deutsch in German; in German the term germanisch is equivalent to English Germanic), is a member of the western group of Germanic languages and is one of the worlds major languages. ...

Albert Camus cites Melville (explicitly over Kafka) as one of his key influences in a personal letter to Liselotte Dieckmann which was published in the French Review in 1998. Albert Camus (IPA: ) (November 7, 1913 – January 4, 1960) was a French author and philosopher. ...

Spanish writer Enrique Vila-Matas wrote the award-winning novel entitled "Bartleby & Co." that creates a catalogue of the many "bartlebys" in literature: writers who gave up writing, the "Literature of No", writers who sought denial, such as the character created by Melville.

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Bartleby the Scrivener

• Sources
  • Digital facsimile of Part I of the story in Putnam's, from the Making of America Archive
  • Digital facsimile of Part II
  • Bartleby, the Scrivener, available at Project Gutenberg.
• Commentary
  • A Cultural Context for "Bartleby the Scrivener"
  • A bibliography of criticism relating to the story from the University of Kansas.
  • A detailed explanation of the historical allusion (to the Colt-Adams murder) in the story.
  • "Bartleby the Scrivener," Poe, and the Duyckinck Circle. A scholarly essay discussing Melville's allusions to Poe in the story.

• Other
  • A study resource for "Bartleby the Scrivener"
  • Bartleby at the Internet Movie Database

v • d • e Herman Melville
Novels	Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life (1846)  · Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas (1847)  · Mardi: And a Voyage Thither (1849)  · Redburn: His First Voyage (1849) · White-Jacket, or The World in a Man-of-War (1850) · Moby-Dick, or The Whale (1851) · Pierre: or, The Ambiguities (1852) · Isle of the Cross (ca 1853, lost) · Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile (1856) · The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade (1857) · Billy Budd, Sailor (An Inside Narrative) (1924)
Short stories	The Piazza Tales (1856): "The Piazza" · "Bartleby the Scrivener" · "Benito Cereno" · "The Lightning-Rod Man" · "The Encantadas, or Enchanted Isles" · "The Bell-Tower" Uncollected : "Cock-A-Doodle-Doo!" (1853)  · "Poor Man's Pudding and Rich Man's Crumbs" (1854)  · "The Happy Failure" (1854)  · "The Fiddler" (1854)  · "The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids" (1855)  · "Jimmy Rose" (1855)  · "The 'Gees" (1856)  · "I and My Chimney" (1856)  · "The Apple-Tree Table" (1856) Image File history File links Wikisource-logo. ... The original Wikisource logo. ... Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to digitize, archive and distribute cultural works. ... The University of Kansas (often referred to as KU) is an institution of higher learning in Lawrence, Kansas. ... The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is an online database of information about movies, actors, television shows, production crew personnel, and video games. ... Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. ... Typee (1846; in full: Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life) is American writer Herman Melvilles first novel, partly based on his actual experiences as a beachcomber in the South Pacific Marquesas Islands. ... Omoo was Herman Melvilles sequel to Typee, and, as such, was also nonfiction. ... Mardi was Herman Melvilles third book, and his first pure fiction work (while featuring fictional narrators, his previous novels were heavily autobiographical). ... Redburn is the name of a story by Hermann Melville. ... White-Jacket is a novel by Herman Melville, first published in 1850. ... Moby-Dick book cover Moby-Dick - the official title of the first edition - is a novel by Herman Melville. ... Isle of the Cross is an unpublished and subsequently lost novel by Herman Melville. ... Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile is a novel by Herman Melville published in installments in Putnams Monthly Magazine from July 1854 through March 1855, in book form by George Palmer Putnam in New York in March 1855, and in a pirated edition by George Routledge in London... The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade was the last major novel by Herman Melville, the American writer and author of Moby-Dick. ... Billy Budd is a short novel written around 1891 by Herman Melville. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... The Piazza Tales is a collection of short stories by Herman Melville, which he published with Dix & Edwards in 1856 in the United States. ... Benito Cereno is a novella or short novel by Herman Melville. ... The Encantadas or Enchanted Isles is a novella by American author Herman Melville. ... Unpublished in Melville's lifetime : "The Two Temples"  · "Daniel Orme"
Books of poetry	Battle Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866)  · Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land (1876)  · John Marr and Other Sailors (1888)  · Timoleon (1891)  · Weeds and Wildings, and a Rose or Two (1924) Uncollected/unpublished poems: "Epistle to Daniel Shepherd" · "Inscription for the Slain at Fredericksburgh" · "The Admiral of the White" · "To Tom" · "Suggested by the Ruins of a Mountain-temple in Arcadia" · "Puzzlement" · "The Continents" · "The Dust-Layers" · "A Rail Road Cutting near Alexandria in 1855" · "A Reasonable Constitution" · "Rammon" · "A Ditty of Aristippus" · "In a Nutshell" · "Adieu"