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16th out of 289 books
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572 voters
Bartleby, the Scrivener
By the American novelist, essayist and poet, widely esteemed as one of the most important figures in American literature and best remembered today for his masterpiece Moby-Dick (1851). His short story "Bartleby, the Scrivener" (1856) is among his most important pieces, and has been considered a precursor to Existentialist and Absurdist literature.
Paperback, 64 pages
Published
May 1st 2004
by Melville House
(first published 1853)
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Ah, Bartleby. Ah, Humanity.
At first, as I tried to contain my surprise that Melville, who awed me in Moby Dick, was now writing with such humour and lightness, I felt that Bartleby was a Heroic figure, someone to be admired and emulated - and a welcome break from the complicated characters of the doomed ship.
On second thought, with a slight sinking feeling, I felt he might be a Romantic figure, someone to be eulogized and applauded.
Then, still upbeat about the simplicity of the novella, I was su...more
52 likes · like · see review
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Feb 09, 2013
Jacob
added it
It seems rather pointless to mark a novella as "currently reading," because often it's over in one sitting and you have to mark it "read" and rate it and move on. But I don't want to move on. I don't want to have read Bartleby--I want to keep reading this story, tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. I want to be always reading this. Even when I'm not.
What I mean is, I prefer this story. I prefer it very much indeed.
What I mean is, I prefer this story. I prefer it very much indeed.
19 likes · like · see review
Nov 06, 2010
Mariel
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
fugitives
Recommended to Mariel by:
my mom
We used Bartleby to get out of doing things our mom wanted us to do. "I'd rather not..." It worked. If we wanted money we'd channel Samuel L. Jackson in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever. "They say I got the job! I just need a hundred dollars." (If she was being tightfisted we'd throw in his "little gator dance" and sing "I like getting high uh huh!") Eventually she caught on and we'd reenact the scene from Reservoir Dogs when Mr. Pink knows he didn't do it, he knows Mr. White didn't do it, and he's "fuc...more
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أفضل أن أبقى ساكنا
!
هذا نوع من الأدب الذي أحبه العبثية تحديدا مع جرعة لذيذة من الدعابة لا أدري لم لم أسمع عن الكتاب قبل ذلك حقيقة لا أظن إنه يقل مستوى عن غريب كامو وهو
قريب من مسرح اللامعقول بشخصياته الغريبة الأطوار ..
من هو بارتلبي إنه نساخ ذا سلوك غريب ينضم لمكتب محاماة من أجل نسخ الوثائق القانونية .. الراوي هو رئيسه في العمل
يجلس بارتلبي في زاوية ويباشر النسخ لكنه يرفض
أن يؤدي أي عمل آخر وفي أول بادرة لتلقي الأوامر والإستجابة لها نجد بارتلبي صاحب الوجه الشاحب والمثير للقلق يقول : أُفضّل أل...more
11 likes · like · see review
Wow, that was beautiful! How have I never read this before? It's as good as Kafka - as now as Kafka. This man, this Bartleby, is as basic a character as could realistically exist, yet as human. I defy you not to love him, though he barely does more than stand and stare and politely refuse to act. But I defy you not to empathise with the narrator too. This is about as pertinent as fiction gets. Bartleby is Oblomov, the Hunger Artist, Hamsun's stand-in in Hunger and Beckett's in everything from El...more
20 likes · like · see review
Preferiría leer este libro otra vez. Una y mil veces. Preferiría olvidar que lo he leído y que cada vez que me acerque a él sea la primera vez. Preferiría saberlo todo sobre Bartleby, pero también preferiría no saber nada.
¡Oh Bartleby! ¡Oh humanidad!
¡Oh Bartleby! ¡Oh humanidad!
10 likes · like · see review
SPOILERS
Bet On the World
The genius of Melville's tale "Bartleby, the Scrivener" rivals that of "Moby Dick", and despite the claim that with it Melville forecasts our (post)modern state sounding rather trite, it's very difficult to see it as doing anything but. Like the best of tales, the premise of "Bartleby, the Scrivener" is straightforward: having lost his job as "subordinate clerk" in the Dead Letter Office at Washington, Bartleby winds up working as a copyist at a law firm on Wall Street. A...more
8 likes · like · see review
Avendo letto, riletto e amato Bartleby, desideravo conoscere gli altri racconti di Melville. Quelli contenuti in questo volume trattano tutti, in fondo, lo stesso tema: l'alienazione, la disillusione, il distacco dalla società e dalla vita. Io immagino l'Herman Melville di quel periodo simile ai protagonisti dei suoi racconti, pieno di amarezza e sconforto per il fallimento dei suoi tentativi letterari, e immagino che guardasse ogni cosa con la stessa indicibile malinconia del suo introverso scr...more
Dec 30, 2012
S©aP
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
1800,
letteratura-americana
Originalissimo racconto, ambientato nella New York del 1850. Traduzione accurata, una volta tanto; acconcia al linguaggio d'epoca. Eccellente apparato di note, recensioni, interpretazioni e commenti critici al testo. Un libretto di grande svago e lunghi pensieri. Arbitrariamente affianco a questa lettura un mio convincimento: un'effettiva e audace autonomia mentale è avvertita come minaccia in qualsiasi ...democrazia. Come minaccia, nel mondo moderno, a qualsiasi livello, viene sempre trattata....more
Glad to plug this tiny gaping hole in my reading dike. Two thirds of it I read aloud to the wife and cat as one drew and the other slept, the TV on mute showing NFL divisional playoff action. The convolutions of the syntax struck me while reading aloud, backflipping cartwheeling old-timey tuxedo inversions that usually but not always landed as though Herman had hammered down each sentence with a nail. Every utterance revolved becoming spirals of articulation commencing time again with Bartleby o...more
14 likes · like · see review
Aug 05, 2009
Tony
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
obscure-but-cool,
u-s-lit
I would tell you what I think of this story, but I prefer not to.
57 likes · like · see review
I can understand why the Occupy movement took to this book so well. The titular character after a while does nothing but occupy his chosen workplace, in a sort of calm refusal to acquiesce to anyone's demands that would be the envy of any peaceful protester. There is a certain elegance to Bartleby's constant response of 'I would prefer not to' to any demand made of him, especially when it not only makes those who talk to him respect his wishes, but even causes the word 'prefer' to crop up more i...more
Another of Melville's thought provoking short stories.
Liken it to a painting. A painting that begins as a portrait as you spot if from across the room. But as you approach, the face seems to lose focus, no longer a clean portrayal. It becomes less and less clear, more and more disconcerting, as you get closer and closer, until you are certain that what was obviously a portrait can be nothing more than an abstract exercise. Your too-close inspection will yield nothing but stubborn, withholding, p...more
Liken it to a painting. A painting that begins as a portrait as you spot if from across the room. But as you approach, the face seems to lose focus, no longer a clean portrayal. It becomes less and less clear, more and more disconcerting, as you get closer and closer, until you are certain that what was obviously a portrait can be nothing more than an abstract exercise. Your too-close inspection will yield nothing but stubborn, withholding, p...more
It's about capitalism, with Bartleby functioning as a Jesus-like figure. The subtitle reads, “A Story of Wall-Street". Walls, of all kinds, are a reoccurring theme in this story.
Bartleby is humanity, itself: life, death, and singularity. His difference, or disability, his adamant presence exposes the lawyer for what he truly is and arguably transforms him. I read this because a book I'm currently reading (about autism) discussed it at length. I've also heard it referenced on numerous other occas...more
Bartleby is humanity, itself: life, death, and singularity. His difference, or disability, his adamant presence exposes the lawyer for what he truly is and arguably transforms him. I read this because a book I'm currently reading (about autism) discussed it at length. I've also heard it referenced on numerous other occas...more
4 likes · like · see review
I would prefer not to write a review.
12 likes · like · see review
I first saw it years ago in a TV adaptation with Paul Scofield as the boss. It was set in a modern-day London office block, with him finding his unenthusiastic employee sleeping under the desk. It’s a sort of precursor to Sartre and Camus, early existentialism. Blah, blah... Actually, on April 1st 1990 I had a Bartleby Day in which when anyone told me to do anything I’d reply, ‘I would prefer not to’. Performance art for an April fool. These humourless days I’d just be sacked of course. I have t...more
So a couple of weeks ago I was reading an article by Garrison Keillor, in which he described what an optimistic people we are. His example was that every year the most-bought least-read book is the Bible, primarily because we all tell ourselves we're going to read it and then quickly give up. We want, once and for all, to figure out the will of God, but after a few chapters we realize that we pretty much know the will of God and we would just prefer not to. Which of course made me think of Bartl...more
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An unnamed narrator tells this tale of the scrivener or law-copyist, Bartleby. It is an odd little story, unsettlingly humorous, puzzling, hauntingly disturbing. It reminds me to a piece that might have been written for the Theater of the Absurd a century before Samuel Beckett. Melville has created the ultimate isolated individual, an individual without a story, curiously and completely passive, without a history except as suggested by a vague rumor that is inserted on the last page. And maybe i...more
3 likes · like · see review
One of the great pieces of short fiction in America. Actually it sort of reminds me of my role in work. I usually comment that I rather not to that - and it is sort of understandable. I guess in Melville's case, one doesn't understand and what I found fascinating is not only the characteristics, but also the daily work day of the characters. It's an interesting documentation. The work force is live with various narratives. I personally could sit where I work and just document things and they wou...more
5 likes · like · see review
Apr 04, 2013
Marts (Thinker)
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
classics,
2013-reads
Oh dear, this tale is just a tad bit depressing but its wonderfully written and I must confess I feel a bit sorry for Bartleby, too bad no one really understood him...
2 likes · like · see review
a review?
i prefer not to.
har har har de har!
i prefer not to.
har har har de har!
Definitely on my short-list for all time favorite books. The obstinate Bartleby arrives at a point many of us do whereat we dig our heels in and refuse everything whether it's best for us or not.
The exasperated impotence of the narrator is quite amusing and the title character is legendary.
The exasperated impotence of the narrator is quite amusing and the title character is legendary.
A short and curious tale about a solitary scrivener who mysteriously and quietly refuses to join humanity in its daily tasks and cares. Written from the first-person viewpoint of a worry-worn narrator, the story is largely told through a series of self-searching introspections and speculations on the subtleties of human nature. Not much happens, but it is a good little book for pondering about people, their personalities, and how we fit in with each other in this little world of ours.
If there is...more
If there is...more
Apr 05, 2011
Cindy
rated it
1 of 5 stars
Recommended to Cindy by:
Mrs. Caminiti
Shelves:
literature-classics,
school-assignments
It was such a chore reading through this. I constantly checked my progress with this short story. I'll admit the ending was sad, but I still don't understand this. Maybe that's the thing Melville was aiming for. I don't know.
2 likes · like · see review
I was assigned to read this piece of literature during while attending the University of Idaho, in the 1960 period. Now this is a very old story of a Wall Street business man (lawyer) and one troubled and troublesome employee. I have thought about this over the years and just recently found the entire text on the internet and re-read it in its entirety.
I really enjoyed this book, because of the manner in which the employer wrestled with the problem, the compassion he showed, and the efforts he m...more
I really enjoyed this book, because of the manner in which the employer wrestled with the problem, the compassion he showed, and the efforts he m...more
Hilarious and sad. I could glean from Bartleby a sober message about the way I now spend my days.
But.
I would prefer not to.
But.
I would prefer not to.
2 likes · like · see review
Bartleby is the Bachelor, about whom Kafka said, "He has only as much ground as his two feet take up, only as much of a hold as his two hands encompass" - someone who falls asleep in the winter snow to freeze to death like a child, someone who does nothing but takes walks, yet who could take them anywhere, without moving. Bartleby is the man without references , without possessions, without properties, without qualities, without particularities: he is too smooth for anyone to be able to hang any...more
This book, or short story more precisely, displays the philosophical depth of Melville's fiction in a way that doesn't invoke philosophy as explicitly as Moby Dick does, but is oddly a purer piece of philosophy. This work was published eleven years before Dostoevsky's Notes From the Underground, and the two works bear many resemblances, most notably the stubborn will to defeat determinism. The philosophical topic is thus free will. We are dealing with law copy writers: scriveners. Bartleby is an...more
Reason for Reading: I've decided to try the club for 6 months and plan to read the two selections, the month following their arrival. Hence this is my second January read.
I was not actually looking forward to this. I once tried to read "Moby Dick" and failed miserably. I cannot recall if I've run across Melville in anthologies but if I have obviously it is not something that I've remembered. Melville's writing style is a touch difficult for me and I found this a bit difficult to get into with th...more
I was not actually looking forward to this. I once tried to read "Moby Dick" and failed miserably. I cannot recall if I've run across Melville in anthologies but if I have obviously it is not something that I've remembered. Melville's writing style is a touch difficult for me and I found this a bit difficult to get into with th...more
There’s absolutely nothing under the sun that compels me to review Herman Melville’s Bartleby the Scrivener except the sheer brilliance of both (the star, that is, as well as the novella). The ghost of one of America’s greatest writers may be grateful for the attention—especially since Melville lived the last decades of his life in near obscurity—but I don’t believe in ghosts except as they appear in certain plays.
I picked this novella out of the stacks one afternoon at the main branch of the...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| what does bartleby means to you? | 6 | 60 | Nov 09, 2012 08:02pm | |
| Essay Prompt | 1 | 16 | Oct 24, 2011 06:55pm |
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. His first two books gained much attention, though they were not bestsellers, and his popularity declined precipitously only a few years later. By the time of his death he had been almost completely forgotten, but his longest novel, Moby-Dick — largely considered a failure during his lifetime, and most responsible for...more
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“I would prefer not to.”
—
131 people liked it
“My first emotions had been those of pure melancholy and sincerest pity; but just in proportion as the forlornness of Bartleby grew and grew to my imagination, did that same melancholy merge into fear, that pity into repulsion. So true it is, and so terrible too, that up to a certain point the thought or sight of misery enlists our best affections; but, in certain special cases, beyond that point it does not. They err who would assert that invariably this is owing to the inherent selfishness of the human heart. It rather proceeds from a certain hopelessness of remedying excessive and organic ill. To a sensitive being, pity is not seldom pain. And when at last it is perceived that such pity cannot lead to effectual succor, common sense bids the soul rid of it. What I saw that morning persuaded me that the scrivener was the victim of innate and incurable disorder. I
might give alms to his body; but his body did not pain him; it was his soul that suffered, and his soul I could not reach.”
—
4 people liked it
More quotes…
might give alms to his body; but his body did not pain him; it was his soul that suffered, and his soul I could not reach.”
