Bartleby the scrivener a story of wall-street
When his boss asks him to examine a paper with him for errors, Bartleby replies that he “would prefer not to.” At first The Lawyer thinks he has misheard his employee, but when he repeats himself and Bartleby again prefers not to help, a pattern emerges that The Lawyer must reckon with. While at first Bartleby proves an excellent employee, producing a huge quality of writing for his employer, his working habits are rigid and peculiar. Bartleby comes for an interview, and The Lawyer hires him. But, rather than focus on a group of them, he will tell the tale of the oddest one he’s known: Bartleby.Īfter explaining that his office is occupied by himself, two other scrivener employees ( Turkey, who is a drunk and therefore only useful before he starts drinking at lunch, and Nippers, who has some kind of habit that means he is only productive during the afternoon hours), and Ginger Nut, a twelve-year-old office boy, The Lawyer says that he has posted an ad to hire a new employee. ĭon’t forget to leave a comment on this post! If you subscribe to the weekly StoryWeb email and leave a comment here, you’ll be entered into a monthly drawing to win a StoryWeb T-shirt.The story, set in a Wall Street law office in the mid-1800’s, begins with the unnamed narrator, The Lawyer, stating that he would like to focus his tale on a group of humanity as of yet unwritten about: scriveners, or law-copyists, of whom he’s known many. If you want an especially fine volume to add to your collection, consider investing in the Library of America edition of Melville’s Pierre, Israel Potter, The Confidence-Man, The Piazza Tales. is named after Melville’s famous scrivener.)Īnd if you want to read more of Melville’s short stories, consider purchasing one of several collections of Melville’s short fiction: Billy Budd and the Piazza Tales Billy Budd, Sailor and Other Stories or Great Short Works of Herman Melville. (Appropriately enough, the text can be found on, a treasure trove of stories, novels, and other books that are in the public domain.
Bartleby the scrivener a story of wall street full#
He’s every bit as intriguing a character as Bartleby.Ĭurious about Bartleby’s ultimate fate? You’ll have to read the full story. But if you read the story again, pay attention to the lawyer and what he unwittingly reveals about himself. Read the story for the first time, and you will likely be drawn in by the peculiar Bartleby. The story is as much about Bartleby’s strange temperament as it is about the lawyer’s own fraught relationship with Bartleby. The tale goes on to relate how the lawyer fires Bartleby and tries, unsuccessfully, to escape him. Bartleby repeats the sentence “I would prefer not to” frequently throughout the story – classic passive-aggressive personality! But soon he begins to tell the lawyer “I would prefer not to” when asked to copy a document. The office “look upon the white wall of the interior of a spacious sky-light shaft,” and at the other end, “command an unobstructed view of a lofty brick wall.” Bartleby’s desk – tucked behind a high green folding screen – is situated next to a window, but “ithin three feet of the panes a wall.” And of course, the story takes place on Wall Street, famously known for its cavern-like appearance.īut what is most compelling and maddening to the unnamed narrator, the lawyer who owns and runs the law office, is Bartleby’s habit of drifting into “dead-wall” reveries.Īfter the lawyer hires Bartleby to copy his legal papers, Bartleby is at first extremely productive. Melville takes great care to describe the setting, emphasizing how walled in the law office is. Bartleby, the human copy machine, even sits behind a folding screen, a dead ringer for today’s cubicle. In writing about the reality of mind-numbing office work in a Wall Street law office in the 1850s, Melville was also anticipating life in “Cubeville” in the 21 st century. There are few tales as prescient as Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Tale of Wall-street.”