Bartleby the Scrivener
'Bartleby the Scrivener' Summary
The narrator is an unnamed elderly lawyer who works with legal documents and has an office on Wall Street. He already employs two scriveners, Turkey and Nippers, to copy legal documents by hand, but an increase in business leads him to advertise for a third. He hires the forlorn-looking Bartleby in the hope that his calmness will soothe the other two, each of whom displays an irascible temperament during an opposite half of the day. An office boy nicknamed Ginger Nut completes the staff.
At first, Bartleby produces a large volume of high-quality work, but one day, when asked to help proofread a document, Bartleby answers with what soon becomes his perpetual response to every request: "I would prefer not to." To the dismay of the narrator and the irritation of the other employees, Bartleby begins to perform fewer and fewer tasks and eventually none, instead spending long periods of time staring out one of the office's windows at a brick wall. The narrator makes several attempts to reason with Bartleby or to learn something about him, but never has any success. When the narrator stops by the office one Sunday morning, he discovers that Bartleby is living there and is saddened by the thought of the life the young man must lead.
Tension builds as business associates wonder why Bartleby is always present in the office, yet does not appear to do any work. Sensing the threat to his reputation, but emotionally unable to evict Bartleby, the narrator moves his business to a different building. The new tenant of his old office comes to ask for help in removing Bartleby, and the narrator tells the man that he is not responsible for his former employee. A week or so after this, several other tenants of the narrator's former office building come to him with their landlord because Bartleby is still making a nuisance of himself; even though he has been put out of the office, he sits on the building stairs all day and sleeps in its doorway at night. The narrator agrees to visit Bartleby and attempts to reason with him. He suggests several jobs that Bartleby might try and even invites Bartleby to live with him until they figure out a better solution, but Bartleby replies that he would "prefer not to make any change" and declines the offer. The narrator leaves the building and flees the neighborhood for several days in order not to be bothered by the landlord and tenants.
When the narrator returns to work, he learns that the landlord has called the police, who have arrested Bartleby and imprisoned him in the Tombs as a vagrant. He goes to visit Bartleby, who spurns him, and bribes a cook to make sure Bartleby gets enough food. The narrator returns a few days later to check on Bartleby and discovers him dead of starvation, having preferred not to eat.
Months later, the narrator hears a rumor that Bartleby had once worked in a dead letter office and reflects on how this might have affected him. The story ends with the narrator saying, "Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity!"
Book Details
Language
EnglishOriginal Language
EnglishPublished In
1853Author
Herman Melville
United States
Melville's growing literary ambition showed in Moby-Dick (1851), which took nearly a year and a half to write, but it did not find an audience and critics scorned his psychological novel Pierre: or, T...
More on Herman MelvilleDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
- Select Speed
Related books
The Countess of Lowndes Square, and Other Stories by E. F. Benson
Dive into the enchanting world of "The Countess of Lowndes Square, and Other Stories" by E.F. Benson, where ordinary lives intertwine with extraordina...
Stories Weird and Wonderful by Joyce Emmerson Muddock
Step into a realm where the extraordinary meets the everyday in "Stories Weird and Wonderful" by Joyce Emmerson Muddock. From the very first page, you...
Three Midnight Stories by Alexander Wilson Drake
Embark on a Journey of Mysterious Tales in "Three Midnight Stories" by Alexander W. Drake Are you ready to step into a world where darkness and enigma...
Dr. Deane's Way, and Other Stories by Pansy (Isabella Macdonald Alden)
In her classic collection of short stories, Dr. Deane's Way, and Other Stories, Pansy explores the answers to this question. She tells the stories of...
The Ice-Maiden: and Other Tales by Hans Christian Andersen
"The Ice-Maiden" is an 1861 literary fairy tale by the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen. The first English translation was published by King and...
Widdershins by Oliver Onions
Onions wrote several collections of ghost stories, of which the best known is Widdershins (1911). It includes the novella The Beckoning Fair One, wide...
The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, and Other Stories by Mark Twain
"The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg" is a piece of short fiction by Mark Twain. It first appeared in Harper's Monthly in December 1899, and was subsequ...
The Courtship of Susan Bell by Anthony Trollope
This delightful novel, takes readers on a journey of love, relationships, and the complexities of courtship. Originally published in 1860, "The Courts...
The Book of Wonder by Lord Dunsany
The Book of Wonder is the seventh book and fifth original short story collection of Irish fantasy writer Lord Dunsany, considered a major influence on...
Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad
"Amy Foster" is a short story by Joseph Conrad written in 1901, first published in the Illustrated London News (December 1901), and collected in Typho...
Reviews for Bartleby the Scrivener
No reviews posted or approved, yet...