Melville's Bartleby
“Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!”
- H. Melville
(source: Classical Pursuits)
- H. Melville
Bartleby, the Scrivener: a Story of Wall Street is a long short story or novelette by the American novelist Herman Melville (1819-1891).
The narrator, an elderly lawyer who has a very comfortable business helping wealthy men deal with mortgages, title deeds, and bonds, relates the story of the strangest man he has ever known. One of the most complex stories ever written by Melville, it was no great success at the time of publication. Bartleby the Scrivener is now among the most notable of American short stories and is considered a precursor of absurdist literature, touching on several of Kafka's themes in such works as A Hunger Artist and The Trial.
The narrator, an elderly lawyer who has a very comfortable business helping wealthy men deal with mortgages, title deeds, and bonds, relates the story of the strangest man he has ever known. One of the most complex stories ever written by Melville, it was no great success at the time of publication. Bartleby the Scrivener is now among the most notable of American short stories and is considered a precursor of absurdist literature, touching on several of Kafka's themes in such works as A Hunger Artist and The Trial.
No comments:
Post a Comment