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You will love this story if you enjoy dry humour mixed with real sadness, odd office characters, puzzling people who stay in the mind, and the plain question of what one person owes another.
Che cos’è questo libro
What would you do if an employee calmly refused every request, and then refused to leave? That is the problem facing a Wall Street lawyer in Bartleby, the Scrivener.
Herman Melville wrote this story after the sea novels that made his name. An elderly lawyer hires a pale copyist named Bartleby, who copies legal papers by hand. For a few days he is the best worker in the room. Then he answers a simple request with a sentence no one can answer back: I would prefer not to. You will meet the lawyer and his odd clerks, watch the refusals spread, and see what the lawyer finds one Sunday morning.
In questo riassunto
- 1A comfortable lawyer tells a strange taleFree
- 2Three odd clerks keep the office running
- 3A quiet new copyist says no
- 4The office learns to live with refusal
- 5A Sunday visit shows Bartleby's lonely life
- 6Every plan to remove him fails
- 7What the story asks about charity and isolation
- 8How Melville tells it and what to watch
Punto chiave 1 di 8
A comfortable lawyer tells a strange tale
The story begins with the man who tells it. He is an elderly lawyer on Wall Street who says the easiest way of life is the best. He runs a quiet practice among the bonds, mortgages and deeds of rich men. He never argues before juries and never chases applause.
He is proud that John Jacob Astor once called him prudent and methodical. He also holds a pleasant post called Master in Chancery, which pays well for little effort. When a new constitution abolishes it, he still grumbles about the income he lost.
His offices are on the second floor. One window looks into a white light shaft. The other looks at a tall brick wall, black with age, only ten feet from the glass. Notice that wall. It comes back again and again.
The lawyer is our only window onto the scrivener. He knows nothing about Bartleby except what his own astonished eyes saw. Every scene reaches us through a man who loves comfort and is not always honest about his motives. He says he is kind, and sometimes he is. He says he is calm, and often he is simply avoiding trouble.
A narrator who prizes comfort above all is the right person to be tested by a man who asks for nothing.
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Who’s who
- The lawyer
- An elderly Wall Street lawyer who tells the story. He loves ease and a good name, and wants his office to run quietly.
- Bartleby
- A pale, silent copyist who answers requests with a mild refusal and keeps his past to himself.
- Turkey
- An elderly English copyist, polite and steady in the morning, wild and blotting in the afternoon.
- Nippers
- A young, ambitious copyist troubled by indigestion and irritable mornings, who dreams of real legal work.
- Ginger Nut
- A twelve-year-old office boy who runs errands and buys the ginger cakes that give him his name.
- The landlord
- The owner of the building on Wall Street who wants the nuisance removed before his tenants leave.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 13,600 words
- Reading timeAbout 55 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary; paperback, hardcover and large print at cost
- LanguagesEnglish and 12 other languages
Questions about Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street
What is Bartleby, the Scrivener about?
A lawyer on Wall Street hires a copyist named Bartleby, who begins refusing tasks with the phrase I would prefer not to. The story follows the lawyer's confusion, pity and frustration as the refusals grow.
What does I would prefer not to mean?
It is Bartleby's polite way of declining. It is mild and never angry, which makes it hard to argue with, and it stands for passive resistance and a quiet withdrawal from ordinary life.
What is a scrivener?
A scrivener is a clerk who copies documents by hand. Before photocopiers, law offices needed such copyists to produce clean duplicates of contracts, deeds and court papers, often for a small fee per page.
Why is it set on Wall Street?
Wall Street stands for money, contracts and order, so a man who simply steps out of that system stands out sharply. The walls in the setting also echo the barriers between people.
Is Bartleby, the Scrivener easy to read?
Yes, in the sense that the story is short, told in a chatty voice, and full of funny office characters. Its scenes are simple and clear, though its meaning stays open to many readings.
Cite this edition
Melville, Herman. Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/bartleby-the-scrivener-a-story-of-wall-street.
Melville, H. (2026). Bartleby, the scrivener: A story of Wall-Street. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/bartleby-the-scrivener-a-story-of-wall-street (Original work published 1853)
Melville, Herman. Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/bartleby-the-scrivener-a-story-of-wall-street.
@book{melville2026bartleby,
author = {Melville, Herman},
title = {Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/bartleby-the-scrivener-a-story-of-wall-street},
note = {First published 1853}
}
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Get the full summary of Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street, free
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