I read "Bartleby the Scrivener" as I was told it was a good introduction to Herman Melville because it was short, accessible and showed how ahead of his time Melville was. All of those things turned out to be true but especially the last. "Bartleby The Scrivener" was published in 1853, the same ...
No one told me it was a comedy, or I might have read it sooner. It was very easy to imagine the story illustrated by Edward Gorey.Actually, Veronica told me that Melville wrote this as his response to everyone asking him to write a sequel to Moby Dick. Going into it with the idea of Cartman saying "...
“I would prefer not to.” I’ve seen this phrase all over the bookish internet: on totes, mugs, t-shirts. Bartleby’s refrain always struck me as petulant. It reminds me of a kid whose parents have just asked them to do their chores. I would prefer not to do the dishes. The response to this usually som...
I feel guilty not giving this a five. I recently used Bartleby as a write-in candidate in a poll for U.S. president, based strictly on his reputation of saying "I prefer not to..." I prefer not to tell you one spurious claim about Bartleby's "problem", this time on Wikipedia, since the theory mixes ...
Loved this one. I was surprised by how funny Melville could be, which Moby Dick's slight touches of the ironic (church sermon, etc.) wouldn't really suggest. I would like to re-read this with more focus on the narrator: why does he allow Bartleby to stick around so long? Does his reluctance betray a...
As is often the case with Melville. I do not know what this book really means. It reads like Kafka decades before Kafka wrote. Bartleby becomes an immovable presence in an office, while the narrator fails to dislodge him from the office and eventually the narrator moves his whole office.Just when...
bookshelves: summer-2010, published-1853, play-dramatisation, victorian, shortstory-shortstories-novellas, slit-yer-wrists-gloomy, re-visit-2013, spring-2013 Read from August 06, 2010 to May 14, 2013, read count: 2 Stars Ian Holm.Broadcast on:BBC Radio 7, 10:00am Friday 6th August 2010Available...
I picked this up after it was referenced in an episode of Archer (Skorpio, if you're curious) a method which has, in the past, introduced me to the wonders of PG Wodehouse- so I trust Adam Reed's taste.I've been on a bit of a plot-heavy reading kick of late and had forgotten just how much I love to ...
I honestly don't know what to say about this. It was engaging and I liked it. I think to get deeper I'd have to write perhaps another thousand or so words. It makes me greatly look forward to more of this author!
Herman Melville was a complex man and writer who got to know fame and fall from grace during his life, but never stopped writing. Bartleby is a very modern work. Like many of his novellas is more focused around one idea and less ambitious that some of his novels (Moby Dick or Pierre are cases in poi...
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