Bartleby, the Scrivener

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"Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street" is a short story by Herman Melville. The story first appeared, anonymously, in Putnam's Magazine in two parts. The first part appeared in November 1853, with the conclusion published in December 1853. It was reprinted in Melville's The Piazza Tales in 1856 with minor textual alterations. The work is said to have been inspired, in part, by Melville's reading of Emerson, and some have pointed to specific parallels to Emerson's essay, "The Transcendentalist." The story has been adapted twice: once in 1970, starring Paul Scofield, and again in 2001, starring Crispin Glover.

Plot summary

The narrator of the story is a lawyer with offices on Wall Street in New York City. He does "a snug business among rich men's bonds and mortgages and title-deeds," and describes himself as a prudent, methodical "man of assumptions". He has three employees: "First, Turkey; second, Nippers; third, Ginger Nut," each of whom is described at some length. Turkey and Nippers are copyists or scriveners while Ginger Nut, a boy of twelve, does odd jobs. Turkey, an old Englishman, is a model of efficiency in the morning, but becomes insolent and sloppy after his lunchtime beer; on the other hand, Nippers, an ambitious young man, is restless and irritable in the morning, but works well in the afternoon. The narrator notes these eccentricities, but excuses them. When his business increases, he decides to hire a third scrivener, and Bartleby responds to his advertisement and arrives at the office, "pallidly neat, pitiably respectable, incurably forlorn!"

At first Bartleby copies diligently, but declines to perform other duties, telling his perplexed boss "I would prefer not to" when asked, for example, to help the other scriveners proofread a document. Later, he stops working altogether, repeating only "I would prefer not to" when pressed for an explanation. (Although many people err in the wording here, it should be noted that Bartleby never actually refuses; he just states he would prefer not to. At one point, when his boss declares angrily "You will not?" he gently replies "I prefer not.")

The narrator, torn between pity and exasperation, also discovers that Bartleby apparently has no home or friends, and lives in the office. Reluctant to dismiss the man, but nettled by what he perceives as his "pallid haughtiness", he tries to persuade him to resume work, or to at least explain himself. Bartleby, however, only repeats his mantra, and the narrator eventually fires him. Bartleby, however, continues to haunt the premises, causing the lawyer considerable embarrassment. Unwilling to have him arrested, the narrator finally moves his offices to escape his presence.

The new tenants, however, soon track him down to complain of the strange man he left behind. Although he protests that Bartleby is nothing to him, he agrees to go speak with him. During the interview, he tries once more to help the young man, even inviting him to be a guest in his own home. Bartleby, however, replies "No: at present, I prefer not to make any change at all." He will not even accept money from the narrator. The new tenants have Bartleby arrested for vagrancy, and he is sent to The Tombs.

When the narrator visits Bartleby, Bartleby tells him "I know you--and I want nothing to say to you." Nevertheless, he tries to cheer him, and gives the "grub man" a sum of money to provide him with better meals. However, Bartleby "prefers not" to eat, and slowly starves, finally expiring just prior to another visit from the narrator. At the end, the lawyer speculates that Bartleby's rumored previous career in the dead letter office in Washington, D.C., which was sad and depressing, drove him to his bizarre behavior, such as the death of Bartleby. The story's last words are, 'Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity!'

Influence

"Bartleby the Scrivener" is among the most famous of American short stories. It has been considered a precursor to existentialist and absurdist literature although the story was not very popular at the time it was published. "Bartleby" touches on many of the themes extant in the work of Franz Kafka, particularly in The Trial and "A Hunger Artist." However, there exists nothing to indicate that the German-language writer was at all familiar with Melville, who was largely forgotten until after Kafka's death.

Albert Camus cites Melville (explicitly over Kafka) as one of his key influences in a personal letter to Liselotte Dieckmann which was published in the French Review in 1998.

Spanish writer Enrique Vila-Matas wrote the award-winning novel entitled "Bartleby & Co." that creates a catalogue of the many "bartlebys" in literature: writers who gave up writing, the "Literature of No", writers who sought denial, such as the character created by Melville.