بارتلبی اسکریونر

Academics hail it as the beginning of modernism, but to readers around the world—even those daunted by Moby-Dick—Bartleby the Scrivener is simply one of the most absorbing and moving novellas ever. Set in the mid-19th century on New York Citys Wall Street, it was also, perhaps, Herman Melvilles most prescient story: what if a young man caught up in the rat race of commerce finally just said, I would prefer not to?The tale is one of the final works of fiction published by Melville before, slipping into despair over the continuing critical dismissal of his work after Moby-Dick, he abandoned publishing fiction. The work is presented here exactly as it was originally published in Putnams magazine—to, sadly, critical disdain.