Bartleby, the Scrivener
A Story of Wall-Street
Herman Melville 1853
A lawyer narrates this short story about a Wall Street copyist who begins refusing his assigned work. Bartleby's quiet reply, "I would prefer not to," leaves his employer unsure how to respond.
54 pages 1h 3m reading time
- One of the most famous short stories in American literature, and a key early work about modern office life.
- Imagines how a single person's calm, polite refusal can shake the people and routines around him, raising questions about free will and what we owe to others.
- Shows the loneliness of dull, repetitive work in a busy city, where a person can sit beside others every day and still be completely alone.
- Its line "I would prefer not to" has become a well-known phrase for quiet refusal, and thinkers and political activists have used Bartleby as a symbol of passive resistance.
- It has inspired many later writers and artists, and Franz Kafka and Albert Camus are often seen as working in the same tradition of strange, absurd stories about lonely people.
Written after a famous flop
Melville turned to magazine stories after Moby-Dick and his next novel sold poorly and drew harsh reviews.
Printed without his name
It first appeared unsigned, split into two parts, in Putnam's Monthly Magazine, a New York magazine.
Possible real-life sources
Scholars link it to a newspaper preview of a novel about a lawyer hiring a new copyist.
Forgotten, then rediscovered
It was mostly ignored for decades, until readers and scholars rediscovered Melville's work in the 1920s.