At the period just preceding the advent of Bartleby, I had two persons as copyists in my employment, and a promising lad as an office-boy. First, Turkey; second, Nippers; third, Ginger Nut. These may seem names, the like of which are not usually found in the Directory. In truth they were nicknames, mutually conferred upon each other by my three clerks, and were deemed expressive of their respective persons or characters.

Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street, also called a masterpiece of short fiction, is a short story by the American writer Herman Melville. It tells about a Wall Street lawyer who hires a new clerk who, after an initial bout of hard work, refuses to make copies or do any other task required of him, refusing with the words "I would prefer not to."

Bartleby ́s work has to do with the handwritten copying of law documents. Bartleby is very good at it, but one day, unexpectedly, he obstinately refuses to go on doing the sort of writing demanded and turns the office upside down with the enigmatic phrase: "I prefer not to."

Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street by Herman Melville The narrator, a casual business elderly lawyer, helps wealthy men deal with mortgages, deeds, and bonds, telling the story of the strangest man he has ever known Bartleby as a new addition to the narrator officer. The narrator has two staff: Nippers and Turkey. The claws suffer from dyspepsia and Turkey is drunk. But the office survived because in the morning Turkey was sane even though the claws were frustrated, and in the afternoon the claws calmed down even though Turkey was drunk. Bartleby answers questions about the ad, and the narrator hires a naive young man in hopes that his calmness will soothe the moods of other writers. One day when Bartleby was asked to proofread one of the papers he had copied, he simply replied, "I don't want to," marks the first of many rejections. To the disappointment of the speaker and the frustration of the other employees, Bartleby was involved in fewer and fewer duties in the office. The narrator tries to reason with Bartleby several times and learns about him. But Bartleby always responds the same way when asked to work or to provide information about himself: "I don't want to." On weekends, when a speaker stops in the office, he finds Bartle. B. lives at the office The stillness of Bartleby's life leaves the narrator at night and Sundays as desolate as a deserted city. He alternates between pity and disgust for Bartleby's bizarre behavior. Bartleby continued to deny his duties until eventually, he was inactive. But the narrator was unable to get him out. The scavenger has bizarre powers over his employer, and the narrator feels he can't do anything to hurt this homeless man. But his business peers become suspicious that Bartleby has turned up at the office as he is not at work, and the threat of a shattered reputation leads the narrator to do something. His attempts to get Bartleby away were in vain. Therefore, the speaker moved the office to a new location. But shortly thereafter, a new tenant of the narrator's old office came to him for help: Bartleby would not leave. When they drove him out of the office, Bartleby haunted the corridors. The narrator meets Bartleby in a final attempt to reason with him. But Bartleby rejected him. Fear of disturbing the anti-Bartleby group, the narrator did not have to work for a few days. When he returned, he learned that Bartleby had been taken to prison. At the prison, Bartleby appears to be fatter than usual. The friendliness of the speaker was rejected. The narrator offers a one-stop bribe to make sure Bartleby gets well fed. But when the narrator returned a few days later, Bartleby died, he didn't like to eat. Shortly after, the narrator heard rumors that Bartleby was working in the dead letter office. The narrator reflected that the dead letter would plunge everyone in Bartleby's mood into a darker darkness. The letters represent our death and the failure of our best intentions. Through Bartleby, the narrator sees the world as the miserable writer must have seen it. The closing words of the story are the narrator resigns and sighs in pain: "Ah Bartlebia, man!"

At the period just preceding the advent of Bartleby, I had two persons as copyists in my employment, and a promising lad as an office-boy. First, Turkey; second, Nippers; third, Ginger Nut. These may seem names, the like of which are not usually found in the Directory. In truth they were nicknames, mutually conferred upon each other by my three clerks, and were deemed expressive of their respective persons or characters.

"Bartleby, the Scrivener" was written by Herman Melville in 1853, two years after Moby Dick had been published and his writing career was beginning to lose its luster. Subtitled, "A Story of Wall Street", the book is a seemingly simple story about a lawyer who hires a gentleman named Bartleby as a scrivener in his office. In those long-ago days before copy machines, scriveners had the tedious job of hand-copying documents, sometimes over and over. Bartleby was good at the copying part of his job, but when asked to proofread aloud one day he simply replied, "I prefer not to." From that moment forward, he used the phrase "I prefer not to" for every task requested of him, eventually "preferring not to" do any work whatsoever. The lawyer, who is astounded by Bartleby's attitude, tells the story in the first person. The story is rich in language and yet spare in actual action. The reader is forced to think, and think seriously about the choices we make daily. Bartleby chose to rebel and become an anti-hero. But the real protagonist of the story is the lawyer, who is drawn into Bartleby's power and grows to admire him. The conclusion is sad, but inevitable. The story of Bartleby is simply about a man losing his will to live. It is intended to show the reader a dark side in all of us when the meaning of our existence is allowed to be challenged. The chilling image of Bartleby in his previous job at the Dead Letter Office, and the fact that Melville left Bartleby's reason for being (or not being) a mystery, all adds to the intrigue of "Bartleby, the Scrivener." First published anonymously Putnam's Monthly Magazine, "Bartleby, the Scrivener" reflects Melville's own pessimism at the time.

Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street" (1853) is a short story by the American writer Herman Melville, first serialized anonymously in two parts in the November and December editions of Putnam's Magazine, and reprinted with minor textual alterations in his The Piazza Tales in 1856. Numerous essays are published on what according to scholar Robert Milder "is unquestionably the masterpiece of the short fiction" in the Melville canon. The writing career of Herman Melville (1819 - 1891) peaked early, with his early novels, such as Typee becoming best sellers. By the mid-1850s his poularity declined sharply, and by the time he died he had been largely forgotten. Yet in time his novel Moby Dick came to be regarded as one of the finest works of American, and indeed world, literature, as was Billy Budd, which was not published until long after his death, in 1924.This version is a desktop production of 39 photocopied computer printed pages. Quite flimsy. While other editions are actual 'paperbacks' as I identify them; they're all going for less. Some, as 'Like New' are going for $.01 in Amazon Marketplace Or new from Amazon for $4.00. Moral of m'story: Amazon has all kinds of great books, movies seemingly most everything else. At all prices. These days, frugality's for everyone except the top 4%. Good idea to check buying choices. I just spent $6 more than I could've/should've/would've spent. As for this fine book itself: Too many Great Writers are ignored because they were first read centuries ago. Melville, Dickens, Mann and many more are out there waiting for us all. Not to mention European authors like Tolstoy, Gogol, Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Pushkin... and more incredible, readable and enjoyable Masters. I've trolled Asian authors too and found great reads. All, at Amazon of course.So getting worldly in your reading's right for our millennium and your matter too. Read for not only what's said but how it's said. Those past masters have styles, diction and - for the Masters - brilliant, edifying and entertaining concepts and insights still fitting for today. SO SIX STARS for Bartleby's story and one star for this flimsy edition. Nice cover art, thoug.The five (5) most effective words in the English Language are: "I would prefer not to." In the days before slow down strikes, job actions, featherbedding, etc. Bartleby had it pegged. Show up for work. Do a bit of good work (softening up the employer so to speak), and then proceed to wear said employer down while getting paid, having a rudimentary roof over one's head, etc. It is akin to a sort of nonworking workfare state. Bartleby reminds one of the legendary "George Costanza" who even had a desk customized so that he could avoid work and still be present. I had not read "Bartleby" in at least forty years and in reading it all these decades later, one can appreciate the clear-headed genius of Melville. One even picks up on the mention of "red tape" which is used to [compress] "some papers." And we know that a reference to red tape today infers a situation in which something is tied up in paperwork and bound not to progress. The world of the daily worker has not come very far from Bartleby's world and there are many of us who have been, are and will be Bartlebys. Most of our lives are spent in a condition of wanting to say, "I would prefer not to." To paraphrase Thoreau, the mass of men lead onerous lives.Avendo da sempre molto apprezzato questo racconto di Melville (che consiglio), ho deciso di acquistarlo come regalo per un amico, tuttavia una volta arrivato mi aspettavo qualcosa di più: la qualità è quella di un ebook stampato con una copertina flessibile.das zufallslayout ist eine absolute zumutung. das hat ein betrunkener, der sich noch dazu überhaupt nicht im benutzten programm auskannte (nehme an wohl wörd) layoutiert, per zufall dann noch ein paar bilder hineingeworfen.