Bartleby, the Scrivener

"Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street"
Short story by Herman Melville
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre(s)Short story
Publication
Published inPutnam's Magazine
Publication typePeriodical
Publication dateNovember–December 1853
Pages45

"Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street" is a short story by the American writer Herman Melville, first serialized anonymously in two parts in the November and December 1853 issues of Putnam's Magazine and reprinted with minor textual alterations in his The Piazza Tales in 1856. In the story, a Wall Street lawyer hires a new clerk who, after an initial bout of hard work, refuses to make copies or do any other task required of him, responding to any request with the words "I would prefer not to."

The story likely takes place between 1848 and 1853, during the Antebellum Period in American history.

Numerous critical essays have been published about the story, which scholar Robert Milder describes as "unquestionably the masterpiece of the short fiction" in the Melville canon.[1]

  1. ^ Milder, Robert. (1988). "Herman Melville." Emory Elliott (General Editor), Columbia Literary History of the United States. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-05812-8, p. 439