Bartleby, the Scrivener - Herman Melville

Bartleby, the Scrivener

By Herman Melville

  • Release Date: 1998-01-01
  • Genre: Short Stories
4 Score: 4 (From 469 Ratings)

Description

"Bartleby the Scrivener" is one of the first great stories of corporate discontent. The emptiness of modern business life is an important theme. The narrator's initial self-characterization is important to the story. He is a "safe" man, one who takes few risks and tries above all to conform. The most pragmatic concerns of financial security and ease of life are his priorities.

Reviews

  • Bartley the scrivener

    4
    By sammy nonamey
    Ah humanity! What a fun little read. It fairly burbles along.

  • INSPIRATIONAL!!!!!!!!

    5
    By Blue Stream Records
    This book really inspired me to get out of my parents house and instead get some things done!!!!!! Loved when bartleby died lolol

  • Bartleby the Scrivener

    4
    By Carol from Silverton
    Herman Melville brings to life a time in offices before computers and copying machines - when copying was done by clerks or scriveners. Such is Bartleby until the time arrives when Bartleby would "prefer not." The narrator's efforts to persuade Bartleby to prefer to do some work in the office to earn his salary earn our sympathy and our admiration for the narrator's tolerance, but Bartleby's quiet and passive resistance is stronger than entreaties of rationality or force and we see a strange bond develop between them. This is a tale that the reader will remember and the phrase "I would prefer not" may become a part of the reader's vocabulary.

  • A woeful tale indeed!

    5
    By Xonealei
    Each page of this book pressed me to read the next. With a heart-wrenching ending, this book has reflected to my view the inadequacies within myself; chiefly in my treatment of (or avoidance of treating) the Bartlebys in my life.

Comments

More by Herman Melville

  • Moby Dick

    Herman Melville

    4

  • Moby Dick

    Herman Melville

    4

  • Bartleby, the Scrivener

    Herman Melville

    4

  • Moby Dick

    Herman Melville

    4

  • 50 Masterpieces you have to read before you die vol: 2 [newly updated] (Book House Publishing)

    Upton Sinclair, W. Somerset Maugham, Sinclair Lewis, Thomas Mann, Rebecca West, H. G. Wellls, Marcel Proust, James Joyce, Mark Twain, Leo Tolstoy, Oscar Wilde, Rudyard Kipling, H. P. Lovecraft, Rabindranath Tagore, Herman Melville, Jules Verne, Edgar Allan Poe, D. H. Lawrence, Bram Stoker, Sir Walter Scott & Jack London

    4

  • Moby Dick

    Herman Melville

    4.5

  • Billy Budd, foretopman

    Herman Melville

    3.5

  • 50 Masterpieces you have to read before you die vol: 2

    Lewis Carroll, Mark Twain, Jules Verne, Oscar Wilde, Arthur Conan Doyle, Louisa May Alcott, Jane Austen, G. K. Chesterton, Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Alexandre Dumas, F. Scott Fitzgerald, E. M. Forster, Thomas Hardy, Hermann Hesse, James Joyce, Jack London, H.P. Lovecraft, Lucy Maud Montgomery, EDGAR ALLAN POE, Marcel Proust, William Shakespeare, Robert Louis Stevenson, H. G. Wells, Virginia Woolf, Rudyard Kipling, D. H. Lawrence, Thomas Mann, William Somerset Maugham, Herman Melville, George Sand, Mary Shelley, Walter Scott, Leo Tolstoy & Bram Stoker

    4.5

  • 100 Eternal Masterpieces of Literature [volume 2]

    James Joyce, Rudyard Kipling, D. H. Lawrence, Thomas Mann, H. P. Lovecraft, Marcel Proust, Herman Melville, EDGAR ALLAN POE, Bram Stoker, Leo Tolstoy, Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain, Stendhal, Rabindranath Tagore, Jack London, Mary Shelley, George Sand, William Somerset Maugham, Walter Scott, Upton Sinclair, Robert Louis Stevenson, Jonathan Swift & Rebecca West

    4.5

  • The Confidence-Man

    Herman Melville

    3.5

  • 100 Greatest Books

    Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Bram Stoker, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, William Shakespeare, Aldous Huxley, Victor Hugo, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Mark Twain, L.M. Montgomery, A. A. Milne, Alexandre Dumas, Leo Tolstoy, Kurt Vonnegut, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mary Shelley, Elizabeth Gaskell, Anna Sewell, Miguel de Cervantes, Herman Melville, L. Frank Baum, Jack London, Dante Alighieri, Joseph Conrad, Jonathan Swift, Daniel Defoe, H.G. Wells, Franz Kafka, The Brothers Grimm, Lewis Carroll, Louisa May Alcott, John Steinbeck, Emily Bronte, Oscar Wilde, Hermann Hesse & Niccolò Machiavelli

    3

  • Typee

    Herman Melville

    4

  • Moby Dick: or, the White Whale

    Herman Melville

    4

  • Moby Dick

    Herman Melville

    3.5

  • Moby Dick

    Herman Melville

    4

  • Bartleby, the Scrivener

    Herman Melville

    4

  • Billy Budd

    Herman Melville

    4

  • Omoo

    Herman Melville

    4

  • World Greatest Novels: 25 Favorite Classics

    Mark Twain, Leo Tolstoy, Jules Verne, Jack London, Alexandre Dumas, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, Joseph Conrad, Sir Walter Scott, Charlotte Brontë, Louisa May Alcott, Gustave Flaubert, George Eliot, Victor Hugo, Herman Melville, William Somerset Maugham, Oscar Wilde, Jane Austen, Hermann Hesse, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, James Joyce & Emily Brontë

    3.5

  • 50 Classic Books, Vol. 2

    Mark Twain, Thomas Paine, Leo Tolstoy, Lew Wallace, George MacDonald, H.G. Wells, Upton Sinclair, Jack London, Herman Melville & Wilkie Collins

    3.5

  • 200 Greatest Novels of All Time

    F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Austen, Miguel de Cervantes, Aldous Huxley, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Virginia Woolf, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Herman Melville, Ernest Hemingway, Kenneth Grahame, Alexandre Dumas, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Gustave Flaubert, Louisa May Alcott, A. A. Milne, Lewis Carroll, Joseph Conrad, Mary Shelley, Victor Hugo, L.M. Montgomery, Jack London, Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoke, Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Homer, Nikolai Gogol, William Shakespeare, Jules Verne & Ivan Turgenev

    2.5

  • Bartleby, the scrivener: a story of Wall-street

    Herman Melville

    4

  • Moby Dick + FREE Audiobook Included

    Herman Melville

    3

  • White Jacket

    Herman Melville

    4

  • 200 Greatest Books of All Time

    F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Austen, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Virginia Woolf, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Herman Melville, Kenneth Grahame, Александр Дюма, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Gustave Flaubert, Louisa May Alcott, A. A. Milne, Lewis Carroll, Franz Kafka, Joseph Conrad, Mary Shelley, Victor Hugo, L. M. Montgomery, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Jack London, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoke, Daniel Defoe, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Jonathan Swift, Homer, Nikolai Gogol, Jules Verne & Ivan Turgenev

  • The Piazza Tales

    Herman Melville

    3.5

  • Moby Dick

    Herman Melville

    3.5

  • Moby Dick

    Herman Melville

    4

  • The Piazza

    Herman Melville

    3.5

  • Moby Dick

    Herman Melville

    4

  • Redburn. His First Voyage

    Herman Melville

    4

  • 100 Greatest Books Collection

    Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Charlotte Brontë, William Shakespeare, William Golding, Lewis Carroll, Louisa May Alcott, John Steinbeck, Emily Bronte, Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, Victor Hugo, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Charles Dickens, L.M. Montgomery, A. A. Milne, Alexandre Dumas, Leo Tolstoy, Kurt Vonnegut, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mary Shelley, Elizabeth Gaskell, Anna Sewell, Hermann Hesse, Miguel de Cervantes, Herman Melville, Bram Stoker, Lyman Frank Baum, Jack London, Joseph Conrad, Jonathan Swift, Daniel Defoe, Niccolò Machiavelli, H. G. Wells, Franz Kafka, The Brothers Grimm, Kenneth Grahame, Jules Verne, J.M. Barrie, Thomas Hardy, Gustave Flaubert, George Eliot, Virginia Woolf, Theodore Dreiser, Nikolai Gogol, Émile Zola, Wilkie Collins, W. Somerset Maugham, Rudyard Kipling, E. M. Forster, Edith Wharton, Henry Fielding, Robert Louis Stevenson, D. H. Lawrence, James Joyce, Homer, Voltaire, Johanna Spyri, Ivan Turgenev, Samuel Richardson, Honoré de Balzac & William Faulkner

  • Moby Dick

    Herman Melville

    4.5

  • Moby Dick

    Herman Melville

    3.5

  • 50 Masterpieces you have to read before you die

    Alexandre Dumas, Anne Brontë, Bram Stoker, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, Daniel Defoe, Dante Alighieri, D. H. Lawewnce, Edith Wharton, Émile Zola, Emily Brontë, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, George Eliot, Gustave Flaubert, Hans Christian Andersen, The Brothers Grimm, Henry James, Herman Melville, Homer, Honoré de Balzac, Jack London, James Joyce, Jane Austen, Joseph Conrad, Jonathan Swift, Laurence Sterne, Leo Tolstoy, Marcel Proust, Mark Twain, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Nikolai Gogol, Oscar Wilde, Samuel Butler, Stendhal, Victor Hugo, Virginia Woolf & William Makepeace Thackeray

    2.5

  • Typee

    Herman Melville

  • 10 Classic Epics

    Charles Dickens, Lew Wallace, Victor Hugo & Herman Melville

    4

  • Benito Cereno

    Herman Melville

    4

  • 180 Masterpieces You Should Read Before You Die (Vol.1)

    Walt Whitman, George Eliot, Herman Hesse, Kahlil Gibran, Anton Chekhov, Herman Melville, Oscar Wilde, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Marcus Aurelius, Nikolai Gogol, James Joyce, Henry David Thoreau, T. S. Eliot, John Keats, Charles Baudelaire, Walter Scott, Daniel Defoe, Louisa May Alcott, Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë, Anne Brontë, Leo Tolstoy, Victor Hugo, Jules Verne, Lewis Carroll, Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, Agatha Christie, Wallace D. Wattles, James Allen, Sigmund Freud, Miguel de Cervantes, Frederick Douglass, Voltaire, Sun Tzu, Plato, Upton Sinclair, Anthony Trollope, E. M. Forster, Theodore Dreiser, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Henry James, D. H. Lawrence, William Makepeace Thackeray, Marcel Proust, H.G. Wells, Edgar Allan Poe & Ernest Hemingway

  • Moby Dick; Or, The Whale

    Herman Melville

  • Typee

    Herman Melville

    4.5

  • Israel Potter

    Herman Melville

    4.5

  • Pierre; or The Ambiguities

    Herman Melville

  • Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War

    Herman Melville

  • Herman Melville: The Short Story Collection

    Herman Melville

  • Bartleby and Benito Cereno

    Herman Melville

    4.5

  • Mardi: and A Voyage Thither, Vol. I

    Herman Melville

  • Moby-Dick

    Herman Melville, Andrew Delbanco & Tom Quirk

    5

  • Moby Dick

    Arcade Sunshine Media & Herman Melville

    4

  • Moby Dick (Illustrated + FREE audiobook download link)

    Herman Melville

    4.5