Bartleby, the Scrivener A Story of W..., Herman Melville
Bartleby, the Scrivener A Story of W..., Herman Melville
28 Rating(s)
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Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street

Author: Herman Melville

Narrator: Evan Schmitt

Unabridged: 1 hr 38 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/01/2025

Categories: Fiction, Classic, Humorous

Synopsis

In the shadowy chambers of a Wall Street law office, a quiet copyist named Bartleby enters the scene—and refuses to leave. Hired for his precision and calm demeanor, Bartleby soon begins replying to every request with the haunting refrain: "I would prefer not to."As his passive resistance deepens into total withdrawal, the lawyer who employs him becomes increasingly baffled, then obsessed. Melville’s classic novella is both darkly comic and deeply unsettling—a prescient meditation on alienation, mental health, and the silent revolt against the machinery of modern life.Cover Photo by ShonEjai: https://www.pexels.com/photo/brown-brick-wall-1227515/

About Herman Melville

Herman Melville (1819–1891) was an American novelist, short-story writer, essayist, and poet who is often classified as part of dark romanticism. He is best known for his novel Moby Dick and novella Billy Budd, the latter which was published posthumously. His first three books gained much attention, the first becoming a bestseller, but after a fast-blooming literary success in the late 1840s, his popularity declined precipitously in the mid-1850s and never recovered during his lifetime. When he died, he was almost completely forgotten. It was not until the "Melville Revival" in the early twentieth century that his work won recognition, most notably Moby Dick, which was hailed as one of the chief literary masterpieces of both American and world literature.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Bill on November 02, 2020

What a pleasure it is to return to a work of genius and find it inexhaustible! What a host of insights, what a web of subtleties, are contained within this short account of the breakdown of one man in a five man office! I think of Melville the sailor, accustomed to wide sea vistas and many sea duties......more

Goodreads review by Riku on March 20, 2013

Ah, Bartleby. Ah, Humanity. At first, as I tried to contain my surprise that Melville, who awed me in Moby Dick, was now writing with such humour and lightness, I felt that Bartleby was a Heroic figure, someone to be admired and emulated - and a welcome break from the complicated characters of the do......more

Goodreads review by فايز غازي on August 17, 2023

- لا ادري اذا كان يصح اطلاق تسمية "الأثر المفتوح" على هذه القصة او الرواية القصيرة، فهي مبنية على الإحتمالات والتأويلات الذاتية لكل قارئ، على الأسئلة التي تطرح نفسها مع كل بداية مقطع، على الإفتراضات او الفرضيات التي نضعها لنكتشف لاحقاً خطوطاً متوازية اكثر وفرضيات واحتمالات بالجملة... لذلك "اظن" ان ا......more

Goodreads review by Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ on October 23, 2019

This classic 1853 Herman Melville novella is absurd and bleak, darkly humorous and heart-wrenching at the same time. It's the first time I've read it since a college English course years ago, when I didn’t much care for it. I appreciated it much more this time around. Bartleby is a scrivener - essent......more

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