Bartleby the Scrivener - Herman Melville

Bartleby the Scrivener - Herman Melville

Bartleby, The Scrivener: Overview

In the 1853 story "Bartleby," Herman Melville anticipates the alienation theme so common to contemporary American writers. He poses the question, "Why would someone prefer the independence of homelessness to the meager security that society offers the homeless?" By asking and not answering this question, he offers a puzzling story, unusually open to interpretation (Goldleaf, 2012).

Generally called simply "Bartleby," the story's full title is significant: "Bartleby, The Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street." At the beginning of the story, the title character is a scrivener, i.e., ...