Herman Melville

Bartleby, The Scrivener Herman Melville

Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street is the short story by the American author, Herman Melville. Published in 1853 it was originally serialized in Putnam's Magazine. The story follows a fictional lawyer as he hires a scrivener to copy legal documents. The scrivener is a great employee at first but soon things turn. In a phrase that has become famous the Scrivener soon refuses work with a a simple "I would prefer not to." The story has been praised as, "unquestionably the masterpiece of the short fiction." Odin's Library Classics is dedicated to bringing the world the best of humankind's literature from throughout the ages. Carefully selected, each work is unabridged from classic works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or drama.