Bartleby the Scrivener

Resumen del libro

Academics hail it as the beginning of modernism, but to readers around the world--even those daunted by "Moby-Dick"--"Bartleby the Scrivener "is simply one of the most absorbing and moving novellas ever. Set in the mid-19th century on New York City's Wall Street, it was also, perhaps, Herman Melville's most prescient story: what if a young man caught up in the rat race of commerce finally just said, "I would prefer not to"?
The tale is one of the final works of fiction published by Melville before, slipping into despair over the continuing critical dismissal of his work after "Moby-Dick," he abandoned publishing fiction. The work is presented here exactly as it was originally published in Putnam's magazine--to, sadly, critical disdain.
The Art of The Novella Series
Too short to be a novel, too long to be a short story, the novella is generally unrecognized by academics and publishers. Nonetheless, it is a form beloved and practiced by literature's greatest writers. In the Art Of The Novella series, Melville House celebrates this renegade art form and its practitioners with titles that are, in many instances, presented in book form for the first time.



Contributor Bio: Melville, Herman
Herman Melville (1819-1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet who received wide acclaim for his earliest novels, such as "Typee" and "Redburn", but fell into relative obscurity by the end of his life. Today, Melville is hailed as one of the definitive masters of world literature for novels including "Moby Dick" and "Billy Budd", as well as for enduringly popular short stories such as "Bartleby", "the Scrivener" and "The Bell-Tower".

Biografía del autor

HERMAN MELVILLE (1819-1891) nació en Nueva York, hijo de un próspero importador que moriría completamente arruinado en 1832. Tras la muerte de su padre, trabajó en un banco y en una escuela, y embarcó como grumete en un viaje a Liverpool antes de hacerse a la mar en1841 en el ballenero Acushnet, rumbo a los mares del Sur, embarcación que abandonaría un año más tarde en las islas Marquesas. Después de numerosas aventuras en Tahití y Honolulú, regresa en 1844 a su hogar, donde inicia la redacción de sus primeros textos narrativos, ambientados en sus experiencias marítimas: Taipi (1846); Omoo (1847); Mardi (1849); Redburn (1849) y White Jacket (1850) apuntan algunos de los temas y obsesiones que serán llevados a elevadas cotas literarias en sus obras más importantes y celebradas, como Moby Dick (1851); Pierre o las ambigux{0026} x00308;edade s (1852); Benito Cereno (1856); Bartleby el escribiente (1856) o Billy Budd (publicado póstumamente en 1924).