Audiobook · read by volunteers
Bartleby the Scrivener, A Story of Wall Street.
Herman Melville (1819–1891)
Read by Bob Tassinari · 4 chapters · 1 h 30
About the book
A narrator who runs a Wall Street law office takes on a new copyist, a pale, quiet young man named Bartleby. At first the newcomer works with remarkable diligence. Then, one day, when asked to do a simple task, he calmly declines, and from that moment he refuses one thing after another, with polite and unshakable calm. His employer, baffled, sympathetic and increasingly desperate, tries reasoning, kindness and bargaining, but nothing moves his strange clerk. Herman Melville’s story is a haunting study of isolation and the limits of understanding, told with a dry humour that makes its sadness all the sharper. It is also a portrait of the commercial world of nineteenth-century New York. Bob Tassinari reads the story in four parts, for a total of about an hour and a half. Short, enigmatic and unforgettable, it is a perfect introduction to Melville.
Introduction
Herman Melville was born in 1819 and died in 1891. He worked as a sailor and a whaler before turning to writing, and his early sea adventures were well received. His great novel Moby-Dick, published in 1851, was largely misunderstood in his lifetime, and he spent his later years in relative obscurity, working as a customs inspector. His reputation grew steadily after his death.
Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street first appeared anonymously in Putnam’s Magazine in two parts. The first part came out in November 1853, with the conclusion following in December. It was later reprinted in a collection of Melville’s stories, The Piazza Tales, in 1856. The story belongs to a period in which the author was exploring shorter forms and less overtly adventurous subjects.
Over the years, readers have interpreted Bartleby in many ways. Some see him as a figure of passive resistance, others as a portrait of depression or alienation, and others as a critique of the dehumanising nature of office work. The narrator, whose good intentions are tested by a situation he cannot control, has also been the subject of much discussion. The story does not settle these questions, and part of its power comes from that openness.
The recording has four parts and lasts about an hour and a half. It is read by LibriVox volunteer Bob Tassinari. It is ideal for anyone who wants a short, strange and thought-provoking classic of American literature, and it rewards a second hearing.
Public domain
Herman Melville died in 1891: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text