Bartleby the Scrivener (Audio)

“Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street” is a short story by Herman Melville. The story first appeared, anonymously, in Putnam’s Magazine in two parts. The first part appeared in November 1853, with the conclusion published in December 1853.

Various philosophical influences can be found in "Bartleby the Scrivener".

There are various analogues between Bartleby and lepers of ancient times.

Though no great success at the time of publication, "Bartleby the Scrivener" is now among the most noted of American short stories.

The story has been adapted for film three times: in 1970, starring Paul Scofield; in France, in 1976, by Maurice Ronet, starring Michel Lonsdale; and in 2001, Bartleby starring Crispin Glover.
Bartleby is a kind of clerk, a copyist, "who obstinately refuses to go on doing the sort of writing demanded of him." During the spring of 1851, Melville felt similarly about his work on Moby Dick. Thus, Bartleby can be seen to represent Melville’s frustration with his own situation as a writer, and the story itself is “about a writer that forsakes conventional modes because of an irresistible preoccupation with the most baffling philosophical questions.”