Bartleby the Scrivener

by Herman Melville Narrated by Eric Meyers, Ghizela Rowe

Overview

Herman Melville was born in New York City on 1st August 1819.

At the age of 7 Melville contracted scarlet fever which permanently diminished his eyesight. Add this to a contemporary description of being "very backwards in speech and somewhat slow in comprehension" and his opportunities for success seemed limited.

His father died when he was 12 leaving the family in very straitened times. 2 years later Melville took a job in a bank and followed up with a failed stint as a surveyor. He went to sea and travelled across to Liverpool and then to the Pacific on adventures which included a mutiny, being jailed and falling in love with a South Pacific beauty. He was also a figure of opposition to the coercion of native Hawaiians to the Christian religion. These experiences helped provide the novels `Typee', `Omoo', and `White-Jacket'.

By 1851 his ambitious masterpiece, `Moby Dick', was ready to be published. It never sold out its initial print run of 3,000 and Melville's earnings on his masterpiece was a mere $556.37.

In succeeding years his reputation waned, life was increasingly difficult. His family was growing and a stable income was essential. Melville took the advice of friends to try public lecturing, as others had, to increase his revenues. He embarked on three successful lecture tours, speaking on Roman statuary and sightseeing in Rome.

In 1876 he was at last able to publish privately his 16,000 line epic poem `Clarel'. It was to no avail. The book had an initial printing of 350 copies, but sales failed miserably.

It was only in late 1885 that Melville was at last able to retire after his wife inherited several legacies, enough to provide them with a reasonable income.

Herman Melville, novelist, poet, short story writer and essayist, died at his home on 28th September 1891 from cardiovascular disease.

Perhaps his best known short story is `Bartleby, the Scrivener' an enduring story of a Wall Street lawyer and his very particular assistant.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"I’ve always been haunted by Bartleby, the proto-slacker. But it’s the handsomely minimalist cover of the Melville House edition that gets me here, one of many in the small publisher’s fine 'Art of the Novella' series."
—The New Yorker

Praise for the Art of the Novella Series

 "I wanted them all, even those I'd already read." —Ron Rosenbaum, The New York Observer

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—Time Out London

"[F]irst-rate…astutely selected and attractively packaged…indisputably great works."
—Adam Begley, The New York Observer

"The Art of the Novella series is sort of an anti-Kindle. What these singular, distinctive titles celebrate is book-ness. They're slim enough to be portable but showy enough to be conspicuously consumed—tiny little objects that demand to be loved for the commodities they are."
—KQED (NPR San Francisco)

"Some like it short, and if you're one of them, Melville House, an independent publisher based in Brooklyn, has a line of books for you... elegant-looking paperback editions ...a good read in a small package."
—The Wall Street Journal

Product Details

BN ID:	2940176086935
Publisher:	The Copyright Group
Publication date:	02/16/2021
Edition description:	Unabridged

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