Read this when
Bartleby, the Scrivener
'I would prefer not to.' The most iconic burnout reply of all time, from 1853. 📄
Who it's for
Bartleby's quiet refusal gives readers who have hit a wall at work a strangely validating image: a person simply unable to continue, who owes no explanation.
Feelings it meets
What it is
Herman Melville's short story, first serialized in Putnam's Magazine in 1853, is narrated by an unnamed Wall Street lawyer who hires a scrivener named Bartleby. After an initially productive start, Bartleby begins politely declining tasks and becomes increasingly withdrawn, while the narrator alternates between reasoning with him, tolerating him and trying to be rid of him, eventually moving his offices.
Where to find it
Public domain in the US; free on Project Gutenberg and Standard Ebooks (in collections). Widely anthologised; audio versions exist.
Before you start
Heads up: A man stops eating and dies in prison.
Age: Ages 14+
Not hammerstrokes, but dance of the water sings the pebbles into perfection.Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds, no. 126
