Customer Reviews

Bartleby the Scrivener

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Talk about existentialism! Is there an earlier character who was placed on this earth with no rules by which to live? He is the 1850 Mersault, who, instead of killing an Arab on a Moroccan beach, kills himself because of his lack of a place in the universe. He is like the stray cat who adopts a person for no obvious reason. Bartleby doesn't connnect on a personal level, but bonds on the level of need, comfort and habit. I find Bartleby a most compelling character, and the narrator a true enigma. I have studied this story for years, focusing mostly on Bartleby, and I have been meaning to turn my attention to the narrator, but I just haven't gotten there yet. Maybe I never will.

Bartleby's is a negation of the whole of modern, civilized life and the strains and expectations it places on working people. Bartleby, for reasons many of us can share, refuses the whole set-up of his social existence, without though marking a new path or any positive vision of how he and we might live together. Consequently, he ends up destitute and lonely, but true to his stubborn resistance. I think of him often when I see hard-headed five-year olds and how right they so often are in their druthers.

The title character's desent into depression made visual with the words:"I prefer not to,"echoed in my soul during a period of depression in my own life.I could not believe that a fictional person's words could affect me so,but they did.I soon,also, preferred not to.It was as if the words reflected how I felt perfectly.Heavy stuff for sure.Only through the grace of God did I pull through.This is a very powerful story.

Review the book? "I'd rather not."

To understand that comment, you must understand Bartleby. It is a very interesting, and humorous, story. I read it for an English class, and I enjoyed it. Imagine that?!?