Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street (short story)

A companion discussion to our upcoming The Burnout Society event.
We’ll discuss Herman Melville’s Bartleby, the Scrivener, a strange and sad story of work, refusal, and withdrawal. Byung-Chul Han later returns to Bartleby in The Burnout Society, dedicating a chapter to “The Case of Bartleby” which makes the story an interesting point of connection between the two discussions.

Expect a similar kind of conversation and atmosphere, but this event stands fully on its own. You’re very welcome to join even if you can’t make the later Burnout Society discussion.

PS: there's a movie adaptation on YouTube if you prefer to watch it.

Book description
Academics hail it as the beginning of modernism, but to readers around the world—even those daunted by Moby-Dick—Bartleby the Scrivener is simply one of the most absorbing and moving novellas ever. Set in the mid-19th century on New York City's Wall Street, it was also, perhaps, Herman Melville's most prescient story: what if a young man caught up in the rat race of commerce finally just said, "I would prefer not to"?

The tale is one of the final works of fiction published by Melville before, slipping into despair over the continuing critical dismissal of his work after Moby-Dick, he abandoned publishing fiction. The work is presented here exactly as it was originally published in Putnam's magazine—to, sadly, critical disdain.
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