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No one ever said Melville was a great writer. No wait, yes they did. However I prefer not to say that. This book shows me, a lover of old literature, that not all old books are good. I read this first while in high school in the early 80s, and I liked it. Perhaps because I could overlay whatever analysis I wanted on the one dimensional characters and zero dimensional plot. Reading it again today, I find it verbose and meaningless. And not meaningless in a philosophically waxing way. I certainly don't see the comparisons in content or craft to Camus or Kafka.

I absolutely adore Herman Melville and Bartleby.

A brilliant story focusing on the inner workings of man (both Narrator and Bartleby).

Ich finde die Geschichte hat ein paar Pluspunkte
1. Eine schöne gehobene Sprache
2 Bunte großsseitige Illustrationen
3 eine einfach Story mit nachvollziehbaren Eckpunkten

Sie hat auch ein paar Schattenseiten
1. Sie ist sehr nah am dahmaligen Leben, es kann also sein, dass sie einen aufwühlt und mit offenen Fragen stehen lässt
2. Die Illustrationen haben riesige ablenkende Nasen, für mich persönlich ist das befremdlich
dark funny mysterious reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Loved Bartleby. Found Benito Cereno good but hard to get my head around.

You know that thing where a serious action star will take on a role as the male lead in a romcom and then he absolutely kills it and you’re sitting there, watching, thinking to yourself “why doesn’t he always do this?” That’s how I felt reading this. It’s such a charmingly funny story, and Melville writes it so well it makes you question why this wasn’t his default state. It’s a simple premise: Bartleby is hired, Bartleby prefers not to do his job, and Bartleby carries on (much to everyone else’s confusion). However, in Melville’s hands, it’s transformed into something far more complex. 

I’d recommend this to fans of modern writing and satires. 

This novella by Herman Melville is often hailed as a breakthrough work prefiguring a modern future where those caught up in endless desk work under glaring fluorescents would finally become disgruntled and revolt against the frivolity of such a life. In reality, it reads more like the bizarre account of a loony clerk who seems to be dying or a ennui depression.

Bartleby showed up at the scrivener’s office one day and proved to be an able clerk with a penchant for working such long hours that he was at it before everyone else arrived and stayed until everyone else had returned home. But he refuses to help with any other task. And, as it turns out, he’s living in the office. So what can a kind boss and landlord do when the most their most productive employee suddenly stops working and stands staring out the window for weeks at a time?

Thus goes the somewhat comic tragedy of Bartleby, the man who politely declines all efforts to engage him, divert him, employ him, or remove him. The narrator is just about the kindest and most long suffering man anyone could hope to be, to a comic fault at times. But what is it about the odd Bartleby that has such a creeping effect on those around him? He is wholly inoffensive but refuses to acquiesce to the most basic requests? It seems to be an early study in depression, set in an energetic world where the concept of person discontentment or emotional and psychological malaise might be wholly foreign.

Haled as a somehow important work, I find it funny and interesting but more insightful than pivotal to literature.

After reading Moby Dick, I was assigned to read this for a class. There is a stark contrast in the way that Melville describes life on the sea vs life in the office. I think the story is ultimately about how an unfitting job can kill the soul in a person. Bartleby continues to "prefer" to do less and less work until he is doing nothing. The narrator who employs him is very relatable and the phases of how he feels towards Bartleby were very similar to what I felt through the course of the story. The rest of the characters are just archetypical people you may find in a workplace, i.e. the irritable ambitious worker, the content worker, and the young and vivacious worker. I think this was an interesting short piece and it made me think about what I want from a job.
reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes