Book Excerpt of the Week: Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville

In homage to the on-going occupation of Wall Street, this week's book excerpt is Herman Melville's masterful novella, Bartleby the Scrivener. It's the tale of an ex-postal worker whom the narrator, an elder lawyer, has recently taken on as a scrivener in his firm. Bartleby is a common, yet uncommon fellow. He is a beaten man, who, when called upon to perform certain duties of his new profession, quietly discovers his own mantra: I would prefer not to. Confronted with this response, the narrator is nonplussed. So embedded in his own world, he is clueless to the plight of the "everyman". By turns funny and sad, Melville's novella proved prescient at the time of publication and remains so today. Here is just a short snippet but I recommend reading the entire piece, You can download the Kindle version for free here: Bartleby, the Scrivener A Story of Wall-Street