{"product_id":"bartleby-the-scrivener-isbn-9780974607801","title":"Bartleby the Scrivener","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"I prefer not to,\" he respectfully and slowly said, and mildly disappeared.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAcademics hail it as the beginning of modernism, but to readers around the world—even those daunted by \u003ci\u003eMoby-Dick\u003c\/i\u003e—\u003ci\u003eBartleby the Scrivener \u003c\/i\u003eis  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\"?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe  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 \u003ci\u003eMoby-Dick\u003c\/i\u003e, he abandoned publishing fiction. The work  is presented here exactly as it was originally published in \u003ci\u003ePutnam\u003c\/i\u003e's  magazine—to, sadly, critical disdain.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Art of The Novella Series\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/b\u003eToo short to be a novel, too long to be a short story, the novella is generally unrecognized by academics and publishers. Nonetheless, it is a form beloved and practiced by literature's greatest writers. In the Art of the Novella series, Melville House celebrates this renegade art form and its practitioners with titles that are, in many instances, presented in book form for the first time.\"I’ve always been haunted by Bartleby, the proto-slacker. But it’s  the handsomely minimalist cover of the Melville House edition that gets  me here, one of many in the small publisher’s fine 'Art of the Novella'  series.\"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cu\u003ePraise for the Art of the Novella Series\u003c\/u\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"I wanted them all, even those I'd already read.\" \u003cb\u003e—Ron Rosenbaum, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Observer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Small wonders.\"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eTime Out London\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e\"\u003c\/i\u003e[F]irst-rate…astutely selected and attractively packaged…indisputably great works.\"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e—Adam Begley, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Observer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"The Art of the Novella series is sort of an anti-Kindle. What these singular, distinctive titles celebrate is book-ness. They're slim enough to be portable but showy enough to be conspicuously consumed—tiny little objects that demand to be loved for the commodities they are.\"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e—KQED (NPR San Francisco)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Some like it short, and if you're one of them, Melville House, an independent publisher based in Brooklyn, has a line of books for you... elegant-looking paperback editions ...a good read in a small package.\"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eHerman Melville\u003c\/b\u003e was born in New York City in 1819. At eighteen he set  sail on a whaler, and upon his return, wrote a series of bestselling  adventure novels based on his travels, including \u003ci\u003eTypee\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eOmoo\u003c\/i\u003e, which made him famous. Starting with \u003ci\u003eMoby-Dick\u003c\/i\u003e in 1851, however, his increasingly complex and challenging work drew  more and more negative criticism, until 1857 when, after his collection \u003ci\u003ePiazza Tales\u003c\/i\u003e (which included \u003ci\u003eBartleby the Scrivener\u003c\/i\u003e), and the novel \u003ci\u003eThe Confidence Man\u003c\/i\u003e,  Melville stopped publishing fiction. He drifted into obscurity, writing  poetry and working for the Customs House in New York City, until his  death in 1891.","brand":"Melville House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46305537786085,"sku":"NP9780974607801","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780974607801.jpg?v=1767722175","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/bartleby-the-scrivener-isbn-9780974607801","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}