Bartleby, The Scrivener

Bartleby, the Scrivener is a short story by Herman Melville, first published in 1853.

An anonymous Wall Street lawyer narrates how growing business leads him to hire a new copyist for his bustling office.

At first, the newcomer works quietly and efficiently. Then, when asked to verify documents or take on additional duties, he replies with a calm refusal—“I would prefer not to.” What begins as an eccentricity becomes a steady challenge to routine, exposing the limits of office authority and habit.

Soon the lawyer suspects the clerk actually lives in the office, yet every attempt at conversation, charity, or dismissal meets the same immovable politeness. This unnerving standoff reveals the power of passive resistance and tests the narrator’s conscience.

As complaints mount, the lawyer resorts to relocating his practice to avoid the problem, only to find the situation persists. Melville transforms a workplace anecdote into a study of modern alienation, moral responsibility, and bureaucratic absurdity.

"I am a rather elderly man. The nature of my avocations for the last thirty years has brought me into more than ordinary contact with what would seem an interesting and somewhat singular set of men, of whom as yet nothing that I know of has ever been written:—I mean the law-copyists or scriveners."