In this timeless classic of quiet rebellion and modern alienation, Herman Melville explores what happens when one man simply stops playing by the rules.
Set in the bustling legal world of 19th-century Wall Street, the story follows an unassuming lawyer who hires a new copyist, Bartleby—a man of few words and one unforgettable phrase: “I would prefer not to.”
At first efficient and precise, Bartleby’s sudden refusal to work bewilders his employer and colleagues. As his passive resistance deepens into complete withdrawal from life itself, the narrator’s attempts to help turn into an unsettling reflection on compassion, control, and the emptiness of modern existence.
Both darkly comic and deeply tragic, Bartleby, the Scrivener remains one of literature’s most haunting portraits of isolation and silent protest. In an age of burnout, bureaucracy, and quiet quitting, Bartleby’s defiance feels eerily familiar—making this 19th-century masterpiece more relevant than ever.
