Bartleby, The Scrivener - Softcover

Melville, Herman

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1449995403 ISBN 13: 9781449995409

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2009

Synopsis

Herman Melville wrote Bartleby the Scrivener as an emotional response to the fact that his masterpiece Moby-Dick was not selling as well as he had expected. It was first published in the 1850s. Bartleby the Scrivener is now among the most notable of American short stories. It has been considered a precursor of absurdist literature, touching on several of Kafka's themes. The story has been adapted for film three times: in 1970, starring Paul Scofield; in France, in 1976, starring Michel Lonsdale; and in 2001, starring Crispin Glover.

About this title

About the Author:

Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, writer of short stories, and poet from the American Renaissance period. The bulk of his writings was published between 1846 and 1857. Best known for his whaling novel Moby-Dick (1851), he is also legendary for having been forgotten during the last thirty years of his life. Melville's writing is characteristic for its allusivity. "In Melville's manipulation of his reading," scholar Stanley T. Williams wrote, "was a transforming power comparable to Shakespeare's." Born in New York City, he was the third child of a merchant in French dry-goods, with Revolutionary War heroes for grandfathers. Not long after the death of his father in 1832, his schooling stopped abruptly. After having been a schoolteacher for a short time, he signed up for a merchant voyage to Liverpool in 1839. A year and a half into his first whaling voyage, in 1842 he jumped ship in the Marquesas Islands, where he lived among the natives for a month. His first book, Typee (1846) became a huge bestseller which called for a sequel, Omoo (1847). The same year Melville married Elizabeth Knapp Shaw; their four children were all born between 1849 and 1855.

About the Author:

Herman Melville (1819-1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist and poet who is often classified as part of dark romanticism. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick and novella Billy Budd, the latter of which was published posthumously. His first three books gained much attention, the first becoming a bestseller, but after a fast-blooming literary success in the late 1840s, his popularity declined precipitously in the mid-1850s and never recovered during his lifetime. When he died in 1891, he was almost completely forgotten. It was not until the "Melville Revival" in the early 20th century that his work won recognition, most notably Moby-Dick which was hailed as one of the chief literary masterpieces of both American and world literature. He was the first writer to have his works collected and published by the Library of America.

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1449995403
• ISBN 13: 9781449995409
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 76