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Bartleby The Scrivener By Herman Melville

Bartleby The Scrivener By Herman Melville

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“Bartleby the Scrivener” is a short story written by Herman Melville in 1853, after his at the time failure of a novel, “Moby Dick”. This short story is about Bartleby, a copyist, who is newly employed by a lawyer, the narrator. Bartleby seems to be respectable and well-suited for his new job, as he gets a lot of work down the first few days. But, soon after, he starts to tell the lawyer “I prefer not to” to everything he is asked to do. Normally, if an employer had to deal with this behavior, the employee would get fired. However, the lawyer never dealt with this type of defiant behavior, and he is confused but also intrigued by it, so he’s not sure how to deal with it. The lawyer tries to kick Bartleby out, but he doesn’t comply. He even

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