Classic Novella BookClub: Bartleby the Scrivener

Join us at our al fresco book club this summer and explore graphic novels and classic novellas. Sign up at the Reading Room in advance and pick up your free book, then return to discuss with like-minded fans and hosts.

Hosted by Chasity Moreno, Librarian, New York Public Library, and Miriam Tuliao, Penguin Random House:
"Academics hail it as the beginning of modernism, but to readers around the world—even those daunted by Moby-Dick—Bartleby the Scrivener is 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"? The 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 Moby-Dick, he abandoned publishing fiction. The work is presented here exactly as it was originally published in Putnam's magazine—to, sadly, critical disdain."

Produced in partnership with Penguin Random House, Melville House Publishing, and DC Comics.