Bartleby

赫尔曼·梅尔维尔 / 远子Yunnan People's Publishing House · ChinaSep 2026

Rating 4.2
Word count
33K words
Chapters
10
ISBN
9787222249790

Tags

Foreign Literature Complex HumanityPsychological InsightPower OppressionSocial CritiqueSatirical Style

Summary

[Every nine-to-five worker has a Bartleby within.]

Wall Street, 1853. A pale young man walks into a law office and begins work as a copyist. At first he is the perfect "employee" in his boss's eyes—efficient, silent, good-tempered, tireless. Then one day, faced with endless urging and extra assignments, he says quietly: "I would prefer not to."

Bartleby refuses to proofread, then refuses to work, then refuses to leave, and finally refuses to eat. He is questioned, stared at, taken away—yet he never grows angry, never argues. Through absolute passivity and stillness, Bartleby becomes, inside the system, a black hole that cannot be digested and cannot be ignored.

This is a modern parable dressed as an office novel, a silent and resolute contest between capital and the worker, and a portrait of every weary soul who has never learned to say no.

Editor's review

The weight of Bartleby lies in how it uses a radically spare narrative to pry open an enormous question: when a man calmly says "I would prefer not to," how should the system face him? Melville's copyist begins by refusing to proofread, then step by step refuses to work, refuses to leave, refuses to eat; he is neither angry nor defensive, simply halting in place with absolute passivity. This stillness is not weakness but a mode of existence that the logic of capital can neither digest nor ignore. Yuan Zi's translation makes this 1853 Wall Street story feel far from distant, holding up a mirror to today's office. Its strength is not a convoluted plot but the pressure and aftertaste that silence leaves behind. Suited to reading on the commute or after work: short in length, yet worth pausing over again and again. As you read, notice how each of Bartleby's refusals escalates, and how the narrator's attitude slides from bewilderment to helplessness. This is not a book that offers comfort, but one that makes you reexamine the very act of refusal.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the main text straight through first, then go back and reread each passage where Bartleby says "I would prefer not to," observing how the refusals escalate.
  2. As you read, pay attention to shifts in the narrator's tone and treat him as part of the story rather than a neutral observer.
  3. After finishing, spend ten minutes writing about the most recent time you wanted to say "no" but didn't, and compare it with Bartleby's choice.
  4. If using it for a book club, open with a discussion question such as "Can passivity itself be a form of resistance?"

About the publisher

Yunnan People's Publishing House China · Founded in 1951

Yunnan People's Publishing House is a comprehensive publisher with foreign literature and philosophical works as important publishing directions. Its representative books include Les Misérables (3 volumes), The Republic, Timaeus, Gitanjali, A Ship at Sea, a Horse in the Mountains: Poems of Lorca, On the Motion of the Heart and Blood, The Harmony of the World, and Xinmin Shuo, covering categories such as foreign literature, Western philosophy, literature, popular science, and history. Its author resources include Victor Hugo, Li Yumin, Plato, He Xiangdi, Song Jijie, Tagore, Xiao Xingzheng, and Federico García Lorca, among Chinese and foreign writers and translators. The press is adept at combining classic works with quality translations, balancing academic value and readability; public information on its fuller publishing features and plans is limited.

Contents

  1. 版权信息
  2. 作者简介
  3. 巴托比
  4. 正文一
  5. 正文二
  6. 正文三
  7. 正文四
  8. 正文五
  9. 译后记 巴托比，或沉默
  10. 附录 致霍桑

FAQ

Why does Bartleby refuse again and again? Does the story give a clear reason? The material shows that Bartleby goes from refusing to proofread to refusing to work, refusing to leave, and refusing to eat, always calm and never offering a defense. The story gives no explicit explanation, and it is precisely this refusal to explain that constitutes the work's tension. Readers must face this silent black hole themselves rather than wait for an answer.
Is this classic suitable for readers who haven't read other Melville works? Yes. It is a short work that can be read independently; there is no need to read Moby-Dick or other works first. It wears the guise of workplace fiction, so the barrier to entry is low, yet it leaves plenty of room for thought afterward.
Why is it called "a portrait of every worker's inner self"? The material frames it as a silent, resolute contest between capital and the worker, and as a portrait of weary souls who are not good at refusing. Bartleby's "I would prefer not to" in the face of endless urging and extra assignments readily resonates with people in similar situations—but this is a literary resonance, not an instruction manual.
Will reading this book feel depressing? Possibly. The story turns heavy, Bartleby's refusal ultimately extends to refusing food, and the narrative offers no consolation. If you are emotionally fragile at the moment, you can adjust your reading pace or talk with others about your feelings afterward; there is no need to force yourself to finish it in one sitting.

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About the author

赫尔曼·梅尔维尔 Author

Herman Melville was a nineteenth-century American author best known for the novel Moby-Dick. Because the available records are limited and do not include details such as his nationality or dates of birth and death, no speculation is offered here. This entry includes his work Bartleby, a short story set in a Wall Street law office. It tells of a copyist who gradually refuses all demands of work and life and finally drifts into silence and death. Told in a calm, restrained voice, the story uses an almost absurd persistence to reveal the isolation and predicament of the individual in the modern workplace, and is regarded as a classic American text on alienation and resistance. Melville's writing often concerns the place of human beings before institutions and fate; his concise, symbolic style has had a lasting influence on later fiction.

远子 Author

Yuanzi is an author about whom little public information is available. Three of the author's works are currently held in the collection: Moral Stories, Bartleby, and Daytime Wandering. These titles place the writing in the categories of foreign literature and social fiction, with themes that often revolve around moral predicaments, social reality, and the individual's drifting through everyday life, showing a strong observational awareness and a restrained narrative manner. A certain tension runs between the titles: there is both a gaze fixed on ethical questions and a portrayal of the modern spiritual condition. Because the author's biography, nationality, and writing career cannot be verified, this introduction avoids speculation and presents the work only on the basis of the available titles. For readers interested in contemporary social fiction, Yuanzi's work offers an entry point worth noting, while its specific style and influence await further material and reading to confirm.