Bartleby, The Scrivener

Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, The Scrivener” is a haunting classic of American literature that explores isolation, work, obedience, and quiet resistance in the modern office world. Set in a Wall Street law office, the story follows a reserved copyist whose repeated phrase, “I would prefer not to,” unsettles his employer and transforms an ordinary workplace into a strange moral and psychological puzzle.