Bartleby, The Scrivener

Bartleby´s work has to do with the handwritten copying of law documents. Bartleby is very good at it, but one day, unexpectedly, he obstinately refuses to go on doing the sort of writing demanded and turns the office upside down with the enigmatic phrase: "I prefer not to."

The writing career of Herman Melville peaked early, with novels, such as "Typee", "Omoo", "Redburn" becoming best sellers. By the mid-1850s his poularity declined sharply, and by the time he died he had been largely forgotten. Yet in time his novel Moby Dick came to be regarded as one of the finest works of American, and indeed world, literature, as was Billy Budd, which was not published until long after his death, in 1924.