“Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street” was published in 1853 in Putnam’s magazine. It is a story very much in line with the critique of American exceptionalism and explorations of failed communication that Melville became known for with Moby-Dick and Billy Budd. One interpretation of “Bartleby, the Scrivener” is that it is a story of the impossibility of human connection within the confines of U.S. capitalism.
When Putnam’s magazine initially asked Melville to contribute a story, he had an entirely different story in mind. That story was about Agatha, a young wife whose husband left to find work and was gone for seventeen years. In that story, the mailbox was an important...
