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I read this rather odd little piece on two accounts. Firstly, a number of my goodreads friends seem to have read it recently, so I've seen it mentioned here. Secondly, it's a tale that appears to have obsessed one of my favourite writers, Georges Perec.

In essence, Bartleby is taken on as a lawyer's clerk to write up legal documents. At first, he works hard at this task but when asked to perform another simple duty, he responds with what will become his signature words, 'I would prefer not to'. After some weeks, writing up legal documents turns out to be something else he'd prefer not to do. He just stands and stares through a window that faces on to another wall...

This was a droll and entertaining read. I suspect it was a very modern book at the time it was written. The pompous narrative voice of the lawyer who employs Bartleby as a 'scrivener' is highly amusing, a man who always prefers a double negative to clarity. Funniest of all, to me, was when the lawyer and his other clerks find themselves 'preferring' to do this or that:

'Mr Nippers,' said I, 'I'd prefer that you would withdraw for the present.' Somehow, of late I had got into the way of involuntarily using this word "prefer" upon all sorts of not exactly suitable occasions.

And let's be honest, it means I've now read Melville without reading Moby Dick, thus saving myself 600-odd pages. I did start it once. Shall I ever get around to finishing that giant cetacean of a book? At the moment, I would prefer not to.

Perec, then, was fascinated by the character of Bartleby. Bartlebooth, the character around whom the central story in 'Life a User's Manual' revolves, is clearly named in part for Bartleby. The reason for this is not readily apparent. Bartlebooth's life was governed by a certain Bartleby-like and fatalistic inertia, I suppose. Much more obvious is the influence of Bartleby on the protagonist of Perec's novella. 'A Man Asleep'. Their manic torpor has much in common. Both characters are afflicted by a form of self-willed entropy, staring blankly at nothing. The unnamed student of 'A Man Asleep' becomes the student, Gregoire Simpson in 'Life a User's Manual', a character similarly afflicted. Perec may well have revisited this theme due to his fear of recurrent depression. Melville's character proved a useful template for portraying the withering hand of this condition.