Bartleby & Co.
Fictionby Enrique Vila-Matas
Translated from Spanish by Jonathan Dunne
In Bartleby & Co., an enormously enjoyable novel, Enrique Vila-Matas tackles the theme of silence in literature: the writers and non-writers who, like the scrivener Bartleby of the Herman Melville story, in answer to any question or demand, replies: “I would prefer not to.” Addressing such “artists of refusal” as Robert Walser, Robert Musil, Arthur Rimbaud, Marcel Duchamp, Herman Melville, and J. D. Salinger, Bartleby & Co. could be described as a meditation: a walking tour through the annals of literature. Written as a series of footnotes (a non-work itself), Bartleby embarks on such questions as why do we write, why do we exist? The answer lies in the novel itself: told from the point of view of a hermetic hunchback who has no luck with women, and is himself unable to write, Bartleby is utterly engaging, a work of profound and philosophical beauty.
Paperback(published December 1, 2007)
- ISBN
- 9780811216982
- Price US
- 15.95
- Trim Size
- 5x8
- Page Count
- 178
Clothbound(published December 1, 2007)
- ISBN
- 9780811215916
- Price US
- 22.95
- Trim Size
- 5x8
- Page Count
- 178
Ebook(published December 1, 2007)
- ISBN
- 9780811221535
- Price US
- 15.95
- Page Count
- 178