‘Bartleby, the Scrivener’ by Herman Melville

Bartleby’s determined, heroic nihilism, his consistent answer to his work, his employer and to life, “I would prefer not to”, are too well known to require further exposition. The book is incontrovertibly a long short story. It is, though, almost too philosophical to count, the pushing of an obsessive idea beyond the bounds of credibility.

First published in Putnam’s Magazine, November-December 1853, and collected in The Piazza Tales, Dix & Edwards, 1856. Now widely available, including in Billy Budd, Bartleby, and Other Stories, Penguin Classics. Available online at Project Gutenberg