SOURCE: "Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street," in Prefaces to The Experience of Literature, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1979, pp. 74-8.

A respected American critic and literary historian, Trilling was also an essayist, editor, novelist, and short story writer. His exploration of liberal arts theory and its implications for the conduct of life led Trilling to function not only as a literary critic, but also as a social commentator. In the following essay, which originally appeared in The Experience of Literature (1967), he describes Bartleby as an individual alienated by the capitalist spirit.

In a letter he wrote to Hawthorne in 1851, Melville, speaking of his friend in the third person, offered him this praise: "There is the grand truth about Nathaniel Hawthorne. He says NO! in thunder; but the Devil himself cannot make him say yes. For all men who say yes, lie. . . . " Melville was referring to Hawthorne's relation...