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Bartleby & Co.

By Enrique Vila-Matas, Jonathan Dunne (Translator)

(4)

| Paperback | 9780811216982

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Book Description

A marvelous novel by one of Spain's most important contemporary authors, in which a clerk in a Barcelona office takes us on a romping tour of world literature.

In Bartleby & Co., an enormously enjoyable novel, Enrique Vila-Matas tackles the theme of silence in literature: the wrContinue

A marvelous novel by one of Spain's most important contemporary authors, in which a clerk in a Barcelona office takes us on a romping tour of world literature.

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.

Critics

  • Bartleby & Co.

    Presented as a set of eighty six footnotes to a missing text, Bartleby & Co consists of anecdotal commentary on "writers of the No", known as Bartlebys after a character of Melville's, who have stopped writing or not written for one or another reason ... (read full critics)

    dannyreviews published on Thu, 26 Aug 2010

1 Review

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  • A fine blend of 30% fact, 30% fiction, 30% humour plus a good dose of genius

    I enjoyed this immensely, especially not knowing half the time which characters were real and which were fictional. However I didn't find any reference to the fictional writer, Alejandro Bevilacqua from Alberto Manguel's 'All Men are Liars' in this intriguing book by Enrique Vila-Matas about write ... (continue)

    I enjoyed this immensely, especially not knowing half the time which characters were real and which were fictional. However I didn't find any reference to the fictional writer, Alejandro Bevilacqua from Alberto Manguel's 'All Men are Liars' in this intriguing book by Enrique Vila-Matas about writers who refuse to write. Manguel claimed that Bevilacqua was mentioned in this book. Another elaborate hoax?

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    Top of the pile said on Apr 3, 2011 | Add your feedback

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9780811216982 Paperback $14.95 $11.24 bn.com
$14.95 $10.74 The Book Depository
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