num_pages: 178
description: 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 an utterly engaging work of profound and philosophical beauty.
language: English
title: Bartleby & Co.
titlecomplete: Bartleby & Co.
genres: Spanish Literature, Spain, 21st Century, Writing, Novels, Literary Fiction, Literature, Fiction, Contemporary, Books About Books
ratings_count: 4355
awards: awardedAt: 946713600000
name: Premi Ciutat de Barcelona
category: Literatura en llengua castellana, awardedAt: 946713600000
name: Premi Llibreter de narrativa
publisher: New Directions