The narrator notices Bartleby never leaves the office and only eats ginger nut cakes, a cheap snack food. The lawyer finds himself fascinated with Bartleby’s unshakeable calm and quiet refusals. Sometime later, Bartleby says that he would prefer not to verify his copies with the others in the office.

The greatly confused lawyer hands the work to Nippers instead of forcing Bartleby to complete it.īartleby becomes a permanent fixture in the office, like a piece of furniture, and offers the lawyer reassurance with his quiet presence. To this, Bartleby replies he would “prefer” not to and continues working behind his screen. Soon into Bartleby’s employment, however, the narrator asks him to help verify a copy of a document. He works through all parts of the day, even writing by candlelight at night. Because of Bartleby’s promising nature, the narrator places him in his personal office, giving Bartleby privacy behind a folding screen.īartleby is an excellent worker at first, producing more copies, or “folios,” than the other scriveners. Where Nippers is irritable in the morning, Turkey struggles with his work in the afternoon, meaning a scrivener is always performing subpar work in the office. The narrator hires Bartleby because a recent increase in the lawyer’s importance means he needs additional help. Of the four named characters, only Bartleby is called by his actual name the other three have nicknames. Ginger Nut is an errand boy who spends most of his time fetching apples and ginger nut cakes for the scriveners. Nippers, Turkey, and Bartleby are scriveners, people who copy documents by hand, often for legal proceedings. The lawyer employs four people: Nippers, Turkey, Ginger Nut, and Bartleby. Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic wrote about Bartleby- 'a poor film but with superb acting in it'.“Bartleby” is narrated in the first person by an unnamed senior lawyer on Wall Street in New York City. Scofield.gives a supremely intelligent portrayal of a man caught between logic and emotion.' The TV Guide reviewer commented that 'the film is brooding, slow, and annoying at times, but the vision of McEnery as Bartleby is not easily forgotten. Rosalind Elliot - Miss Brown - Secretary.The sets were designed by the art director Simon Holland.īartleby, a young audit clerk, is defeated by the pressures of modern life he gradually opts out of all forms of social engagement and withdraws into his own world. It was shot at Twickenham Studios and on location around London. The film relocates the narrative from New York in the 1850s to London in the 1970s.

It is an adaptation of the short story ' Bartleby, the Scrivener A Story of Wall-street' by Herman Melville. Bartleby is a 1970 British drama film directed by Anthony Friedman and starring Paul Scofield, John McEnery and Thorley Walters.

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