 | |
| Author | Enrique Vila-Matas |
|---|---|
| Original title | Bartleby y compañía |
| Translator | Jonathan Dunne |
| Country | Spain |
| Language | Spanish |
| Publisher | Editorial Anagrama |
Publication date | 1 February 2000 |
Published in English | 2004 |
| Pages | 184 |
| ISBN | 978-84-339-2449-0 |
Bartleby & Co. ( Spanish: Bartleby y compañía) is a 2000 novel by the Spanish writer Enrique Vila-Matas.
Plot
A Spanish office worker wants to be a writer but struggles to follow up his obscure first book. He takes a sick leave and starts to write footnotes to a non-existing text. He comments on writers whose careers stalled, such as Herman Melville, Robert Walser, Felipe Alfau and J. D. Salinger. He turns the improductive central characters from Melville's " Bartleby, the Scrivener" and Hugo von Hofmannsthal's " Letter from Lord Chandos" into role models. He goes through various reasons to not write. [1]
Reception
Kirkus Reviews called the book a "wry, mind-bending delight" and associated its literary mode with Jorge Luis Borges and Italo Calvino. [1] Mark Sanderson of The Guardian called the book original and "a postmodern paradox, something out of nothing" which with its literary references will make almost anyone "feel woefully illiterate - but then that is part of the game". [2]
References
- ^ a b "Bartleby & Co". Kirkus Reviews. 15 October 2004. Retrieved 7 January 2024.
- ^ Sanderson, Mark (14 August 2004). "I'd prefer not to". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 January 2024.
External links
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| |
| Author | Enrique Vila-Matas |
|---|---|
| Original title | Bartleby y compañía |
| Translator | Jonathan Dunne |
| Country | Spain |
| Language | Spanish |
| Publisher | Editorial Anagrama |
Publication date | 1 February 2000 |
Published in English | 2004 |
| Pages | 184 |
| ISBN | 978-84-339-2449-0 |
Bartleby & Co. ( Spanish: Bartleby y compañía) is a 2000 novel by the Spanish writer Enrique Vila-Matas.
Plot
A Spanish office worker wants to be a writer but struggles to follow up his obscure first book. He takes a sick leave and starts to write footnotes to a non-existing text. He comments on writers whose careers stalled, such as Herman Melville, Robert Walser, Felipe Alfau and J. D. Salinger. He turns the improductive central characters from Melville's " Bartleby, the Scrivener" and Hugo von Hofmannsthal's " Letter from Lord Chandos" into role models. He goes through various reasons to not write. [1]
Reception
Kirkus Reviews called the book a "wry, mind-bending delight" and associated its literary mode with Jorge Luis Borges and Italo Calvino. [1] Mark Sanderson of The Guardian called the book original and "a postmodern paradox, something out of nothing" which with its literary references will make almost anyone "feel woefully illiterate - but then that is part of the game". [2]
References
- ^ a b "Bartleby & Co". Kirkus Reviews. 15 October 2004. Retrieved 7 January 2024.
- ^ Sanderson, Mark (14 August 2004). "I'd prefer not to". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 January 2024.