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Ah Bartleby! [1]

Fiction [2]
6.12.13

In Herman Melville's classic story "Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street" [3] (1853), the character of the eponymous scrivener repeatedly says, "I would prefer not to," in response to requests at the law firm where he works. Take it a step further: Come up with a signature response of your own and try writing a short story in which it is the only sentence one of your characters ever utters. See where it takes you.


Source URL:https://www.pw.org/content/ah_bartleby

Links
[1] https://www.pw.org/content/ah_bartleby [2] https://www.pw.org/genre/fiction [3] http://www.bartleby.com/129/