The Piazza Tales

This volume, first published in 1856, collects three of Melville''s most important pieces of prose fiction. In `Bartleby, the Scrivener'', a Wall Street lawyer hires a melancholy young clerk called Bartleby, whose sudden and mysterious refusal to work plunges the firm into disarray. `Benito Cereno'' is a historical account of a mutiny on a slave ship, which has been seen as a critique of slavery and contemporary attitudes towards race. `The Encantadas, or Enchanted Isles'' is a series of travel sketches about the Galapagos Islands which was a huge success with the reading public and contains some of Melville''s most celebrated prose. Also included in this volume are `The Lightning-Rod Man'', `The Bell Tower'' and a story written especially for the collection, `The Piazza''. Taken together, these tales, in their masterful use of irony and concision, show the author of Moby Dick in a different light.