Actor Paul Giamatti brings Herman Melville's classic short story, Bartleby, the Scrivener, to life in a new audio recording released today by the 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center. The recording is available at 92y.org/bartleby.
Published in 1853, Bartleby, the Scrivener tells the story of a quiet, hardworking legal copyist who works in an office in the Wall Street area of New York City. One day Bartleby declines the assignment his employer gives him with the inscrutable "I would prefer not." The utterance of this remark sets off a confounding set of actions and behavior, making the unsettling character of Bartleby one of Melville's most enigmatic and unforgettable creations.
Said Giamatti: "It's one of my favorite short stories by one of my favorite writers, so I was particularly gratified to be able to read it out loud. I've always wanted to." He added: "It's a wonderful story - a very strange but sad story - but also funny, I think it's very funny."
The recording was commissioned and produced by the Poetry Center; Giamatti recorded it while sheltering in place last summer. The actor will discuss the story and Melville in a Dec. 3, 7 pm virtual talk with Melville biographer and Columbia University American Studies professor Andrew Delbanco.
The Bartleby recording is the latest in a series of special audio recordings produced by 92Y's Poetry Center, which has presented readings by many of the best-known novelists, poets and playwrights since 1939. In March, the center launched the Read By podcast, which features prominent authors reading literary works that have had a lasting personal effect on them; in October, it released a dramatic reading of Marilynne Robinson's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Gilead, featuring actor-writer-director
Ethan Hawke. The Hawke/Gilead recording is available to the public through November at
92y.org/gilead.
Paul Giamatti is an Emmy Award-winning actor, best known for his roles in the HBO miniseries
John Adams and Showtime's Billions, as well as the films Sideways, Barney's Version (for which he won a Golden Globe), The Illusionist, American Splendor, and Cinderella Man , among many others.
