Bartleby and Benito Cereno by Herman Melville

For the fourth week of The Fiction of Relationship course we had 2 short stories by Herman Melville: the well-known "Bartleby" and "Benito Cereno". Short stories call for short reviews, and that's what I'm going to do :)

Title: Bartleby, the Scrivener
Author: Herman Melville
First published: 1853
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This story just blew my head off. It doesn't have a closure, it doesn't have complicated multidimensional characters, and the plot is not realistic at all. However, it is full of meaning, conveyed mostly in form instead of content. This polite protest - "I would prefer not to" - is much more powerful than any demonstration. It shows the shallowness of defining a person according to his job and of making a job the only important thing in one's life. The overall craziness of the office setting adds to the surrealism of the story, and in the computer-infested, career-oriented life of nowadays "Bartleby" is as relevant as ever.

Title: Benito Cereno
Author: Herman Melville
First published: 1855
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This novella reminds me a lot of Poe's stories: there is mystery and delusion, there is sea and this characteristic feeling of uneasiness building towards the revelation of the truth. Too bad that I figured out what's happening there too early, and the rest of the book I was just impatient with the reflexive, intricate, "Melvillish" writing. The book is great in terms of psychology, but I'd appreciate it being three times shorter anyway :) Especially as it definitely requires re-reading after you know the truth in order to see all the hints from the beginning.