Pickwick and "Bartleby"

Studies in American Fiction235 dispelling those brute contingencies arising in the atomism of London, which Marcher himself ultimately spurned as the "disrespect of chance, the insolence of accident" (p. 125). The distance of the narrator from Marcher thus becomes a positive advantage, for it allows the narrator to accept the terms of Marcher's world, the split between the inner and outer condition, while at the same time drawing attention to correspondence between the two worlds, thus countering the spring of the Beast, the demonic compulsion which annihilates both time and consciousness.7 Notes '"Metacommentary," PMLA, 86 (1971), 13. 'The Art of the Novel: Critical Prefaces, ed. Richard P. Blackmur (New York: Scribner's, 1943), p. 286. 'The Art of the Novel, p. 244. 4The text for the tale is in The Novels and Tales of Henry James, XVlI (New York: Scribner's, 1922). Subsequent page references to the "The Beast in the Jungle" are included in the paper. "Henry James: His Life and Writings (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1956), p. 158. "The Country and the City (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1973) pp. 165-81. 7The Theory of the Novel, trans. Anna Bostock (Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 1971), p. 122. 'James's personal account of London is remarkably similar to Marcher's experience. See "London," in English Hours, ed. Alma Louise Lowe (New York: Orion Press, 1960), pp. 1-32. PICKWICK AND "BARTLEBY" J. Don Vann North Texas State University A recent study identified James A. Maitland's The Lawyer's Story, a novel serialized in 1853, as a source for at least part of Herman Melville's "Bartleby, the Scrivener."1 Both works are narrated by a lawyer who details his relations with a copyist in his employ. The scrivener in each story is tinged with melancholy and reticent to give details of his former life, and the lawyer tries to come to the aid of the copying clerk. A possible source for other parts of "Bartleby" is Dickens's Pickwick Papers, which Melville read, at least partially, 236Notes while enroute to Europe in 1849. He recorded in his journal for October 20, "Read a chapter in Pickwick & retired pretty early."2 A number of parallels in the two works appear, the most striking of which is the statement of Sam Weller in response to several requests by Mr. Pickwick in the Fleet Prison. At this point in the novel Mr. Pickwick has gone to jail rather than pay an unjust claim awarded by the law court. In order to be able to remain with his employer, Sam has contrived to be imprisoned for failure to pay a debt. Pickwick, upon asking Sam to be seated, receives the reply, "I'd rayther not now, sir." Shortly afterward Sam refuses to tell the name of the one to whom he is indebted, for he knows that Pickwick will re-pay the loan and secure Sam's release: "Wery much obliged to you, sir," replied Mr. Weiler gravely, "but I'd rayther not."3 The steadfast "I'd rayther not" is strongly reminiscent of Bartleby^ later tag, "I would prefer not to." Upon being pressed for an explanation of his actions, Sam tells Pickwick the story of the man who killed himself on principle. The character in Sam's story, a government clerk, was ordered by his doctor not to eat crumpets. "Wy?" says the patient, starting up in bed. "I've eat four crumpets ev"ry night for fifteen year on principle." "WeU, then, you'd better leave 'em off on principle." says the doctor. "Crumpets is wholesome, sir," says the patient. "Crumpets is not wholesome, sir," says the doctor , wery fierce.4 The patient established that three shillings' worth of crumpets would be fatal. The next morning he orders in three shillings' worth, eats them, and puts a bullet through his head. In response to Pickwick's question of why the gentleman did such a thing, Sam replies, "Wy, in support of his great principle that crumpets was wholesome, and to show that he wouldn't be put out of his way for nobody." Sam is making the point that, like his master, he is...