The Piazza Tales: Annotated Edition

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 Gal ipagos 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.