Bartleby & Co
Vila-Matas, Enrique, 1948-200507UU
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Marcelo, a humble clerk in a Barcelona office who might have come from a novel by Kafka, inhibits a world peopled by characters in literature. He once wrote a novel about the impossibility of love, but since then he has written nothing and a mental trauma has meant that he has been unable to put pen to paper; he has become a 'Bartleby'. Marcelo, a humble clerk in a Barcelona office who might have come from a novel by Kafka, inhibits a world peopled by characters in literature. He once wrote a novel about the impossibility of love, but since then he has written nothing and a mental trauma has meant that he has been unable to put pen to paper; he has become a 'Bartleby', so named after the character in Herman Melville's short story who, when asked to do something, always replied negatively: "I would prefer not to". One day Marcelo, decides to make a search through literature for all possible Bartlebys who, for whatever reason, have had the urge to say "no", and to this end he has the engagingly original notion of keeping a diary and writing footnotes to an invisible text. His references to authors, both real and invented, provide the reader with extravagant doses of humour that are at once hilarious, irreverent and stimulating.Review: " 'Vila-Matas has had the brilliant idea of tracking down literature's slackers- Bartleby and Co proposes a shadowy history of literature' - Alberto Manguel. 'Ingenious...An Excellent book...A work of honesty and profound beauty' - John Burnside, Scotland on Sunday. 'Bartleby and Co is set to become the book of the literary season... An enormously enjoyable and intelligent book, and if I am not mistaken, an important one' - El Pals. 'Told with considerable elegance and an admirable lack of melodrama' - Spectator".
Main title:
Bartleby & Co / Enrique Vila-Matas.
Author:
Edition:
New ed.
Imprint:
London : Vintage : [distributor] TBS The Book Service Ltd : [distributor] Random House Australia : [distributor] Random House New Zealand Ltd : [distributor] Booksite Afrika : [distributor] Trafalgar Square, 2005.
Collation:
192 p. ; 20x13 cm.
Notes:
Paperback. B-format paperback.
Biography/History:
Enrique Vila-Matas was born in Barcelona in 1948. His first book appeared in 1973 and his novels have been translated into eleven languages. This is his first book to be translated into English.
ISBN:
9780099453727 (pbk)009945372X (pbk)
Dewey class:
AF
Language:
EnglishSpanish
Added title:
BRN:
1349155
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