Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street

Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street by Herman Melville

A lawyer hired Bartleby to work for him. Bartleby starts out working strong, but then refuses to work with a phrase "I'd prefer not to". Despite multiple injunctions, the lawyer cannot get any work out of Bartleby. The lawyer then justifies keeping him on as a charity case. He later discovers that Bartleby is also living at the office. The lawyer tries to get rid of him, even paying him money to leave. However, Bartleby would prefer not to live. Finally the lawyer leaves the office altogether. The new tenant later comes back to complain to the lawyer about Bartleby. How did Bartleby infiltrate that office in the first place? How can he be so powerful to refuse to do anything with the rationale of preferring not to? Bartleby is quite the strong-willed character.

Benito Cereno

Benito Cereno by Herman Melville 

Benito Cereno seems like it should have been a good book, but I had trouble getting into it. An American comes across a ship in distress. Benito Cereno, the captain is always accompanied by his servant.  He explains that many of the Spaniards had been taken by a fever. Only at the end does he jump away from the ship and let the Americans know that a slave revolt occurred and that the blacks controlled everything.

Moby Dick

At times Moby Dick reads as a history of all things whaling. There are long descriptions of the different types of whales, the accuracy of whale's portrayal in art, the common procedures of whaling vessels and more. (He was convincing in saying that the whale should be considered a fish, even though it has lungs. This goes against are modern way of classifying, but is not made in ignorance, so much as a "sea-centric" means of grouping.
In addition to history, the novel explores human relations. Whaling was a true multi-cultural affair, long before "multi-cultural" was a thing. The novel begins with the narrator sharing lodging with a "cannibal", and goes to describe encounters with many others of diverse backgrounds. While the narrator is initially afraid of these different characters, he gradually treats them as respected crew members (though not necessarily as close friends.)
Even when the book gets into the "action sequences" as they are hunting wales, the author takes time to go into exquisite detail of how they process the whale onboard the ship and the intricacies of the "law of the sea" for who gets to complete a capture of whale.
It is not until the final few chapters of the novel that the focus is truly on being a novel. Now the ship and crew is enduring a typhoon and trying valiantly to battle Moby Dick. Ahab truly will stop at nothing (including his own demise) to help defeat the great whale Moby Dick. The action is intense. You could make a good abridgement by taken bits and pieces of the first 100 chapters and including the last few in their entirety.

Why Read Moby Dick

Why should we read Moby Dick? Nathaniel Philbrick gives us a number of reasons in this short book. It serves as a nice intro, giving us background in Mellville's life and times as well as the book itself. When it was published, Moby Dick was not very successful. However, after the civil war, and especially after the great world wars, the novel increased in popularity due to its timeless themes. Melville was also a stickler for details giving the novel additional value as a history of a bygone era and profession. Moby book is a long book, and Philbrick acknowledges you can get plenty out of abridgments and other versions. Now, I want to read it.