Ten years ago, at the height of Occupy Wall Street, a group of writers took part in a reading of Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener” in Zuccotti Park. The political connotations of this story have been observed by many — and while he’s not spoken of in the same breath as, say, Steinbeck, Melville’s work hardly stints on an awareness of class and a sympathy for working people. Among many other things, Moby-Dick can be seen as the story of an overly driven boss whose monomania leads to the utter destruction of all of those who work for him.
All of which is to say that it’s more than a little awkward that the home where Melville once resided in London is now available for the low monthly rent of — checks notes — $26,000. Admittedly, this is not just a single room where you can work on your postmodern masterpiece about whales and the people obsessed with them — but even so, it seems likely that this would be out of the price range of a circa-2021 counterpart to Melville.
Literary Hub’s Jonny Diamond has more details — including that the building in question is where Melville lived in 1849. The home does offer a lot of space, including five bedrooms and four bathrooms. And, as the listing reveals, it’s situated near several public transit stations as well as the River Thames. It might not be quite as nautical as setting out for sea on the Pequod, but it might scratch that itch nonetheless.
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