Monday, November 26, 2007

Classic Penguin

I've complained about this sort of thing before. In his introduction to the Penguin Classics edition of Billy Budd and Other Stories, Frederick Busch writes:

In [Dickens's Bleak House], a man is shown to be very much about paper and pen and, like Bartleby (at one point described as "folded up like a huge folio"), is a parody of Melville's profession. (xi, my underlining)

In "Bartleby, the Scrivener", Melville writes:

Throughout, the scrivener remained standing behind the screen, which I directed to be removed the last thing. It was withdrawn; and, being folded up like a huge folio, left him the motionless occupant of a naked room. (38)

The introduction was first published in 1986. It has gone uncorrected for over 20 years.

1 comment: