The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids

"The Paradise of Bachelors and The Tartarus of Maids"
Short story by Herman Melville
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre(s)Short story
Publication
PublisherHarper's Magazine
Media typePrint
Publication dateApril 1855

"The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids" is a short story written by American writer Herman Melville. It first appeared in the April 1855 edition of Harper's Magazine.[1] A combination of two sketches, one set in the center of London's legal industry and the other in a New England paper factory, this story can be read as an early comment on globalization.

Plot summary

In the first sketch, the London bachelors, all lawyers, scholars, or writers, enjoy a sumptuous meal in a cozy apartment near the Temple Bar. In the second sketch, the New England "maids" are young women working in a paper factory.

Composition

An engraving of a room with book shelves.
The Room over Temple Bar, 1876, Frederick Wentworth after WPH
Black and white photograph of a one-storey building with one door and five windows surrounded by leafless trees.
Crane and Company Old Stone Mill Rag Room in 1988.[2]

Melville was inspired to write "The Paradise of Bachelors" by a trip to the Inns of Court in December 1849. "The Tartarus of Maids" was inspired by his visit to Carson's Old Red Paper Mill in Dalton, Massachusetts in January, 1851.[3]

References

  1. ^ "Harper's Magazine as Matchmaker: Charles Dickens and Herman Melville". Harper's Magazine. 2008-01-13. Retrieved 2013-12-12.
  2. ^ "Historic American Buildings Survey, Index to Photographs" (PDF). Library of Congress. May 1988. Retrieved 17 January 2024.
  3. ^ Johnson, Claudia Durst (2006). Labor and Workplace Issues in Literature. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-33286-9.
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