"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 summaryIn 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.
CompositionThe Room over Temple Bar, 1876, Frederick Wentworth after WPHCrane 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- ^ "Harper's Magazine as Matchmaker: Charles Dickens and Herman Melville". Harper's Magazine. 2008-01-13. Retrieved 2013-12-12.
- ^ "Historic American Buildings Survey, Index to Photographs" (PDF). Library of Congress. May 1988. Retrieved 17 January 2024.
- ^ Johnson, Claudia Durst (2006). Labor and Workplace Issues in Literature. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-33286-9.
- An omnibus collection of Melville's short fiction at Standard Ebooks
- "The Paradise of Bachelors"
- "The Tartarus of Maids"
