At the end of Herman Melville’s novella, “Bartleby the Scrivener” we learn that Bartleby’s “pallid hopelessness” may have been caused by his stint in the Washington, D.C., Dead Letter Office where
“Each man had seen plenty of death in his lifetime. Tuberculosis, smallpox, and scarlet fever had done their duty as colors of the herd. Childbirth and cancer had taken plenty too.
“By avoiding the thorny issues and critical assessments he needs to make, Sheff doesn’t resurrect her for us but instead adds to the negatively charged mystique that has always engulfed Yok
“She was hounded by the Gestapo, which during the war visited her very often in the palace. Officers of the secret police demanded that she bring her children back to the Third Reich.
“The potential readership for this book is not limited to Austen fans—of which there are legions—but also to those interested in the work of women writers and . . .
“What’s Real About Race? explores the race concept as a powerful socio-political construction and as an equally empty one from the perspective of the biological sciences.”
