"The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids" is a short story written by American writer Herman Melville in April 1855. Best known for his novel Moby-Dick, Melville wrote numerous books and short stories. 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. In the first sketch, the London bachelors, all lawyers, scholars, or writers, enjoy a sumptuous meal in a cozy apartment. In the second sketch, the New England "maids" are young women working in a paper factory.
Famous quotes containing the words paradise, bachelors and/or maids:
“As a true patriot, I should be ashamed to think that Adam in paradise was more favorably situated on the whole than the backwoodsman in this country.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Nowadays, all the married men live like bachelors, and all the bachelors like married men.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“Three little maids from school are we,
Pert as a school-girl well can be,
Filled to the brim with girlish glee, Three little maids from school!”
—Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836–1911)