Pierre; Or, the Ambiguities

by Melville, Herman

• ISBN13: 9780486843308
• ISBN10: 0486843300
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2020-07-15
• Publisher: Dover Publications

Summary

Pierre Glendinning is prepared to inherit his father's estate when he meets a woman claiming to be his half-sister. Attracted to the mysterious lady and determined to share his inheritance, the passionate young idealist incites a family psychodrama—a maelstrom of recriminations leading to banishment and impoverishment and concluding in madness and murder.
Herman Melville's 1852 satire of the Gothic tradition, with its themes of incest and moral relativism, shocked his contemporaries. A critical and financial disaster, the novel further dimmed the author's already fading reputation and languished for decades in obscurity. With the twentieth-century reassessment of Melville's work, Pierre is now regarded as a revolutionary advance in literary technique. Modern readers delight in the intricate, digressive prose for which the author is justly famed as well as the book's compelling exploration of the psychological and sexual tensions within a family circle.

Author Biography

Herman Melville (1819–1891) found early success with stories inspired by his adventures in the South Seas. His fortunes declined with the 1851 publication of Moby-Dick, now recognized as a masterpiece but scorned by Melville's contemporaries. The author was obliged to work as a New York City customs inspector and died in obscurity, three decades before the critical reassessment of his work.

Table of Contents

I.PIERRE JUST EMERGING FROM HIS TEENS
II. LOVE, DELIGHT, AND ALARM
III. THE PRESENTIMENT AND THE VERIFICATION
IV. RETROSPECTIVE
V. MISGIVINGS AND PREPARATIVES
VI. ISABEL, AND THE FIRST PART OF THE STORY OF ISABEL
VII. INTERMEDIATE BETWEEN PIERRE'S TWO INTERVIEWS WITH ISABEL AT THE FARM-HOUSE
VIII. THE SECOND INTERVIEW, AND THE SECOND PART OF THE STORY OF ISABEL. THEIR IMMEDIATE IMPULSIVE EFFECT UPON PIERRE
IX. MORE LIGHT, AND THE GLOOM OF THAT LIGHT. MORE GLOOM, AND THE LIGHT OF THAT GLOOM
X. THE UNPRECEDENTED FINAL RESOLUTION OF PIERRE
XI. HE CROSSES THE RUBICON
XII. ISABEL, MRS. GLENDINNING, THE PORTRAIT, AND LUCY
XIII. THEY DEPART THE MEADOWS
XIV.THE JOURNEY AND THE PAMPHLET
XV. THE COUSINS
XVI. FIRST NIGHT OF THEIR ARRIVAL IN THE CITY
XVII. YOUNG AMERICA IN LITERATURE
XVIII. PIERRE, AS A JUVENILE AUTHOR, RECONSIDERED
XIX. THE CHURCH OF THE APOSTLES
XX. CHARLIE MILLTHORPE
XXI. PIERRE IMMATURELY ATTEMPTS A MATURE BOOK. TIDINGS FROM THE MEADOWS. PLINLIMMON
XXII. THE FLOWER-CURTAIN LIFTED FROM BEFORE A TROPICAL AUTHOR; WITH SOME REMARKS ON THE TRANSCENDENTAL FLESH-BRUSH PHILOSOPHY 
XXIII. LETTER FOR PIERRE. ISABEL. ARRIVAL OF LUCY'S EASEL AND TRUNKS AT THE APOSTLES'
XXIV. LUCY AT THE APOSTLES'
XXV. LUCY, ISABEL, AND PIERRE. PIERRE AT HIS BOOK. ENCELADUS
XXVI. A WALK; A FOREIGN PORTRAIT; A SAIL. AND THE END