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'Ambiguities indeed! One long brain-muddling, soul-bewildering ambiguity (to borrow Mr. Melville's style), like Melchisedeck, without beginning or end-a labyrinth without a clue - an Irish bog without so much as a Jack o'the'lantern to guide the wanderer's footsteps - the dream... Read Full Overview

This Norton Critical Edition includes:
- The Harper & Brothers 1852 first edition of the novel, accompanied by Robert S. Levine and Cindy Weinstein's editorial matter.
- Six illustrations.
- Contextual and source materials, including letters, responses to Pierre... Read Full Overview

Herman Melville was one of the greatest American writers of the Renaissance period in the 19th century. Melville was a very influential writer in many genres of fiction, including sea stories, Allegory, and Gothic Romanticism. Melville's classic novel Moby-Dick remains one of... Read Full Overview

Initially dismissed as "a dead failure" and "a bad book," and declined by Melville's British publisher, Pierre, or The Ambiguities has since struck critics as modern in its psychological probings and literary technique--fit, as Carl Van Vechten said in 1922, to be ranked... Read Full Overview

THERE are some strange summer mornings in the country, when he who is but a sojourner from the city shall early walk forth into the fields, and be wonder-smitten with the trance-like aspect of the green and golden world. Not a flower stirs; the trees forget to wave; the grass... Read Full Overview

Pierre: or, The Ambiguities (1852) is a novel by American writer Herman Melville. Published the year after Moby-Dick--a critical and commercial failure--Pierre: or, The Ambiguities is a psychological novel in the tradition of Gothic fiction. Melville struggled... Read Full Overview

Pierre Or The Ambiguities is a novel written by Herman Melville, first published in 1852. The story follows Pierre Glendinning, a young man from a wealthy family who is struggling with his identity and place in the world. Pierre is torn between his love for his half-sister, Isabel,... Read Full Overview

Perhaps Melville's most difficult and wildly textured work, "Pierre; or, The Ambiguities", to this day evades easy categorization or critical interpretation. Now seen as an ambitious foray into proto-modernist composition, the text was initially met with utter consternation... Read Full Overview

Pierre: or, The Ambiguities (1852) is a novel by American writer Herman Melville. Published the year after Moby-Dick--a critical and commercial failure--Pierre: or, The Ambiguities is a psychological novel in the tradition of Gothic fiction. Melville struggled... Read Full Overview

Reproduction of the original: Pierre by Herman Melville

Reproduction of the original: Pierre by Herman Melville

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original... Read Full Overview