Pierre: or, The Ambiguities'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 of a distempered stomach, disordered by a hasty supper on half-cooked pork chops." So judged the New York Herald when Pierre was first published in 1852, with most contemporary reviewers joining in the general condemnation: 'a dead failure,' 'this crazy rigmarole,' and "a literary mare's nest." Latter-day critics have recognized in the story of Melville's idealistic young hero a corrosive satire of the sentimental-Gothic novel, and a revolutionary foray into modernist literary techniques. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. |
Contents
BOOK II Love Delight and Alarm | 29 |
BOOK III The Presentiment and the Verification | 43 |
Retrospective | 67 |
Misgivings and Preparatives | 86 |
BOOK VI Isabel and the First Part of the Story of Isabel | 109 |
Intermediate between Pierres Two Interviews with Isabel at the | 128 |
The Second Interview and the Second Part of the Story of | 143 |
More Light and the Gloom of That Light More Gloom and the | 165 |
He Crosses the Rubicon | 182 |
Isabel Mrs Glendinning the Portrait and Lucy | 188 |
They Depart the Meadows | 201 |
The Journey and the Pamphlet | 204 |
The Cousins | 217 |
First Night of Their Arrival in the City | 229 |
Young America in Literature | 251 |
Pierre as a Juvenile Author Reconsidered | 257 |
Light of That Gloom | 169 |
The Unprecedented Final Resolution of Pierre | 172 |
The Church of the Apostles | 265 |
Charlie Millthorpe | 277 |
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Common terms and phrases
ambiguous Apostles beautiful breath brother called catch em catnip chamber Charles Clarel clergyman Committee on Lectures Confidence-Man cried dear Pierre Delly docile Domenichino door Emily Dickinson emotions Enceladus entirely eternal eyes face Falsgrave fancied Fate father feel felt forever girl glance Glen gloom Greek mythology grief hand hath heart heaven hint hour human Iliad Isabel John Marr knew letter looked Lucy Madam manorial married Marsy Melville Melville's Millthorpe mind miserable Miss Pennies Moby-Dick mood morning mother mysterious mystic never Nineveh passed peculiar person Pierre Glendinning Pierre's Plinlimmon Plotinus possessed possible povertiresque present profoundest Romeo round Saddle Meadows Saturn secret seemed shriek sight sister Mary sometimes sort soul spinsters staff-wise stand strange stroll supposed sweet tell thee things thou thought Pierre Transcendentalists Truth vague vanity wholly wonderful young youth Zeus