Pierre; or, The Ambiguities

by Herman Melville · first published 1852

Pierre; or, The Ambiguities is the seventh book by American writer Herman Melville, first published in New York in 1852. The novel uses many conventions of Gothic fiction and depicts psychological, sexual, and familial tension between Pierre Glendinning, his widowed mother, his cousin Glendinning Stanly, his fiancée Lucy Tartan, and Isabel Banford, who is revealed to be his half-sister. According to scholar Henry A. Murray, in writing Pierre Melville "purposed to write his spiritual autobiography in the form of a novel" rather than to experiment and incidentally work some personal experience into the novel. Published after the lukewarm reaction to Moby-Dick, Pierre was a critical and financial disaster.

Summary: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Original language:

English

Year page:

1852