Pierre: or, The Ambiguities
Encyclopedia
Pierre: or, The Ambiguities is a novel
written by Herman Melville
, and published in 1852 by Harper & Brothers
.
The publication of Pierre was a critical and financial disaster for Melville. It was universally condemned for both its morals and its style. With the exception of Israel Potter
, he never published another conventional novel, although he subsequently wrote and published many exceptional stories, including Bartleby the Scrivener
and Benito Cereno
, and the experimental "masque
" The Confidence-Man
.
. Pierre is engaged to the blonde Lucy Tartan in a match approved by his domineering mother, who controls the estate since the death of his father, Pierre, senior. When he encounters, however, the dark and mysterious Isabel Banford, he hears from her the claim that she is his half-sister, the illegitimate and orphaned child of his father and a European refugee. Pierre reacts to the story (and to his magnetic attraction for Isabel) by devising a remarkable scheme to preserve his father’s name, spare his mother’s grief, and give Isabel her proper share of the estate.
He announces to his mother that he is married; she promptly throws him out of the house. He and Isabel then depart for New York City
, accompanied by a disgraced young woman, Delly Ulver. During their stagecoach journey, Pierre finds and reads a fragment of a treatise on “Chronometricals and Horologicals” on the differences between absolute and relative virtue by one Plotinus Plinlimmon. In the city, Pierre counts on the hospitality of his friend and cousin Glendinning Stanley, but is surprised when Glen refuses to recognize him. The trio (Pierre, Isabel, and Delly) find rooms in a former church converted to apartments, the Church of the Apostles, now populated by impecunious artists, writers, spiritualists, and philosophers, including the mysterious Plinlimmon. Pierre attempts to earn money by writing a book, encouraged by his juvenile successes as a writer.
He learns that his mother has died and has left the Saddle Meadows estate to Glen Stanley, who is now engaged to marry Lucy Tartan. Suddenly, however, Lucy shows up at the Apostles, determined to share Pierre’s life and lot, despite his apparent marriage to Isabel, and Pierre and the three women live there together as best they can, while their scant money runs out. Pierre’s writing does not go well — having been "Timonized" by his experiences, the darker truths he has come to recognize cannot be reconciled with the light and innocent literature the market seeks. Unable to write, he has a vision in a trance of an earth-bound stone giant Enceladus
and his assault on the heavenly Mount of Titans. Beset by debts, by fears of the threats of Glen Stanley and Lucy’s brother, by the rejection of his book by its contracted publishers, by fears of his own incestuous passion for Isabel, and finally by doubts of the truth of Isabel’s story, Pierre guns down Glen Stanley at rush hour on Broadway, and is taken to jail in The Tombs
. There Isabel and Lucy visit him, and Lucy dies of shock when Isabel addresses Pierre as her brother. Pierre then seizes upon the secret poison vial that Isabel carries and drinks it, and Isabel finishes the remainder, leaving three corpses as the novel ends.
wrote that Melville's "fancy is diseased".
, and it includes many elements and themes found in contemporary popular fiction. Its emotions and gestures are exaggerated, and its language is particularly dense and opaque, even for Melville. Moreover, its suggestions that virtue and vice, good and evil, are at times indistinguishable and that "young America
" might harbor some deadly inherited sin leading to murderous retribution were extremely unpalatable to a contemporary audience. It was suggested, even within his family, that Melville had gone somewhat mad. This opinion was held by most critics, even during the revival of interest in the 1920s, and some critics since have concurred that the book was a mistake. Nonetheless, the work contains some of Melville's most concentrated and accomplished writing, and it is his most direct treatment of the literary life and the process of literary creation.
Hershel Parker
has argued that the passages concerning Pierre's career as an author were added at a late stage, in response to the negative critical reception of Moby-Dick
; and he has edited and published a version of the novel (the "Kraken" edition, illustrated by Maurice Sendak
) that elides those parts, which he argues detract from its overall unity.
Other Melvillians, however, have found in Pierre a dark masterpiece that repays multiple re-readings by unfolding unexpected moral and philosophical depths. It was the first of Melville’s works that does not employ a first-person narration, and the relation of its narrator’s voice to Melville’s own thought is an unresolved question. The book certainly dares more than almost any other above-ground work of the nineteenth century, and it challenges the reader in ways suggestive of post-modern literature.
The main character has been suggested to be a mirror of Melville himself. The story also seems to parallel the relationship Melville had with friend and fellow author Nathaniel Hawthorne
: Melville reuses the name Holgrave from Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables
and Pierre's half-sister Isabel stays in a red farmhouse that is an idealized version of where Hawthorne stayed while in Lenox, Massachusetts
where he and Melville first met.
(Pierre ou les ambiguïtés, 1999), directed by Leos Carax
.
The American composer Richard Beaudoin
is writing an opera based on the book. Act I was staged in August 2007 at the Arcola Theatre in London.
Publishing history, contemporary criticism and reviews
Other criticism
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
written by Herman Melville
Herman Melville
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick and the posthumous novella Billy Budd....
, and published in 1852 by Harper & Brothers
Harper & Brothers
Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins.-History:James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishing business J. & J. Harper in 1817. Their two brothers, Joseph Wesley Harper and Fletcher Harper, joined them...
.
The publication of Pierre was a critical and financial disaster for Melville. It was universally condemned for both its morals and its style. With the exception of Israel Potter
Israel Potter
Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile is a novel by Herman Melville published in installments in Putnam's Monthly Magazine from July 1854 through March 1855, in book form by George Palmer Putnam in New York in March 1855, and in a pirated edition by George Routledge in London in May 1855...
, he never published another conventional novel, although he subsequently wrote and published many exceptional stories, including Bartleby the Scrivener
Bartleby the Scrivener
Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street is a short story by the American novelist Herman Melville . It first appeared anonymously in two parts in the November and December 1853 editions of Putnam's Magazine, and was reprinted with minor textual alterations in his The Piazza Tales in...
and Benito Cereno
Benito Cereno
Benito Cereno is a novella by Herman Melville. It was first serialized in Putnam's Monthly in 1855 and later included in slightly revised version in his collection The Piazza Tales .-Plot summary:...
, and the experimental "masque
Masque
The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment which flourished in 16th and early 17th century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio...
" The Confidence-Man
The Confidence-Man
The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade was the last major novel by Herman Melville, the American writer and author of Moby-Dick. Published on April 1, 1857 , The Confidence-Man was Melville's tenth major work in eleven years...
.
Plot
It tells the story of Pierre Glendinning, junior, the 19-year-old heir of the manor at Saddle Meadows in upstate New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. Pierre is engaged to the blonde Lucy Tartan in a match approved by his domineering mother, who controls the estate since the death of his father, Pierre, senior. When he encounters, however, the dark and mysterious Isabel Banford, he hears from her the claim that she is his half-sister, the illegitimate and orphaned child of his father and a European refugee. Pierre reacts to the story (and to his magnetic attraction for Isabel) by devising a remarkable scheme to preserve his father’s name, spare his mother’s grief, and give Isabel her proper share of the estate.
He announces to his mother that he is married; she promptly throws him out of the house. He and Isabel then depart for New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, accompanied by a disgraced young woman, Delly Ulver. During their stagecoach journey, Pierre finds and reads a fragment of a treatise on “Chronometricals and Horologicals” on the differences between absolute and relative virtue by one Plotinus Plinlimmon. In the city, Pierre counts on the hospitality of his friend and cousin Glendinning Stanley, but is surprised when Glen refuses to recognize him. The trio (Pierre, Isabel, and Delly) find rooms in a former church converted to apartments, the Church of the Apostles, now populated by impecunious artists, writers, spiritualists, and philosophers, including the mysterious Plinlimmon. Pierre attempts to earn money by writing a book, encouraged by his juvenile successes as a writer.
He learns that his mother has died and has left the Saddle Meadows estate to Glen Stanley, who is now engaged to marry Lucy Tartan. Suddenly, however, Lucy shows up at the Apostles, determined to share Pierre’s life and lot, despite his apparent marriage to Isabel, and Pierre and the three women live there together as best they can, while their scant money runs out. Pierre’s writing does not go well — having been "Timonized" by his experiences, the darker truths he has come to recognize cannot be reconciled with the light and innocent literature the market seeks. Unable to write, he has a vision in a trance of an earth-bound stone giant Enceladus
Enceladus (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Enceladus was one of the Gigantes, the enormous children of Gaia fertilized by the blood of castrated Uranus...
and his assault on the heavenly Mount of Titans. Beset by debts, by fears of the threats of Glen Stanley and Lucy’s brother, by the rejection of his book by its contracted publishers, by fears of his own incestuous passion for Isabel, and finally by doubts of the truth of Isabel’s story, Pierre guns down Glen Stanley at rush hour on Broadway, and is taken to jail in The Tombs
The Tombs
"The Tombs" is the colloquial name for the Manhattan Detention Complex, a jail in Lower Manhattan at 125 White Street, as well as the popular name of a series of preceding downtown jails, the first of which was built in 1838 in the Egyptian Revival style of architecture.The nickname has been used...
. There Isabel and Lucy visit him, and Lucy dies of shock when Isabel addresses Pierre as her brother. Pierre then seizes upon the secret poison vial that Isabel carries and drinks it, and Isabel finishes the remainder, leaving three corpses as the novel ends.
Publication history and response
Melville initially proposed to his publisher that Pierre be published anonymously and credited "By a Vermonter". When it was published in July 1852, it bore the author's real name and was immediately met with negative critical response. One negative review which ran in the New York Day Book bore the title "Herman Melville Crazy" while the American Whig ReviewAmerican Review: A Whig Journal
The American Review, alternatively known as The American Review: A Whig Journal and The American Whig Review, was a New York City-based monthly periodical. Published by Wiley and Putnam, it was owned and operated by George H. Colton.-History:...
wrote that Melville's "fancy is diseased".
Analysis
The novel Pierre might be described as a parody of Gothic melodramaMelodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...
, and it includes many elements and themes found in contemporary popular fiction. Its emotions and gestures are exaggerated, and its language is particularly dense and opaque, even for Melville. Moreover, its suggestions that virtue and vice, good and evil, are at times indistinguishable and that "young America
Young America movement
The Young America Movement was an American political and cultural attitude in the mid-nineteenth century. Inspired by European reform movements of the 1830s , the American group was formed as a political organization in 1845 by Edwin de Leon and George H. Evans...
" might harbor some deadly inherited sin leading to murderous retribution were extremely unpalatable to a contemporary audience. It was suggested, even within his family, that Melville had gone somewhat mad. This opinion was held by most critics, even during the revival of interest in the 1920s, and some critics since have concurred that the book was a mistake. Nonetheless, the work contains some of Melville's most concentrated and accomplished writing, and it is his most direct treatment of the literary life and the process of literary creation.
Hershel Parker
Hershel Parker
Hershel Parker is the H. Fletcher Brown Professor Emeritus at the University of Delaware. He is co-editor with Harrison Hayford of the landmark Norton Critical Edition of Moby-Dick and Associate General Editor of The Writings of Herman Melville.Volume 1 of Parker's two-volume biography, Herman...
has argued that the passages concerning Pierre's career as an author were added at a late stage, in response to the negative critical reception of Moby-Dick
Moby-Dick
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, was written by American author Herman Melville and first published in 1851. It is considered by some to be a Great American Novel and a treasure of world literature. The story tells the adventures of wandering sailor Ishmael, and his voyage on the whaleship Pequod,...
; and he has edited and published a version of the novel (the "Kraken" edition, illustrated by Maurice Sendak
Maurice Sendak
Maurice Bernard Sendak is an American writer and illustrator of children's literature. He is best known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, published in 1963.-Early life:...
) that elides those parts, which he argues detract from its overall unity.
Other Melvillians, however, have found in Pierre a dark masterpiece that repays multiple re-readings by unfolding unexpected moral and philosophical depths. It was the first of Melville’s works that does not employ a first-person narration, and the relation of its narrator’s voice to Melville’s own thought is an unresolved question. The book certainly dares more than almost any other above-ground work of the nineteenth century, and it challenges the reader in ways suggestive of post-modern literature.
The main character has been suggested to be a mirror of Melville himself. The story also seems to parallel the relationship Melville had with friend and fellow author Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer.Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in the city of Salem, Massachusetts to Nathaniel Hathorne and the former Elizabeth Clarke Manning. His ancestors include John Hathorne, a judge during the Salem Witch Trials...
: Melville reuses the name Holgrave from Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables
The House of the Seven Gables
The House of the Seven Gables is a 1668 colonial mansion in Salem, Massachusetts, USA. The house is now a non-profit museum, with an admission fee charged for tours, as well as an active settlement house with programs for children...
and Pierre's half-sister Isabel stays in a red farmhouse that is an idealized version of where Hawthorne stayed while in Lenox, Massachusetts
Lenox, Massachusetts
Lenox is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. Set in Western Massachusetts, it is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 5,077 at the 2000 census. Where the town has a border with Stockbridge is the site of Tanglewood, summer...
where he and Melville first met.
Renditions in other media
The book was the source for the French film, Pola XPola X
Pola X is a 1999 French romantic drama film starring Guillaume Depardieu, Yekaterina Golubeva and Catherine Deneuve. The film is loosely based on the Herman Melville novel Pierre: or, The Ambiguities. It revolves around a successful young novelist who is confronted by a woman who claims to be his...
(Pierre ou les ambiguïtés, 1999), directed by Leos Carax
Leos Carax
Leos Carax is a French-born film director, critic, and writer. Carax is noted for his poetic style and his tortured depictions of love. His first major work was Boy Meets Girl , and his notable works include Lovers on the Bridge and the controversial Pola X...
.
The American composer Richard Beaudoin
Richard Beaudoin
Richard Beaudoin is an American composer of classical music.Richard Beaudoin was born in 1975 in North Attleborough, Massachusetts. He graduated from North Attleborough High School in 1993. Five years later he graduated summa cum laude from Amherst College, where he studied with Lewis Spratlan. He...
is writing an opera based on the book. Act I was staged in August 2007 at the Arcola Theatre in London.
External links
Online versions of PierrePublishing history, contemporary criticism and reviews
Other criticism