An edition of Pierre, or the Ambiguities (1852)

Pierre, or the Ambiguities

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Last edited by MARC Bot
July 18, 2024 | History
An edition of Pierre, or the Ambiguities (1852)

Pierre, or the Ambiguities

  • 5 Want to read
  • 1 Currently reading

This Kraken Edition of Pierre, or The Ambiguities is a reconstruction of the text that Melville delivered to Harper & Brothers early in January 1852, just as some of the most devastating reviews of Moby-Dick were appearing. The Harper brothers apparently decided that Pierre was even more outrageous than Moby-Dick and tried to avoid publishing it by offering Melville less than half the royalties they had paid for his previous books.

Accepting the humiliating contract, Melville took a self-destructive revenge. After Book XVI, he interpolated a new section on "Young America in Literature," in which he arbitrarily announced that his hero, Pierre, had been a juvenile author. Melville proceeded to add an intrusive "Pierre as author" sub-plot, disparaging American literary life and the world of publishing, which he left unassimilated into the book he had first completed.

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Melville scholar Hershel Parker has long believed that the psychological stature of Moby-Dick would best be understood in the light of the original, shorter version of Pierre, in his opinion "surely the finest psychological novel anyone had yet written in English." Moby-Dick and the reconstructed Pierre are at last revealed as complexly interlinked companion studies of the moods of thought - the Typee and Omoo of depth psychology.

Furthermore, all Melville lovers will be challenged by Maurice Sendak's extraordinary pictures, which constitute a brilliantly provocative interpretation of Melville's study of moral and mental ambiguities.

Publish Date
Publisher
LibriVox
Language
English

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Previews available in: English

Edition Availability
Cover of: Pierre, or the Ambiguities
Pierre, or the Ambiguities
2019-03-10, LibriVox
in English
Cover of: Pierre, or the Ambiguities
Pierre, or the Ambiguities
2011-01-15, Project Gutenberg
in English
Cover of: Pierre, or The Ambiguities
Pierre, or The Ambiguities: Volume Seven, Scholarly Edition (Melville)
1979, Northwestern University Press
Paperback in English
Cover of: Pierre or The ambiguities
Pierre or The ambiguities
1964, New American Library
in English
Cover of: Works.
Works.: or, the ambiguities....
1963, Russell & Russell
in English - Standard edition.
Cover of: Pierre, or the Ambiguities
Pierre, or the Ambiguities
1957, Grove Press
in English
Cover of: Pierre; or, The ambiguities.
Pierre; or, The ambiguities.
1949, Hendricks House
in English
Cover of: Pierre
Pierre: or, The ambiguities
1929, E.P. Dutton & Co. Inc.
in English
Cover of: Pierre
Pierre
1855, Harper and brothers
in English
Cover of: Pierre, Or, The Ambiguities
Pierre, Or, The Ambiguities
1852, Harper & Brothers
in English

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Book Details


ID Numbers

Open Library
OL32062431M
Internet Archive
pierre_1903_librivox
LibriVox
12147

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History

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July 18, 2024 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
December 19, 2023 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
March 1, 2022 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
February 8, 2022 Edited by AgentSapphire Edited without comment.
October 17, 2009 Created by WorkBot add works page