Herman Melville (1819-1891), now at the center of the American literary canon, was wildly dismissed for this labyrinthine effort. With the Boston Post writing upon its release, "it might be supposed to emanate from a lunatic hospital rather than from the quiet retreats of Berkshire." Perhaps Melville's most difficult and wildly textured work, "Pierre: Or, The Ambiguities," (1852) to this day evades easy categorization or critical interpretation. Now seen as an ambitious foray into proto-modernist composition, the text was ...
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Herman Melville (1819-1891), now at the center of the American literary canon, was wildly dismissed for this labyrinthine effort. With the Boston Post writing upon its release, "it might be supposed to emanate from a lunatic hospital rather than from the quiet retreats of Berkshire." Perhaps Melville's most difficult and wildly textured work, "Pierre: Or, The Ambiguities," (1852) 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 and was a commercial failure. Published a year after his magnum opus "Moby Dick, or, The Whale," "Pierre" tracks the nineteen year old Pierre Glendinning through his life in New York City as a fledgling novelist. Mr. Melville himself can be seen in the melodramatic life of Pierre. Wrestling with the literary trends of transcendentalism that pervaded his day, the novel, on some level, also parodies the gothic tradition of grand morality. But it is this morality that is brought into focus, scrutinizing it only as Melville can. Spoken of as "word piled upon word, and syllable heaped upon syllable, until the tongue grows as bewildered as the mind, and both refuse to perform their offices from sheer inability to grasp the magnitude of the absurdities...," the torrential dismay that this novel was met with now sounds like the unknown beginnings of a revolution. Experimental and without reservations, "Pierre" will remain a glowing oddity of American literature.
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Add this copy of Pierre Or the Ambiguities to cart. $2.19, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Dallas rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 1964 by Plume Books.
Add this copy of Pierre Or the Ambiguities to cart. $2.98, fair condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published by Grove Pr: Evergreen.
Add this copy of Pierre Or the Ambiguities to cart. $3.69, fair condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Austell, GA, UNITED STATES, published 1964 by Signet Classics.
Add this copy of Pierre Or the Ambiguities to cart. $3.69, fair condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 1964 by Signet Classics.
Add this copy of Pierre Or the Ambiguities to cart. $3.69, fair condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Dallas rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 1964 by Signet Classics.
Add this copy of Pierre Or the Ambiguities to cart. $3.69, fair condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Baltimore rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Halethorpe, MD, UNITED STATES, published 1964 by Signet Classics.
Add this copy of Pierre Or the Ambiguities to cart. $4.00, very good condition, Sold by HPB Inc. rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 1964 by Signet Classics.
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Add this copy of Pierre Or the Ambiguities to cart. $4.24, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Dallas rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 1964 by Signet Classics.
Add this copy of Pierre Or the Ambiguities to cart. $4.43, fair condition, Sold by Jenson Books Inc rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Logan, UT, UNITED STATES, published 1964 by Signet Classics.
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This item is fairly worn, but continues to work perfectly. Signs of wear can include aesthetic issues such as scratches, dents, worn corners, bends, tears, small stains, and partial water damage. All pages and the cover are intact, but the dust cover may be missing, if applicable. Pages may include excessive notes and highlighting, but the text is not obscured or unreadable. Satisfaction Guaranteed.
Add this copy of Pierre: Or, the Ambiguities (Penguin Classics) to cart. $4.76, fair condition, Sold by Orion Tech rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Arlington, TX, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Penguin Classics.
