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Pierre; or the Ambiguities

Herman Melville

The book explores themes of love, identity, and the complexities of relationships through the life of Pierre Glendinning, a young man navigating his feelings for Lucy Tartan, amidst societal expectations and personal desires.

"Pierre; or The Ambiguities" by Herman Melville is a novel. The book explores themes of love, identity, and the complexities of relationships through the life of Pierre Glendinning, a young man navigating his feelings for Lucy Tartan, amidst societal expectations and personal desires.

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THERE are some strange summer mornings in the country, when he who is but a sojourner from the city shall early walk forth into the fields, and be wonder-smitten with the trance-like aspect of the green and golden world. Not a flower stirs; the trees forget to wave; the grass itself seems to have ceased to grow; and all Nature, as if suddenly become conscious of her own profound mystery, and feeling no refuge from it but silence, sinks into this wonderful and indescribable repose.

Such was the morning in June, when, issuing from the embowered and high-gabled old home of his fathers, Pierre, dewily refreshed and spiritualized by sleep, gayly entered the long, wide, elm-arched street of the village, and half unconsciously bent his steps toward a cottage, which peeped into view near the end of the vista.

The verdant trance lay far and wide; and through it nothing came but the brindled kine, dreamily wandering to their pastures, followed, not driven, by ruddy-cheeked, white-footed boys.

As touched and bewitched by the loveliness of this silence, Pierre neared the cottage, and lifted his eyes, he swiftly paused, fixing his glance upon one upper, open casement there. Why now this impassioned, youthful pause? Why this enkindled cheek and eye? Upon the sill of the casement, a snow-white glossy pillow reposes, and a trailing shrub has softly rested a rich, crimson flower against it.

Contents

  1. 01Book I. Pierre Just Emerging from His Teens.
  2. 02Book II. Love, Delight, and Alarm.
  3. 03Book III. The Presentiment and the Verification.
  4. 04Book IV. Retrospective.
  5. 05Book V. Misgivings and Preparations.
  6. 06Book VI. Isabel, and the First Part of the Story of Isabel.
  7. 07Book VII. Intermediate Between Pierre’s Two Interviews with Isabel at the Farm-House.
  8. 08Book VIII. The Second Interview at the Farm-House, and the Second Part of the Story of Isabel. Their Immediate Impulsive Effect Upon Pierre.
  9. 09Book IX. More Light, and the Gloom of That Light. More Gloom, and the Light of That Gloom.
  10. 10Book X. The Unprecedented Final Resolution of Pierre.
  11. 11Book XI. He Crosses the Rubicon
  12. 12Book XII. Isabel: Mrs. Glendinning: The Portrait: And Lucy.
  13. 13Book XIII. They Depart the Meadows.
  14. 14Book XIV. The Journey and the Pamphlet.
  15. 15Book XV. The Cousins.
  16. 16Book XVI. First Night of Their Arrival in the City.
  17. 17Book XVII. Young America in Literature.
  18. 18Book XVIII. Pierre, as a Juvenile Author, Reconsidered.
  19. 19Book XIX. The Church of the Apostles.
  20. 20Book XX. Charlie Millthorpe.
  21. 21Book XXI. Pierre Immaturely Attempts a Mature Work. Tidings from the Meadows. Plinlimmon.
  22. 22Book XXII. The Flower-Curtain Lifted from Before a Tropical Author, with Some Remarks on the Transcendental Flesh-Brush Philosophy.
  23. 23Book XXIII. A Letter for Pierre. Isabel. Arrival of Lucy’s Easel and Trunks at the Apostles’.
  24. 24Book XXIV. Lucy at the Apostles.
  25. 25Book XXV. Lucy, Isabel, and Pierre. Pierre at His Book. Enceladus.
  26. 26Book XXVI. A Walk: A Foreign Portrait: A Sail: And the End.

About this edition

Author
Herman Melville
Era
Modern (c. 1800–1945)
Reading level
Advanced: for close, demanding reading
Formats
EPUB, PDF
Length
501 pages
This edition
Modern Philosophers