Pierre (1852)

Summary

New York Herald, 29 July 1852.

In fiction, Herman Melville has a new book, “Pierre, or the Ambiguities,” in which it is understood that he has dressed up and exhibited in Berkshire, where he is living, some of the ancient and most repulsive inventions of the George Walker and Anne Radcliffe sort-desperate passion at first sight, for a young woman who turns out to be the hero's sister,… It is conceded that Mr. Melville has written himself out.

Lansingburgh [N.Y.] Gazette, 3 August 1852.

A new work from the pen of Mr. Herman Melville cannot fail of being received with approbation. The author, in this, has chosen a new field where in to give the rein to his vivid imagination, and unsurpassed beauty of description. “Pierre Glendenning,” the hero of this tale, is a fine character, well conceived and admirably sustained. The book is full of sterling incident and abounds in numerous fine passages. The chief disappointment experienced while reading it is in coming to the end. Frailty and vice are delineated with energy and acuteness, and in the most glowing language. Whether Mr. Melville will find more admirers ashore than a float we know not, but we hold that the work now before us places him indisputably in the highest list of eloquent writers.

Boston Post, 4 August 1852.

As the writer of the fascinating and Crusoish “Typee,” Mr Melville has received considerable attention from those whose hard fate it is, to “notice” new books; and as emanating from the writer of “Typee,” Mr. Melville's subsequent works, ranging from fair to execrable, have been held worthy of lengthy critiques, while critics have been at some pains to state, in detail and by means of extracts, their various merits and defects.