Pierre (Esprios Classics)

Pierre; or The Ambiguities is the seventh book by American writer Herman Melville first published in New York in 1852. The novel which uses many conventions of Gothic fiction develops the psychological sexual and family tensions between Pierre Glendinning; his widowed mother; Glendinning Stanley his cousin; Lucy Tartan his fiancée; and Isabel Banford who is revealed to be his half-sister. According to scholar Henry A. Murray in writing Pierre Melville purposed to write his spiritual autobiography in the form of a novel rather than to experiment and incidentally work some personal experience into the novel. Published after the lukewarm reaction to Moby-Dick Pierre was a critical and financial disaster. Reviewers universally condemned its morals and its style.