Abstract:With the publication of the Northwestern-Newberry edition of Pi? erre with its historical note by Leon Howard and Hershel Parker, an orthodox interpretation of the novel has begun to emerge, an interp...With the publication of the Northwestern-Newberry edition of Pi? erre with its historical note by Leon Howard and Hershel Parker, an orthodox interpretation of the novel has begun to emerge, an interpre? tation not so much of the meaning of the book as of Melville's complex intentions in writing it. The essence of this interpretation, first presented by Professor Howard in his biography of Melville and modified only slightly in his section of the historical note, is that when Melville began to write the book which was to become Pierre, he was planning to turn out a genuinely popular story, touched by the strange mystery of the Gothic romance yet full of the 'genialities' he had so admired in The House of the Seven Gables1 In Moby-Dick, so the argument runs, Mel? ville had exhausted the last remaining portion of his nautical experience, his twenty-six months as a whaleman, but more than that he had exhaust? ed the patience and attention of his audience. By November 25, 1851, roughly two weeks after the publication of Moby-Dick, he was still over four hundred dollars in debt to Harper's and needed a new book which would sell well enough to carry him over the next winter.2 It was im? perative that he do something new,3 and with a shrewd appreciation of the popular taste he turned toward the feminine audience which formed the largest novel-reading public in his time,4 hoping to regain a measure of his popularity through the tried-and-true formula of a romance. As it proved, he could not resist the inner compulsion to write as he pleased,5 producing a book far less genial than appalling; yet his initial motive was pure: he genuinely conceived Pierre as a popular romance, and long after the book was completed he remained curiously unwilling to face the fact of what he had done and persistently thought of the book he had intended rather than the book he had written.6 Though this theory has much to recommend it, it involves us in a highly controversial reading of Pierre, particularly of the early books,Read More
Publication Year: 2016
Publication Date: 2016-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 1
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