Pierre: or, The Ambiguities

Synopsis

'ambiguities indeed! One long brain-muddling, soul-bewildering ambiguity (to borrow mr. Melville's style), like melchisedeck, without beginning or end-a labyrinth without a clue - an irish bog without so much as a jack o'the'lantern to guide the wanderer's footsteps - the dream of a distempered stomach, disordered by a hasty supper on half-cooked pork chops. " so judged the new york herald when pierre was first published in 1852, with most contemporary reviewers joining in the general condemnation: 'a dead failure, ' 'this crazy rigmarole, ' and "a literary mare's nest.