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Pierre / Israel Potter / The Piazza Tales / The Confidence-Man / Uncollected Prose / Billy Budd
Forgoing the narratives of the sea that prevailed in his earlier works, Melville's later fiction contains some of the finest and many of his keenest and bleakest observations of life, not on the high seas, but at home in America. With the publication of this Library of America volume, the third of three volumes, all Melville's fiction has now been restored to print for the first time.
Pierre; or, The Ambiguities, published in 1852 (the year after Moby-Dick), moves between the idyllic Berkshire countryside and the nightmare landscape of early New York City. Its hero, a young American patrician trying to redeem the secret sins of his father, elopes to the city, discovers Bohemian life, attempts a literary epic, and struggles his way through incest, murder, and madness. Long a controversial work, it is Melville's darkest satire of American life and letters and one of his most powerful books.
A pivotal work, both for Melville's career and for American literature, Pierre was followed by Israel Potter, the story of a veteran of the Revolution, victim of a thousand mischances, and a long-suffering exile in England. Along the way are memorable episodes of war and intrigue, with personal portraits of Benjamin Franklin, John Paul Jones, and George III. In the exploits of this touchingly optimistic soldier, Melville offers a scathing image of the collapse of revolutionary hopes.
The Piazza Tales demonstrates Melville's dazzling mastery of many styles, including "The Encantadas," about nature's two faces--enchanting and horrific; the famous "Bartleby the Scrivener," about a Wall Street copyist who "would prefer not to"; and the enigmatic "Benito Cereno," about a credulous Yankee sea captain who stumbles into an intricately plotted mutiny aboard a disabled slave ship.
The Confidence-Man, Melville's last published novel, is in many ways a forerunner of modernist American fiction. An extended meditation on faith, hope, and charity as these are manifested on board a Mississippi riverboat one April Fools' Day, it presents a menagerie of Americans buying and selling, borrowing and lending, believing and mistrusting, as they are carried toward the auction blocks of New Orleans.
Many pieces never before collected are also included: the "Authentic Anecdotes of Old Zack" (burlesque sketches of Zachary Taylor's Mexican campaign), "Fragments from a Writing-Desk" (Melville's earliest surviving prose), reviews of Hawthorne, Parkman, and Cooper, and all the tales Melville published in magazines during the 1850s.
Finally, there is the posthumously published masterpiece Billy Budd, Sailor, the haunting story of a beautiful, innocent sailor who is pressed into naval service, slandered, provoked to murder, and sacrificed to military justice. While encouraging questions for which there are no answers, it invites us to meditate on the conflicts central to all Melville's work: between freedom and fate, innocence and civilized corruption.
Pierre; or, The Ambiguities, published in 1852 (the year after Moby-Dick), moves between the idyllic Berkshire countryside and the nightmare landscape of early New York City. Its hero, a young American patrician trying to redeem the secret sins of his father, elopes to the city, discovers Bohemian life, attempts a literary epic, and struggles his way through incest, murder, and madness. Long a controversial work, it is Melville's darkest satire of American life and letters and one of his most powerful books.
A pivotal work, both for Melville's career and for American literature, Pierre was followed by Israel Potter, the story of a veteran of the Revolution, victim of a thousand mischances, and a long-suffering exile in England. Along the way are memorable episodes of war and intrigue, with personal portraits of Benjamin Franklin, John Paul Jones, and George III. In the exploits of this touchingly optimistic soldier, Melville offers a scathing image of the collapse of revolutionary hopes.
The Piazza Tales demonstrates Melville's dazzling mastery of many styles, including "The Encantadas," about nature's two faces--enchanting and horrific; the famous "Bartleby the Scrivener," about a Wall Street copyist who "would prefer not to"; and the enigmatic "Benito Cereno," about a credulous Yankee sea captain who stumbles into an intricately plotted mutiny aboard a disabled slave ship.
The Confidence-Man, Melville's last published novel, is in many ways a forerunner of modernist American fiction. An extended meditation on faith, hope, and charity as these are manifested on board a Mississippi riverboat one April Fools' Day, it presents a menagerie of Americans buying and selling, borrowing and lending, believing and mistrusting, as they are carried toward the auction blocks of New Orleans.
Many pieces never before collected are also included: the "Authentic Anecdotes of Old Zack" (burlesque sketches of Zachary Taylor's Mexican campaign), "Fragments from a Writing-Desk" (Melville's earliest surviving prose), reviews of Hawthorne, Parkman, and Cooper, and all the tales Melville published in magazines during the 1850s.
Finally, there is the posthumously published masterpiece Billy Budd, Sailor, the haunting story of a beautiful, innocent sailor who is pressed into naval service, slandered, provoked to murder, and sacrificed to military justice. While encouraging questions for which there are no answers, it invites us to meditate on the conflicts central to all Melville's work: between freedom and fate, innocence and civilized corruption.
1478 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1985
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403 people want to read
About the author
Herman Melville
2,380 books4,515 followersThere is more than one author with this name
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are Moby-Dick (1851); Typee (1846), a romanticized account of his experiences in Polynesia; and Billy Budd, Sailor, a posthumously published novella. At the time of his death, Melville was no longer well known to the public, but the 1919 centennial of his birth was the starting point of a Melville revival. Moby-Dick eventually would be considered one of the great American novels.
Melville was born in New York City, the third child of a prosperous merchant whose death in 1832 left the family in dire financial straits. He took to sea in 1839 as a common sailor on a merchant ship and then on the whaler Acushnet, but he jumped ship in the Marquesas Islands. Typee, his first book, and its sequel, Omoo (1847), were travel-adventures based on his encounters with the peoples of the islands. Their success gave him the financial security to marry Elizabeth Shaw, the daughter of the Boston jurist Lemuel Shaw. Mardi (1849), a romance-adventure and his first book not based on his own experience, was not well received. Redburn (1849) and White-Jacket (1850), both tales based on his experience as a well-born young man at sea, were given respectable reviews, but did not sell well enough to support his expanding family.
Melville's growing literary ambition showed in Moby-Dick (1851), which took nearly a year and a half to write, but it did not find an audience, and critics scorned his psychological novel Pierre: or, The Ambiguities (1852). From 1853 to 1856, Melville published short fiction in magazines, including "Benito Cereno" and "Bartleby, the Scrivener". In 1857, he traveled to England, toured the Near East, and published his last work of prose, The Confidence-Man (1857). He moved to New York in 1863, eventually taking a position as a United States customs inspector.
From that point, Melville focused his creative powers on poetry. Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866) was his poetic reflection on the moral questions of the American Civil War. In 1867, his eldest child Malcolm died at home from a self-inflicted gunshot. Melville's metaphysical epic Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land was published in 1876. In 1886, his other son Stanwix died of apparent tuberculosis, and Melville retired. During his last years, he privately published two volumes of poetry, and left one volume unpublished. The novella Billy Budd was left unfinished at his death, but was published posthumously in 1924. Melville died from cardiovascular disease in 1891.
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are Moby-Dick (1851); Typee (1846), a romanticized account of his experiences in Polynesia; and Billy Budd, Sailor, a posthumously published novella. At the time of his death, Melville was no longer well known to the public, but the 1919 centennial of his birth was the starting point of a Melville revival. Moby-Dick eventually would be considered one of the great American novels.
Melville was born in New York City, the third child of a prosperous merchant whose death in 1832 left the family in dire financial straits. He took to sea in 1839 as a common sailor on a merchant ship and then on the whaler Acushnet, but he jumped ship in the Marquesas Islands. Typee, his first book, and its sequel, Omoo (1847), were travel-adventures based on his encounters with the peoples of the islands. Their success gave him the financial security to marry Elizabeth Shaw, the daughter of the Boston jurist Lemuel Shaw. Mardi (1849), a romance-adventure and his first book not based on his own experience, was not well received. Redburn (1849) and White-Jacket (1850), both tales based on his experience as a well-born young man at sea, were given respectable reviews, but did not sell well enough to support his expanding family.
Melville's growing literary ambition showed in Moby-Dick (1851), which took nearly a year and a half to write, but it did not find an audience, and critics scorned his psychological novel Pierre: or, The Ambiguities (1852). From 1853 to 1856, Melville published short fiction in magazines, including "Benito Cereno" and "Bartleby, the Scrivener". In 1857, he traveled to England, toured the Near East, and published his last work of prose, The Confidence-Man (1857). He moved to New York in 1863, eventually taking a position as a United States customs inspector.
From that point, Melville focused his creative powers on poetry. Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866) was his poetic reflection on the moral questions of the American Civil War. In 1867, his eldest child Malcolm died at home from a self-inflicted gunshot. Melville's metaphysical epic Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land was published in 1876. In 1886, his other son Stanwix died of apparent tuberculosis, and Melville retired. During his last years, he privately published two volumes of poetry, and left one volume unpublished. The novella Billy Budd was left unfinished at his death, but was published posthumously in 1924. Melville died from cardiovascular disease in 1891.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
May 11, 2020
Massive book, but I only reread the little novella Billy Budd, which I haven't looked at since high school. Probably Melville is a very bad idea for teen readers (unless they come to Melville of their own volition, of course). But as an ancient mariner, I can see its worth, and how, with Billy, Claggart, and Capt. Vere, Melville looks at three "types" of men and of how fate can burn them (and in this case, did).
Billy is one of those we-all-know-one sorts whose great advantage in life is to be beautiful or handsome or whatever like-adjective you wish. On top of that, though, and much more rare, he's also innocent as a Garden of Eden rabbit. Claggart, on the other hand, is the type who simply finds himself driven to hate at the very sight of Billy. Yes, this was all pre-Freud, who would have a field day with the whole thing.
And Capt. Vere? A great miniature study of heart vs. head, emotion vs. logic, civil law vs. martial law. The good captain positions things like he has no choice -- no free will -- and has to do what he has to do, given the circumstance, location, players, and events. I would say the novella's ending states otherwise, but sometimes "otherwise" is beyond mere mortals' capabilities.
Thus are men sometimes pieces on a chessboard. Check, mate.
Billy is one of those we-all-know-one sorts whose great advantage in life is to be beautiful or handsome or whatever like-adjective you wish. On top of that, though, and much more rare, he's also innocent as a Garden of Eden rabbit. Claggart, on the other hand, is the type who simply finds himself driven to hate at the very sight of Billy. Yes, this was all pre-Freud, who would have a field day with the whole thing.
And Capt. Vere? A great miniature study of heart vs. head, emotion vs. logic, civil law vs. martial law. The good captain positions things like he has no choice -- no free will -- and has to do what he has to do, given the circumstance, location, players, and events. I would say the novella's ending states otherwise, but sometimes "otherwise" is beyond mere mortals' capabilities.
Thus are men sometimes pieces on a chessboard. Check, mate.
August 12, 2017
Herman Melville is the Paul McCartney of American Literature. His "Yesterday" is "Billy Budd" or "Moby-Dick", his "Temporary Secretary" is "Pierre". When he is good, he is the best you'll ever read. When he is bad, he makes Dan Brown look like Henry James.
Though, "Pierre" did inspire(?) this from me: Pierre
Though, "Pierre" did inspire(?) this from me: Pierre
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September 10, 2018Pierre or The Ambiguities
This is truly one of the worst books I have ever read. If he were alive, either Melville or I would be the target of a well-placed bullet. Irretrievably romantic, psychological, depressing and completely impractical, this work is beyond believability. So much is described in a tortuous introspection which, in reality, NO ONE ever contemplates before acting. A mysticism accompanies every motivation. He manufactures conflicts that, in a normal world, would never exist. An affluent, only child of a leading family discovers his late father had a daughter. Within four days of encountering her, he jettisons his perfect fiancé, destroys the wonderful relationship with his mother which leads to her brief insanity then death, rips up his entire future and runs away with his now sister, because he doesn’t want to tell anyone about her - it may cause a scandal! Really? And Melville builds a novel on this foundation? Absurd.
This is so verbose Melville must’ve charged by the word. He employed so many to say so little that this novel resulted in reducing his popularity and was a publishing disaster. Instead of saying, “The carriage splashed water on nodding heads of wheat.”, he’d say something about the carriage maker, the ancestry of the horse, how each seed was strewn on the soil, the components of the soil, how long the rain lasted, the ancestry of the driver, the farmer and anyone within sight, how Boreas decided to send the wind, and on and on. Melville admired his brilliance too much.
Having been so disappointed in this novel, I read reviews of the other two, Israel Potter and The Confidence Man, and decided not to continue to abuse my time with further reading of this volume. The Piazza Tales I have read elsewhere and they are much the better of anything in Melville. And, unwilling to have it pollute my bookshelves, I will sell this work
This is truly one of the worst books I have ever read. If he were alive, either Melville or I would be the target of a well-placed bullet. Irretrievably romantic, psychological, depressing and completely impractical, this work is beyond believability. So much is described in a tortuous introspection which, in reality, NO ONE ever contemplates before acting. A mysticism accompanies every motivation. He manufactures conflicts that, in a normal world, would never exist. An affluent, only child of a leading family discovers his late father had a daughter. Within four days of encountering her, he jettisons his perfect fiancé, destroys the wonderful relationship with his mother which leads to her brief insanity then death, rips up his entire future and runs away with his now sister, because he doesn’t want to tell anyone about her - it may cause a scandal! Really? And Melville builds a novel on this foundation? Absurd.
This is so verbose Melville must’ve charged by the word. He employed so many to say so little that this novel resulted in reducing his popularity and was a publishing disaster. Instead of saying, “The carriage splashed water on nodding heads of wheat.”, he’d say something about the carriage maker, the ancestry of the horse, how each seed was strewn on the soil, the components of the soil, how long the rain lasted, the ancestry of the driver, the farmer and anyone within sight, how Boreas decided to send the wind, and on and on. Melville admired his brilliance too much.
Having been so disappointed in this novel, I read reviews of the other two, Israel Potter and The Confidence Man, and decided not to continue to abuse my time with further reading of this volume. The Piazza Tales I have read elsewhere and they are much the better of anything in Melville. And, unwilling to have it pollute my bookshelves, I will sell this work
January 22, 2018
The “Library of America” did a fantastic job in choosing the writings from Melville in this collection. I only intended on reading “Pierre or, The Ambiguities” but found myself reading captivated by Melville’s writing. From the Piazza tales to Melville’s reviews of writers, like Hawthorne and Cooper; this read was worth it.
November 13, 2018
I was amazed just how much I loved this collection. Pierre was shockingly good, Israel Potter relatively typical, The Piazza tales well deserve their reputation and both The Confidence-Man and Billy Budd are masterpieces. I think this was about my fifth read of The Confidence-Man and it just gets better (and more complex) with every reading.
December 28, 2020
[just Billy Budd]
September 26, 2021
Absolutely beautiful, full of the late and more subtle vintage nursed in Melville's later obscurity.
Currently reading
September 2, 2025Bartleby the Scrivener---September 02, 2025
February 24, 2010
NOTE: Of the titles in this volume, this review concerns only The Confidence Man.
Melville’s last novel was met mostly with ignorance. Perhaps it was Melville’s form and style, summed by his own words, “There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness is the true method.” Though more true of Moby Dick than The Confidence Man, I suspect readers still didn’t quite know what to make of a novel that, despite being orderly by comparison, was nearly three-quarters dialog; without a discernable plot; and having no protagonist. However, the theme itself – an excoriation of “blind faith” in personal and business dealings – is the plot and protagonist. Ironically, it was a study of ignorance. Naturally, it was ignored.
Melville’s last novel was met mostly with ignorance. Perhaps it was Melville’s form and style, summed by his own words, “There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness is the true method.” Though more true of Moby Dick than The Confidence Man, I suspect readers still didn’t quite know what to make of a novel that, despite being orderly by comparison, was nearly three-quarters dialog; without a discernable plot; and having no protagonist. However, the theme itself – an excoriation of “blind faith” in personal and business dealings – is the plot and protagonist. Ironically, it was a study of ignorance. Naturally, it was ignored.
March 28, 2009
Pierre loves his mother like a sister, his sister like a wife, and his ex-fiance like a cousin. Plus two romantic friendships with a male cousin and boyhood friend. This is an insane book, beautifully written, poetic and philosophical, with one of the most sudden, craziest feel bad endings I've seen since Dostoevsky's The Demons. In the last few chapters there is one murder, two suicides, and one death by shock/heartbreak.
July 4, 2008
this is for the short works in this edition.
The Encantadas (In the Piazza Tales) is incredible: bizarre and rending and hopeful, uncanny spiritual textures.
Resembles Moby Dick in little excellent ways.
Benito Cereno! Bartleby! Billy Budd!
what more to say.
except maybe: The Clocktower!
The Encantadas (In the Piazza Tales) is incredible: bizarre and rending and hopeful, uncanny spiritual textures.
Resembles Moby Dick in little excellent ways.
Benito Cereno! Bartleby! Billy Budd!
what more to say.
except maybe: The Clocktower!
June 9, 2013
Oh, the stories are great, but what really tickles me about this volume is that in the real first edition, the author's name is spelled "Herman Meville" on the title page. Library of America pulled those from bookstore shelves as quickly as possible, and put out a false first edition with the page corrected. I have a real first edition. Do you?
April 21, 2010
I had to read "Pierre," "The Confidence Man," and various other Melville short stories out of this volume. I really enjoyed some of the stories and I really didn't care for others. Overall, this just reinforced the fact that Moby Dick was Melville's peak and it was all downhill from there.
January 21, 2019
Pierre - finished 11/26/14
Israel Potter - finished 01/20/15
The Piazza Tales - finished 04/11/16
The Confidence-Man - finished 04/17/17
Uncollected Prose – finished 07/22/18
Billy Budd - finished 01/20/19
Israel Potter - finished 01/20/15
The Piazza Tales - finished 04/11/16
The Confidence-Man - finished 04/17/17
Uncollected Prose – finished 07/22/18
Billy Budd - finished 01/20/19
February 28, 2016
The Confidence-Man -- ** You can see my review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Piazza Tales (and shorter fiction) -- **** You can see my review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
June 1, 2007
Check out the Paradise of Bachelors & the Tartarus of Maids
September 8, 2008
Well I have only read Moby Dick so far, but I still plan to read the rest.
February 27, 2009
2nd time through Confidence Man.
December 3, 2007
-- I'm reading Israel Potter.
Want to read
March 22, 2010Reading Pierre.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews