Pierre
Herman Melville
Literature & Fiction
Pierre
Free
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Herman Melville's second book, Omoo, begins where his first book, Typee, leaves off. As the author described the book, "It embraces adventures in the South Seas (of a totally different character from 'Typee') and includes an eventful cruise in an English Colonial Whaleman (a Sydney Ship) and a comical residence on the island of Tahiti." The popular success of Melville's first book encouraged him to write this sequel, hoping it would be "a fitting successor" to Typee, which delineates Polynesian life "in its primitive state, " while Omoo represents it "as affected by intercourse with the whites" and also "describes the 'man about town' sort of life, led, at the present day, by roving sailors in the Pacific." Wait Whitman found Omoo "the most readable sort of reading" and praised its "richly good-natured style." But many reviewers doubted the author's veracity and some objected to his "raciness" and "indecencies." Some also denounced his criticism of missionary endeavors, for Melville returned inOmoo to the attack upon the missionaries he had begun in Typee, making his second book more polemical than his first. Over the years, however, readers have been charmed by both books. The reading of Omoo influenced such later visitors to Tahiti as Pierre Loti, Henry Adams, John LaFarge, and Jack London; it was the book that sent Robert Louis Stevenson to the South Seas.

Language
English
ISBN
Unknown
PIERRE: OR, THE AMBIGUITIES.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PIERRE.
BOOK I. PIERRE JUST EMERGING FROM HIS TEENS.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
BOOK II. LOVE, DELIGHT, AND ALARM.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
BOOK III. THE PRESENTIMENT AND THE VERIFICATION.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
BOOK IV. RETROSPECTIVE.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
BOOK V. MISGIVINGS AND PREPARATIONS.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
BOOK VI. ISABEL, AND THE FIRST PART OF THE STORY OF ISABEL.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
BOOK VII. INTERMEDIATE BETWEEN PIERRE'S TWO INTERVIEWS WITH ISABEL AT THE FARM-HOUSE.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
BOOK VIII. THE SECOND INTERVIEW AT THE FARM-HOUSE, AND THE SECOND PART OF THE STORY OF ISABEL. THEIR IMMEDIATE IMPULSIVE EFFECT UPON PIERRE.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
BOOK IX. MORE LIGHT, AND THE GLOOM OF THAT LIGHT. MORE GLOOM, AND THE LIGHT OF THAT GLOOM.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
BOOK X. THE UNPRECEDENTED FINAL RESOLUTION OF PIERRE.
I.
II.
III.
BOOK XI. HE CROSSES THE RUBICON
I.
II.
III.
IV.
BOOK XII. ISABEL: MRS. GLENDINNING: THE PORTRAIT: AND LUCY.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
BOOK XIII. THEY DEPART THE MEADOWS.
I.
II.
BOOK XIV. THE JOURNEY AND THE PAMPHLET.
I.
II.
III.
BOOK XV. THE COUSINS.
I.
II.
III.
BOOK XVI. FIRST NIGHT OF THEIR ARRIVAL IN THE CITY.
I.
II.
III.
BOOK XVII. YOUNG AMERICA IN LITERATURE.
I.
II.
III.
BOOK XVIII. PIERRE, AS A JUVENILE AUTHOR, RECONSIDERED.
I.
II.
BOOK XIX. THE CHURCH OF THE APOSTLES.
I.
II.
BOOK XX. CHARLIE MILLTHORPE.
I.
II.
BOOK XXI. PIERRE IMMATURELY ATTEMPTS A MATURE WORK. TIDINGS FROM THE MEADOWS. PLINLIMMON.
I.
II.
III.
BOOK XXII. THE FLOWER-CURTAIN LIFTED FROM BEFORE A TROPICAL AUTHOR, WITH SOME REMARKS ON THE TRANSCENDENTAL FLESH-BRUSH PHILOSOPHY.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
BOOK XXIII. A LETTER FOR PIERRE. ISABEL. ARRIVAL OF LUCY'S EASEL AND TRUNKS AT THE APOSTLES'.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
BOOK XXIV. LUCY AT THE APOSTLES.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
BOOK XXV. LUCY, ISABEL, AND PIERRE. PIERRE AT HIS BOOK. ENCELADUS.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
BOOK XXVI. A WALK: A FOREIGN PORTRAIT: A SAIL: AND THE END.
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
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