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Abolition, compromise and "the everlasting elusiveness of truth" in Melville's 'Pierre.' (Herman Melville)(Fictions of Reform)

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From: Studies in American Fiction
Date: 19980322
Author:Sweet, Nancy F.

Herman Melville portrayed the sectional crisis of 1850 in his novel 'Pierre.' Melville's book challenged the desire, present then and in subsequent years, for Americans to see themselves as morally unambiguous and firmly on the side of historically-proven truth. Melville regarded the Congressional compromise about slavery as cowardly, and 'Pierre' shows the consequences of accepting immoral social norms.

Although readers of Moby-Dick have often seen reflections on the American political landscape within Herman Melville's masterpiece, they have resisted reading Melville's subsequent ...

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