SOURCE: “Why Pierre Went Wrong,” in Studies in the Novel, Vol. VIII, No. 1, Spring, 1976, pp. 7-23.

In the following essay, Parker examines documentary evidence such as Melville's correspondence with his publishers and reviews of Moby-Dick to suggest reasons why the author's focus on Pierre's psyche was diverted to self-analysis of his own literary career.

Melville's intentions in writing Pierre have been debated with intermittent energy for several decades, but many basic questions remain unanswered.¹ When and in what mood did Melville conceive it and write it? Did he conceive and begin it in one mood and finish it in another? Did he intend it to be a popular romance and only inadvertently or recklessly alter its course so that it was foredoomed to failure? Did he intend all along that it be simultaneously a profounder book than Moby-Dick and a book most readers could appreciate at a superficial...