Melville and Balzac: Pierre's French Model

Melville and Balzac: Pierre’s French Model JOHN HAYDOCK Hampton University n the “Historical Note” to the Northwestern-Newberry edition of Pierre, Leon Howard and Hershel Parker make a case for Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s IZanoni being the agent through which “Melville’sfirst thoughts and speculations [about Pierre] were brought into a focus.”l Their argument, as with those who follow the same line of speculation,z rests primarily on an accident of history: the acquisition by Melville of a copy of Zanoni during the initial composition of his seventh novel. However, in his reply to the donor, Mrs. Sarah Morewood, he clearlypostpones his reading of the romance and its companion indefinitely: At present, however, the Fates have plunged me into certain silly thoughts and wayward speculations, which will prevent me, for a time, from falling into the reveries of these books -for a fine book is a sort of revery to us - is it not? So I shall regard them as my Paradisein store. . . (NNCorrespondence 206). The primary weaknesses of the Zanoni theory stem from the assumption that Melville did read the book, and soon, before the completion of the original manuscript of Pierre on New Year’s Day, 1852.3There is no corroborating evidence of this. Besides,not only would the fine print have been a deterrent with his weak eyes, but he was also fully occupied in his own vocations. The affinities with Zanoni provided in any comparison with Pierre are vague and somewhat misleading by generality. The principal reason for this inadequacy is that Zanoni as a whole fits unquestionably the category of Gothic romance, not realistic sensational romance like Pierre. In fact, critics commonly label Zanoni a “Rosacrucianromance” because of its pervading and luxuriant mysticism. It is filled with “preternatural knowledge and unearthly Herman Melville, Pierre; 07 The Ambiguities, ed. Harrison Hayford, Hershel Parker, and G. Thomas Tanselle (Evanston and Chicago: Northwestern University Press and The Newberry Library, 1971), 371. Subsequent citations appear parenthetically in the text as NN Pierre. See, for example, Lynn Horths headnote in Herman Melville, Correspondence (Evanston and Chicago: Northwestern University Press and The Newberry Library, 1993), 205. Further references to this volume will be noted as NN Correspondence. Herman Melville, Pierre; or; The Ambiguities, ed. Hershel Parker and illus. Maurice Sendak (New York HarperCoflins, 1995), xxvii. Subsequent references to this edition appear parenthetically in the text as Kraken Pierre. L E V I A T H A N A J O U R N A L O F M E L V I L L E S T U D I E S6 7 J O H N H A Y D O C K power,”4dealing with an elixir of immortality, adepts fading into thin air, and other acts of “revery”as Melville implied in his letter to Sarah Morewood. No blatant occultism or magic or Masonic initiation appears in Pierre to compare with Zanoni. Melville’s book demonstrates for the most part an expression of natural psychology and the illusions ordinary life creates, not the installation of a would-be immortal magician. Moreover, Bulwer’s hero, Glyndon, founders in his resolve for entirely different reasons than Melville’s Pierre: He violates the rules of magical discipline set down by his teacher. Pierre fails from self-seduction, excess of thought in one unused to thinking, and sexual identification. Moreover,Zanoni concludes on the typical, positive note of the usual Victorian Christian romance,5 while Piewe, excludes such optimism and ends in ghastly, unavoidable tragedy. Such a divergence of a work from its source would be extreme, even if Piewe were intended to be parody . As far as Romantic conventions persist, Zanoni reflects the romantic vision of Goethe directly (Wolff 176), while Pierre presents a skeptical attitude to Goethe’sphilosophy (NNPiewe 208). One could easily conclude that Melville may have wished to satirize Zanoni in: Melville’s favorite, Carlyle, disliked Bulwer’s style emphatically (Wolff201), and some of the language of the narrator of Melville’s romance might suggest deliberate comic inflation. Furthermore, Melville had long ago left his “occult”phase behind for realistic representation, and the probability seems low that he would return to such an impractical and out...