'Ambiguities indeed! One long brain-muddling, soul-bewildering ambiguity (to borrow Mr. Melville's style), like Melchisedeck, without beginning or end-a labyrinth without a clue - an Irish bog without so much as a Jacko 'the' lantern to guide the wanderer's footsteps - the dream of a distempered stomach, disordered by a hasty supper on half-cooked pork chops. " So judged the "New York Herald" when "Pierre" was first published in 1852, with most contemporary reviewers joining in the general condemnation: 'a dead failure, ' 'this crazy rigmarole, ' and "a literary mare's nest. "