Boscobel Seminars: Herman Melville’s Pierre: A Hudson Valley Story

Have you been missing college-level, discussion-based courses about literature and history in your life? Does reading and discussing a text with a small group of people sound like an enjoyable evening activity? Come join us at Boscobel for a four-week mini-course (no final paper!), where we will read Herman Melville’s Pierre; or, the Ambiguities in the context of Hudson Valley history. Part Gothic romance, part satire, part psychological investigation, the novel—set in a bucolic river valley in upstate New York—takes on themes just as thorny today as in the 19th century: class privilege, gender roles, and race. The three-class course will include a special look at Boscobel’s collection – objects such as the Dyckman family portraits and New York-made period furniture illustrate the novel’s setting in a uniquely material way.

Image: Portrait of Peter Corné Dyckman. New York ca. 1805. Oil on canvas. Purchase, 1961