The confidence-man
his masquerade
by Herman Melville
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Onboard the Fidele, a steamboat floating down the Mississippi to New Orleans, a confidence man sets out to defraud his fellow passengers. In quick succession he assumes numerous guises - from a legless beggar and a worldly businessman to a collector for charitable causes and a 'cosmopolitan' gentleman, who simply swindles a barber out of the price of a shave. Making very little from his hoaxes, the pleasure of trickery seems an end in itself for this slippery conman. Is he the Devil? Is his chicanery merely intended to expose the mercenary concerns of those around him? Set on April Fool's Day, The Confidence-Man (1857) is an engaging comedy of masquerades, digressions and shifting identity, and a devastating satire on the American dream.
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Subjects
Fiction, Swindlers and swindling, Steamboats, Mississippi River, Confidence-man (Melville, Herman), Swindlers and swindling in literature, Classic Literature, American fiction (fictional works by one author), Fiction, general, Mississippi, fiction, Fiction, humorous, Children's fiction, Boats and boating, fiction, Humorous stories, Large type books, American literature, Fiction, humorous, general, Fiction, satire, Criminals, fictionPeople
Herman Melville (1819-1891)Places
Mississippi RiverShowing 11 featured editions. View all 100 editions?
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The confidence-man: his masquerade
2003, Modern Library
in English
- 2003 Modern Library pbk. ed.
037575802X 9780375758027
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The confidence-man: his masquerade
1990, New York, N.Y., USA, Penguin Books
in English
0140445471 9780140445473
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Book Details
Edition Notes
"Originally published in 1857"--T.p. verso.
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- Created November 16, 2011
- 7 revisions
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| January 19, 2024 | Edited by MARC Bot | uppercase bwbsku local_id |
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| July 16, 2021 | Edited by ImportBot | import existing book |
| November 16, 2011 | Created by LC Bot | Imported from Library of Congress MARC record |