Description

Book Synopsis
Onboard the Fidèle, 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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“The great transcendental satire.” —Carl Van Vechten

The Confidenceman

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    A Paperback / softback by Herman Melville, Stephen Matterson, Stephen Matterson

    £11.69

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      Book details

      Publisher Penguin Random House Group
      Imprint Penguin Classics
      Published 28 February 1991
      ISBN-13 9780140445473
      978-0140445473
      ISBN-10 0140445471
      Also in:
      Books by Herman Melville

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      Onboard the Fidèle, 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.

      Trade Review
      “The great transcendental satire.” —Carl Van Vechten

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