The confidence-man : his masquerade
Melville, Herman, 1819-1891
The confidence-man : his masquerade / Herman Melville - New York : The Modern Library , c2003 - 331 p. ; 21 cm
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.
English
9780375758027
Melville, Herman, 1819-1891
Swindlers and swindling---Fiction.
Steamboats---Fiction
Mississippi River----Fiction
PS3566.A686 / H86 2006
FIC MEL
The confidence-man : his masquerade / Herman Melville - New York : The Modern Library , c2003 - 331 p. ; 21 cm
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.
English
9780375758027
Melville, Herman, 1819-1891
Swindlers and swindling---Fiction.
Steamboats---Fiction
Mississippi River----Fiction
PS3566.A686 / H86 2006
FIC MEL
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