The Confidence-man

Herman Melville, Stephen Matterson, Stephen Matterson , Stephen Matterson

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English

Penguin Classics
25 August 2005

Classic fiction (pre c 1945)

In his introduction, Stephen Matterson discusses Melville's literary career, the role of the trickster in American literature, and themes of satire and religious allegory in this unusual novel

Onboard the Fid le, 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.

By: Herman Melville
Notes by: Stephen Matterson
Introduction by: Stephen Matterson
Edited by: Stephen Matterson
Imprint: Penguin Classics
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 197mm, Width: 128mm, Spine: 17mm
Weight: 278g
ISBN: 9780140445473
ISBN 10: 0140445471
Pages: 400
Publication Date: 25 August 2005
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Herman Melville (1819-91) became in his late twenties a highly successful author of exotic novels based on his experiences as a sailor - writing in quick succession Typee, Omoo, Redburn and White-Jacket. However, his masterpiece Moby-Dick was met with incomprehension and the other later works which are now the basis of his reputation, such as Bartleby, the Scrivener and The Confidence-Man, were failures. Melville stopped writing fiction and the rest of his long life was spent first as a lecturer and then, for nineteen years, as a customs official in New York City. He was also the author of the immensely long poem Clarel, which was similarly dismissed. At the end of his life he wrote Billy Budd, Sailor which was published posthumously in 1924.