The Confidence Man
About this work
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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Edition identifiers ISBN-10 0486825949
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
Need a specific edition?79 editions available
Bibliographic details
EN-language editions of The Confidence Man
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Edition2013 · Simon & Brown
- Language
- English
- ISBN-10
- 0486825949
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External search linksEdition2020 · Independently Published
- Extent
- 231 pages
- Language
- English
- EAN-13
- 9798631191785
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External search linksEdition2018 · Dover Publications, Incorporated
- Extent
- 368 pages
- Language
- English
- EAN-13
- 9780486817514
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External search linksEdition2019 · Independently Published
- Extent
- 225 pages
- Language
- English
- EAN-13
- 9781677697755
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External search linksEdition1984 · Northwestern University Press
- Extent
- 518 pages
- Language
- English
- ISBN-10
- 0810103249, 0810103257
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External search linksEdition1990 · New York, N.Y., USA
- Extent
- 351 pages
- Language
- English
- ISBN-10
- 0140445471
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External search linksPaperbackFebruary 28, 2007 · Dalkey Archive Press
- Extent
- 355 pages
- Language
- English
- ISBN-10
- 1564784541
- EAN-13
- 9781564784544
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External search linksPaperbackAugust 20, 2007 · BiblioBazaar
- Extent
- 312 pages
- Language
- English
- ISBN-10
- 1434643301
- EAN-13
- 9781434643308
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