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The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade
Paperback
Series: Dover Thrift Editions: Classic Novels
Mystery & ThrillerScience FictionGeneral Fiction
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ISBN10: 0486817512
ISBN13: 9780486817514
Publisher: Dover Pubn Inc
Published: Nov 15 2017
Pages: 304
Weight: 0.40
Height: 0.70 Width: 5.00 Depth: 8.00
Language: English
ISBN13: 9780486817514
Publisher: Dover Pubn Inc
Published: Nov 15 2017
Pages: 304
Weight: 0.40
Height: 0.70 Width: 5.00 Depth: 8.00
Language: English
On April Fool's Day in 1856, a shape-shifting grifter boards a Mississippi riverboat to expose the pretenses, hypocrisies, and self-delusions of his fellow passengers. The con artist assumes numerous identities -- a disabled beggar, a charity fundraiser, a successful businessman, an urbane gentleman -- to win over his not-entirely-innocent dupes. The central character's shifting identities, as fluid as the river itself, reflect broader aspects of human identity even as his impudent hoaxes form a meditation on illusion and trust.
This comic allegory addresses themes of sincerity, character, and morality in its challenge to the optimism and materialism of mid-19th-century America. By the time of its publication, readers had pigeonholed Herman Melville as a writer of adventure yarns. The novel was completely misunderstood by the author's contemporaries, and its financial failure drove him away from fiction. With the passage of time, however, The Confidence-Man has come to be recognized for its stunningly modern techniques and its indictment of the dark side of the American dream.
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