Melvilles last major work of fiction intended for publication, pre sents its readers with a. You may copy it, give it away or reuse it under the terms of the project gutenberg license included with this ebook or online at. Of all the grifters, the confidence man is the aristocrat, wrote david maurer, a proposition he definitely proved in the big con, one of the most colorful, well. The project gutenberg ebook of the confidenceman, by herman melville this ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. Herman melville the confidence man pdf free download. The book was published on the exact day of the novels setting. Published on the day it is set, april fools day 1857, herman melvilles last novel concerns a group of passengers travelling by steamboat along the mississippi. A mysterious shapechanging confidence man approaches passengers.
Long considered herman melvilles strangest novel, the confidenceman is a comic allegory aimed at the optimism and materialism of midnineteenthcentury america. Though centered around the title character, the confidenceman portrays a group of steamboat passengers whose interlocking stories are told as they travel down the. It was published on april 1, 1857, and, as we find out nearly at the end, after puzzling over the novels contradictions and riddles, the day it describes is also an all fools day. The classic 1940 study of con men and con games that luc sante in salon called a bonanza of wild but credible stories, told concisely with deadpan humor, as sly and rich in atmosphere as anything this side of mark twain. Topics herman melville, novel, confidence man collection opensource language english. His masquerade for your kindle, tablet, ipad, pc or mobile.
His masquerade, oxford worlds classics, tony tanner, oxford, oxford university press, 1989. Agregations externe et interne danglais bibliographie. The confidenceman offers platitudes and certainties to assure his marks that there are fixed values and then uses that faith to pull the ground out from under them. Published on april 1, 1857 presumably the exact day of the novels setting, the confidenceman was melville s tenth major work in eleven years. The confidence man by herman melville pdf free download ebook. The confidenceman wikisource, the free online library. His masquerade, harrison hayford, hershel parker and g. His masquerade, first published in new york on april fools day 1857, is the ninth book and final novel by american writer herman melville. The culmination of herman melvilles brilliant careeras a novelist, and the. Erie canal by a series of locks and levelsfar more interesting travel. Free kindle book and epub digitized and proofread by project gutenberg.
The grotesque in melvilles the confidenceman digital commons. Its interesting that in an authorial digression preemptively defending the book from imagined hordes of detractors melville asserts the value of inconsistency. The project gutenberg ebook of the confidenceman, by herman. Thomas tanselle ed, evanston and chicago, northwestern university press and the newberry library, 1984. The project gutenberg ebook of the confidenceman, by. Many critics have placed the confidenceman alongside melvilles mobydick and bartleby, the scrivener as a precursor to 20thcentury literary preoccupations.
192 390 1399 1403 1513 182 1290 177 220 840 1513 694 641 549 92 2 1427 118 446 401 510 1548 647 433 840 635 447 1497 1214 998 1456 863 1260 1447 662 652 1064 1161 350 1128