The Confidence-man: His Masquerade

Front Cover
Northwestern University Press, 1988 - Fiction - 518 pages
Long considered Melville's strangest novel, The Confidence-Man is a comic allegory aimed at the optimism and materialism of mid-nineteenth century America. A shape-shifting Confidence-Man approaches passengers on a Mississippi River steamboat and, winning over his not-quite-innocent victims with his charms, urges each to trust in the cosmos, in nature, and even in human nature--with predictable results. In Melville's time the book was such a failure he abandoned fiction writing for twenty years; only in the twentieth century did critics celebrate its technical virtuosity, wit, comprehensive social vision, and wry skepticism.

This scholarly edition includes a Historical Note offering a detailed account of the novel's composition, publication, reception, and subsequent critical history. In addition the editors present the twenty-six surviving manuscript leaves and scraps with full transcriptions and analytical commentary.

This scholarly edition aims to present a text as close to the author's intention as surviving evidence permits. Based on collations of both editions publishing during Melville's lifetime, it incorporates 138 emendations made by the present editors. It is an Approved Text of the Center for Editions of American Authors (Modern Language Association of America).
 

Contents

Chapter
3
In which a variety of characters appear
10
Renewal of old acquaintance
18
The man with the weed makes it an even question whether he be
24
A gentleman with gold sleevebuttons
35
A charitable lady
43
In the cabin
52
Chapter 11
58
The boon companions
160
Opening with a poetical eulogy of the Press and continuing with
167
A metamorphosis more surprising than any in Ovid
179
In which the Cosmopolitan strikingly evinces the artlessness of his
187
The mystical master introduces the practical disciple
197
In which the story of China Aster is at secondhand told by
208
Ending with a rupture of the hypothesis
221
Very charming
231

The man with the travelingcap evinces much humanity and in
64
An old miser upon suitable representations is prevailed upon
72
Towards the end of which the HerbDoctor proves himself
84
A soldier of fortune
93
Reappearance of one who may be remembered
101
In which the powerful effect of natural scenery is evinced in the case
129
The Cosmopolitan makes an acquaintance
139
Some account of a man of questionable morality but who never
152
In which the last three words of the last chapter are made the text
238
HISTORICAL NOTE By Watson Branch
253
64
310
224
355
TEXTUAL RECORD By the Editors
359
RELATED DOCUMENTS By Harrison Hayford
401
Copyright

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About the author (1988)

HERMAN MELVILLE (1819-1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick. His first three books gained much contemporary attention (the first, Typee, becoming a bestseller), and after a fast-blooming literary success in the late 1840s, his popularity declined precipitously in the mid-1850s and never recovered during his lifetime. When he died in 1891, he was almost completely forgotten. It was not until the "Melville Revival" in the early 20th century that his work won recognition, especially Moby-Dick, which was hailed as one of the literary masterpieces of both American and world literature. He was the first writer to have his works collected and published by the Library of America.