The Confidence-man

Herman Melville, Stephen Matterson, Stephen Matterson, Stephen Matterson

From Shelf: Find the Connection. Answer: last book they wrote

Written by the author of "Billy Budd, Sailor" and "Moby-Dick", this novel is unfinished, although published in his lifetime. Set on April Fool's Day aboard a Mississippi steamer, the novel is a gloomy satire on American life and the state of distrust that exists between human beings.

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.