The Confidence-Man

His Masquerade

Herman Melville

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9780486817514
• eBook ISBN: 9780486825946
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Classics
• Index: Literature

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Note
• Contents
• Chapter 1. A Mute Goes Aboard a Boat on the Mississippi
• Chapter 2. Showing That Many Men Have Many Minds
• Chapter 3. In Which a Variety of Characters Appear
• Chapter 4. Renewal of Old Acquaintance
• Chapter 5. The Man with the Weed Makes It an Even Question Whether He Be a Great Sage or a Great Simpleton
• Chapter 6. At the Outset of Which Certain Passengers Prove Deaf to the Call of Charity
• Chapter 7. A Gentleman with Gold Sleeve-Buttons
• Chapter 8. A Charitable Lady
• Chapter 9. Two Business Men Transact a Little Business
• Chapter 10. In the Cabin
• Chapter 11. Only a Page or So
• Chapter 12. Story of the Unfortunate Man, from Which May Be Gathered Whether or No He Has Been Justly So Entitled
• Chapter 13. The Man with the Traveling-Cap Evinces Much Humanity, and in a Way Which Would Seem to Show Him to Be One of the Most Logical of Optimists
• Chapter 14. Worth the Consideration of Those to Whom It May Prove Worth Considering
• Chapter 15. An Old Miser, upon Suitable Representation, Is Prevailed upon to Venture an Investment
• Chapter 16. A Sick Man, After Some Impatience, Is Induced to Become a Patient
• Chapter 17. Towards the End of Which the Herb-Doctor Proves Himself a Forgiver of Injuries
• Chapter 18. Inquest into the True Character of the Herb-Doctor
• Chapter 19. A Soldier of Fortune
• Chapter 20. Reappearance of One Who May Be Remembered
• Chapter 21. A Hard Case
• Chapter 22. In the Polite Spirit of the Tusculan Disputations
• Chapter 23. In Which the Powerful Effect of Natural Scenery Is Evinced in the Case of the Missourian, Who, in View of the Region Round About Cairo, Has a Return of His Chilly Fit
• Chapter 24. A Philanthropist Undertakes to Convert a Misanthrope, but Does Not Get Beyond Confuting Him
• Chapter 25. The Cosmopolitan Makes an Acquaintance
• Chapter 26. Containing the Metaphysics of Indian-Hating, According to the Views of One Evidently Not So Prepossessed as Rousseau in Favor of Savages
• Chapter 27. Some Account of a Man of Questionable Morality, but Who, Nevertheless, Would Seem Entitled to the Esteem of That Eminent English Moralist Who Said He Liked a Good Hater
• Chapter 28. Moot Points Touching the Late Colonel John More-dock
• Chapter 29. The Boon Companions
• Chapter 30. Opening with a Poetical Eulogy of the Press, and Continuing with Talk Inspired by the Same
• Chapter 31. A Metamorphosis More Surprising Than Any in Ovid
• Chapter 32. Showing That the Age of Magic and Magicians Is Not Yet Over
• Chapter 33. Which May Pass for Whatever It May Prove to Be Worth
• Chapter 34. In Which the Cosmopolitan Tells the Story of the Gentleman-Madman
• Chapter 35. In Which the Cosmopolitan Strikingly Evinces the Artlessness of His Nature
• Chapter 36. In Which the Cosmopolitan Is Accosted by a Mystic, Whereupon Ensues Pretty Much Such Talk as Might Be Expected
• Chapter 37. The Mystical Master Introduces the Practical Disciple
• Chapter 38. The Disciple Unbends, and Consents to Act a Social Part
• Chapter 39. The Hypothetical Friends
• Chapter 40. In Which the Story of China Aster Is, at Second-Hand, Told by One Who, While Not Disapproving the Moral, Disclaims the Spirit of the Style
• Chapter 41. Ending with a Rupture of the Hypothesis
• Chapter 42. Upon the Heel of the Last Scene, the Cosmopolitan Enters the Barber’s Shop, a Benediction on His Lips
• Chapter 43. Very Charming
• Chapter 44. In Which the Last Three Words of the Last Chapter Are Made the Text of Discourse, Which Will Be Sure of Receiving More or Less Attention from Those Readers Who Do Not Skip It
• Chapter 45. The Cosmopolitan Increases in Seriousness