The Confidence Man: His Masquerade

by Herman Melville

Overview

Herman Melville's The Confindence-Man: His Masquerade was the tenth, last, and most perplexing book of his decade as a professional man of letters. After it he gave up his ambitious effort to write works that would be both popular and profound and turned to poetry. The book was published on April 1--the very day of its title character's April Fools' Day masquerade on a Mississippi River Steamboat.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781605013312
Publisher:	MobileReference
Publication date:	01/01/2010
Series:	Mobi Classics
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	934,362
File size:	341 KB

About the Author

Herman Melville's reputation was immediately established in 1846 with the publication of his first novel, Typee, yet for the most part he lived in near-seclusion and died in relative obscurity for a man of his talents. He wasn't fully appreciated until the 20th century. The conservative religious Americans of his day didn't trust him: his unorthodoxy regarding religion, his South Seas travels, his cynicism, his bitter criticism of the hypocrisy of missionaries, and his satires of religion and religious figures made him an outcast. Today, however, some critics claim that only Dostoyevsky is his equal among 19th century writers. At seventeen, he became a merchant seaman, sailing first to Liverpool, where the sexual activity at the docks at first shocked him but then opened up a new world for him, for he was attracted to men. At age twenty-one, he sailed to the South Pacific. Four novels came from this experience: Typee, Omoo, Mardi, and White Jacket. Another early novel, Redburn, is set primarily aboard ship. Philosophically, the strength of his early novels is his disdain for the white man trying to force civilization onto a people who were blissfully happy without it. He particularly objected to the indoctrination of religion. All of the books contain an undeniable homoeroticism. Melville moved to the countryside to write Moby Dick. The novel is an adventure story and a tale of revenge, but it is also an audacious experiment. The reaction from critics was so harsh that from the publication of Moby Dick in 1851 until about 1938, Melville was not afforded much respect among scholars. In 1852, Melville published Pierre, which is autobiographical in its anatomy of the despair Melville was feeling at the rejection of Moby Dick. Pierre was scandalous for its day, almost as if Melville were thumbing his nose at society. Melville was now only thirty-two but considered a failed writer. His next story was refused for publication, so he retired and lived in relative obscurity for the remainder of his days. When he died, however, he left Billy Budd, which some critics think the equal of Moby Dick.

H. Bruce Franklin is the John Cotton Dana Professor of English and American Studies at Rutgers University-Newark. He has authored or edited eighteen books, including War Stars: The Superweapon and the American Imagination, M.I.A. or Mythmaking in America, Prison Writing in Twentieth-Century America, and Vietnam and Other American Fantasies. Franklin has lectured widely and his hundreds of articles and reviews have appeared in publications including The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times, Science, The Nation, and Discover.

Date of Birth:

August 1, 1819

Date of Death:

September 28, 1891

Place of Birth:

New York, New York

Place of Death:

New York, New York

Education:

Attended the Albany Academy in Albany, New York, until age 15

Table of Contents

1. A mute goes aboard a boat on the Mississippi
2. Showing that many men have many minds
3. In which a variety of characters appear
4. Renewal of old acquaintance
5. The man with the weed makes it an even question whetehr he be a great sage or a great simpleton
6. At the outset of which certain passengers prove deaf to the call of charity
7. A gentleman with gold sleeve-buttons
8. A charitable lady
9. Two bussiness men transact a little business
10. In th ecabin
11. Only a page or so
12. The story of the unfortunate man, from which may be gathered whether or no he has been justly so entitled
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
14. Worth the consideration of those to whom it may prove worth considering
15. An old miser, upon suitable representations, is prevailed upon to venture an investment
16. A sick man, after some impatience, is induced to become a patient
17. Toward the end of which the Herb-Doctor proves himself a forgiver of injuries
18. Inquest into the true character of the Herb-Doctor
19. A soldier of fortune
20. Reappearance of one who may be remembered
21. A hard case
22. In the polite spirit of the Tusculan disputations
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
24. A philanthropist undertakes to convert a misanthrope, but does not get beyond confuting him
25. The Cosmopolitan makes an acquaintance
26. Containing the metaphysics of Indian-hating, according to the views of one evidently not as prepossessed as Rousseau in favor of savages
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
28. Moot points touching the late Colonel John Moredock
29. The boon companiions
30. Opening with a poetical eulogy of the Press, and continuing with talk inspired by the same
31. A metamorphosis more surprising than any in Ovid
32. Showing that the age of magic and magicians is not yet over
33. Which may pass for whatever it may prove to be worth
34. In which the Cosmopolitan tells the story of the gentleman-madman
35. In which the Cosmopolitan strikingly evinces the artlessness of his nature
36. In which the Cosmopolitan is accosted by a mystic, whereupon ensues pretty much such talk as might be expected
37. The mystical master introduces the practical disciple
38. The disciple unbends, and consents to act a social part
39. The hypothetical friends
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
41. Ending with a rupture of the hypothesis
42. Upon the heel of hte last scene, the Cosmopolitan enters the barber's shop, a benediction on his lips
43. Very charming
44. In which the last three words of the last chapter are made the text of the discourse, which will be sure of receiving more or less attention from those readers who do not skip it
45. The Cosmopolitan increases in seriousness