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by: Herman Melville
List Price: $13.95Amazon.com's Price: $11.86 You Save: $2.09 (15%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.3
EAN: 9781564784544
ISBN: 1564784541
Label: Dalkey Archive Press
Manufacturer: Dalkey Archive Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 355
Publication Date: February 28, 2007
Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
Release Date: February 28, 2007
Sales Rank: 264970
Studio: Dalkey Archive Press
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
A scathing, razor-sharp satire set on a New Orleans-bound riverboat, The Confidence-Man exposes the fraudulent optimism of so many American idols and idealists--Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and P.T. Barnum, in particular--and draws a dark vision of a country being swallowed by its illusions of progress. It begins with a mute boarding a Mississippi boat and ends without a conclusion: 'Something further may follow of this Masquerade.' In between, the 'confidence man,' so well disguised as to avoid clear identification even by the reader, meets and tricks a boatful of unusual characters.
The culmination of Herman Melville's brilliant career as a novelist, and the introduction of a particularly American brand of satire that is as caustic as it is funny, The Confidence-Man creates an elaborate and beautiful masquerade that asks: who in this world is worth our confidence?
Why is Dalkey Archive doing yet-another edition of The Confidence-Man? And why is it doing Melville at all? First, this edition, originally published by Bobbs-Merrill over forty years ago, contains remarkable annotations by H. Bruce Franklin, intended for both the general reader and the scholar. It's an edition we have long admired. More importantly, we believe that The Confidence-Man is America's first 'postmodern' novel--game-like, darkly comic, and completely inventive.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - the Frank and Charlie show
H. Bruce Franklin's finely annotated Melville is once again available.
Perhaps not the best place to discuss the story, at least let's discuss the edition. I have always thought these footnotes have been a necessary part of this long running joke. The book seems tough and well-constructed. Not everyone's copy will be read through, but the others will be thumbed to death, almost like an airliner in static test destruction.
And what a ride! This is a story about story-telling ... Read More
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