Melville's "The Confidence-Man"

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This paper will explore one of Melville's least-known novels:"The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade."Of course Melville's greatest, best-known and largely unread masterpiece is"Moby-Dick,"the novel that everyone intends to read, but never really gets to or finishes; it is widely considered a`difficult'book. If this can be said of"Moby-Dick"then"The Confidence-Man"is an almost impossible book. It was Melville's last novel and the great merit of this work is its characterization of the American people in the 1850s. Admittedly, Melville was an embittered writer by this time; but he was too much of a philosopher not to be truthful about Americans and their behaviors and attitudes. His people in this novel accurately portray some of the strengths and weaknesses of Americans, at that time and this; these traits are still relevant to an understanding of America and Americans; this is perhaps truer today than in 1857.
2009-12-24