The Confidence-Man

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Melville's allegorical satire of antebellum American Life, The Confidence-Man is a challenging metaphysical and ethical exploration of American society. "In The Confidence-Man," writes John Bryant in his Introduction, "Melville found a way to render our tragic sense of self and society through the comic strategies of the confidence game. He puts the reader in the game to play its parts and to contemplate the inconsistencies of its knaves and fools.

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The great transcendental satire. Carl Van Vechten

Author Bio

John Bryant is a professor of English at Hofstra University and the editor of the Melville Society's journal, Leviathan. He is the author of Melville and Repose and The Fluid Text. He is also the editor of Melville's Tales, Poems, and Other Writings, published by the Modern Library.