The Confidence-Man: A Norton Critical Edition

About this book

The Second Edition features significantly expanded explanatory annotations particularly of biblical allusions. "Contemporary Reviews" includes nineteen commentaries on The Confidence-Man eight of them new to the Second Edition. Better understood today are the concerted attacks on Melville by especially Presbyterian Congregationalist and Methodist reviewers. A new section "Biographical Overviews " embodies the transformation of knowledge about Melvilles life that has occurred over the last three decades. This section provides a wide range of readings of Melvilles life by Nathaniel Hawthorne Dennis Marnon and Hershel Parker among others. "Sources Backgrounds and Criticism" is thematically organized to inform readers about movements and social developments central to Melvilles America and to this novel including utopias cults cure-alls Transcendentalism Indian hating the Bible and popular literature. A Selected Bibliography is also included.