{"product_id":"the-confidence-man-his-masquerade-paperback-1","title":"The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eHerman Melville\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Confidence-Man: His Masquerade\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eHerman Melville (1819 - 1891)\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade was the last major novel by Herman Melville, the American writer and author of Moby-Dick. Published on April 1, 1857 (presumably the exact day of the novel's setting), The Confidence-Man was Melville's tenth major work in eleven years. The novel portrays a Canterbury Tales-style group of steamboat passengers whose interlocking stories are told as they travel down the Mississippi River toward New Orleans. The novel is written as cultural satire, allegory, and metaphysical treatise, dealing with themes of sincerity, identity, morality, religiosity, economic materialism, irony, and cynicism. Many critics have placed The Confidence-Man alongside Melville's Moby-Dick and \"Bartleby the Scrivener\" as a precursor to 20th-century literary preoccupations with nihilism, existentialism, and absurdism.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eHerman Melville (1819 - 1891)\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 - September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick. His first three books gained much contemporary attention (the first, Typee, became a bestseller), but after a fast-blooming literary success in the late 1840s, his popularity declined precipitously in the mid-1850s and never recovered during his lifetime.\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 276\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.62 x 9.02 x 5.98 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e July 13, 2015\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42116345790599,"sku":"9781515053583","price":14.18,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0601\/2623\/2711\/files\/3b64f4371b420d8a22f56b1a712810c7.webp?v=1732515752","url":"https:\/\/booksby.splitshops.com\/products\/the-confidence-man-his-masquerade-paperback-1","provider":"Books by splitShops","version":"1.0","type":"link"}