The Confidence-Man
On April Fools' Day a Mississippi steamer leaves St Louis carrying a mute in cream, a coal-company agent, a herb doctor and a cosmopolitan in patchwork, each asking the passengers for a little trust. The talk turns on charity, on hating Indians, on whether any man can be relied on, and money changes hands in most chapters. Melville's last novel sold nothing; it now reads as the first American book about confidence as a currency.
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Closest analogues
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- 48% · 11 shared
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- 47% · 12 shared