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The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade

Herman Melville

Set aboard a Mississippi River steamboat on April Fool's Day, the story follows mysterious figures who may be the same man in disguise.

"The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade" by Herman Melville is a novel. Set aboard a Mississippi River steamboat on April Fool's Day, the story follows mysterious figures who may be the same man in disguise.

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At sunrise on a first of April, there appeared, suddenly as Manco Capac at the lake Titicaca, a man in cream-colors, at the water-side in the city of St. Louis.

His cheek was fair, his chin downy, his hair flaxen, his hat a white fur one, with a long fleecy nap. He had neither trunk, valise, carpet-bag, nor parcel. No porter followed him. He was unaccompanied by friends. From the shrugged shoulders, titters, whispers, wonderings of the crowd, it was plain that he was, in the extremest sense of the word, a stranger.

In the same moment with his advent, he stepped aboard the favorite steamer Fidèle, on the point of starting for New Orleans. Stared at, but unsaluted, with the air of one neither courting nor shunning regard, but evenly pursuing the path of duty, lead it through solitudes or cities, he held on his way along the lower deck until he chanced to come to a placard nigh the captain’s office, offering a reward for the capture of a mysterious impostor, supposed to have recently arrived from the East; quite an original genius in his vocation, as would appear, though wherein his originality consisted was not clearly given; but what purported to be a careful description of his person followed.

Contents

  1. 01Chapter I. A Mute Goes Aboard a Boat on the Mississippi.
  2. 02Chapter II. Showing That Many Men Have Many Minds.
  3. 03Chapter III. In Which a Variety of Characters Appear.
  4. 04Chapter IV. Renewal of Old Acquaintance.
  5. 05Chapter V the Man with the Weed Makes It an Even Question Whether He Be a Great Sage or a Great Simpleton.
  6. 06Chapter VI. At the Outset of Which Certain Passengers Prove Deaf to the Call of Charity.
  7. 07Chapter VII. A Gentleman with Gold Sleeve-Buttons.
  8. 08Chapter VIII. A Charitable Lady.
  9. 09Chapter IX. Two Business Men Transact a Little Business.
  10. 10Chapter X. In the Cabin.
  11. 11Chapter XI. Only a Page or So.
  12. 12Chapter XII. Story of the Unfortunate Man, from Which May Be Gathered Whether or No He Has Been Justly So Entitled.
  13. 13Chapter XIII. The Man with the Traveling-Cap Evinces Much Humanity, and in a Way Which Would Seem to Show Him to Be One of the Most Logical of Optimists.
  14. 14Chapter XIV. Worth the Consideration of Those to Whom It May Prove Worth Considering.
  15. 15Chapter XV. An Old Miser, Upon Suitable Representations, Is Prevailed Upon to Venture an Investment.
  16. 16Chapter XVI. A Sick Man, After Some Impatience, Is Induced to Become a Patient
  17. 17Chapter XVII. Towards the End of Which the Herb-Doctor Proves Himself a Forgiver of Injuries.
  18. 18Chapter XVIII. Inquest Into the True Character of the Herb-Doctor.
  19. 19Chapter XIX. A Soldier of Fortune.
  20. 20Chapter XX. Reappearance of One Who May Be Remembered.
  21. 21Chapter XXI. A Hard Case.
  22. 22Chapter XXII. In the Polite Spirit of the Tusculan Disputations.
  23. 23Chapter XXIII. In Which the Powerful Effect of Natural Scenery Is Evinced in the Case of the Missourian, Who, in View of the Region Round-About Cairo, Has a Return of His Chilly Fit.
  24. 24Chapter XXIV. A Philanthropist Undertakes to Convert a Misanthrope, but Does Not Get Beyond Confuting Him.
  25. 25Chapter XXV. The Cosmopolitan Makes an Acquaintance.
  26. 26Chapter XXVI. Containing the Metaphysics of Indian-Hating, According to the Views of One Evidently Not So Prepossessed as Rousseau in Favor of Savages.
  27. 27Chapter XXVII. Some Account of a Man of Questionable Morality, but Who, Nevertheless, Would Seem Entitled to the Esteem of That Eminent English Moralist Who Said He Liked a Good Hater.
  28. 28Chapter XXVIII. Moot Points Touching the Late Colonel John Moredock.
  29. 29Chapter XXIX the Boon Companions.
  30. 30Chapter XXX. Opening with a Poetical Eulogy of the Press and Continuing with Talk Inspired by the Same.
  31. 31Chapter XXXI. A Metamorphosis More Surprising Than Any in Ovid.
  32. 32Chapter XXXII. Showing That the Age of Magic and Magicians Is Not Yet Over.
  33. 33Chapter XXXIII. Which May Pass for Whatever It May Prove to Be Worth.
  34. 34Chapter XXXIV. In Which the Cosmopolitan Tells the Story of the Gentleman Madman.
  35. 35Chapter XXXV. In Which the Cosmopolitan Strikingly Evinces the Artlessness of His Nature.
  36. 36Chapter XXXVI. In Which the Cosmopolitan Is Accosted by a Mystic, Whereupon Ensues Pretty Much Such Talk as Might Be Expected.
  37. 37Chapter XXXVII the Mystical Master Introduces the Practical Disciple.
  38. 38Chapter XXXVIII. The Disciple Unbends, and Consents to Act a Social Part.
  39. 39Chapter XXXIX. The Hypothetical Friends.
  40. 40Chapter XL. In Which the Story of China Aster Is at Second-Hand Told by One Who, While Not Disapproving the Moral, Disclaims the Spirit of the Style.
  41. 41Chapter XLI. Ending with a Rupture of the Hypothesis.
  42. 42Chapter XLII. Upon the Heel of the Last Scene the Cosmopolitan Enters the Barber’s Shop, a Benediction on His Lips.
  43. 43Chapter XLIII Very Charming.
  44. 44Chapter XLIV. In Which the Last Three Words of the Last Chapter Are Made the Text of Discourse, Which Will Be Sure of Receiving More or Less Attention from Those Readers Who Do Not Skip It.
  45. 45Chapter XLV. The Cosmopolitan Increases in Seriousness.
  46. 46Transcriber’s Note and Errata

About this edition

Author
Herman Melville
Era
Modern (c. 1800–1945)
Reading level
Intermediate: some philosophy helps
Formats
EPUB, PDF
Length
291 pages
This edition
Modern Philosophers