The confidence-man:his masquerade

The confidence-man:his masquerade is a novel originally written by Herman Melville in 1857. It is the last prose fiction published by Melville and was a failure in terms of sales and critical opinion.

The plot introduces us to a group of people, quite diverse, traveling on a steamboat. There, a swindler, through his cunning, will try to gain their trust. Moreover, it happens to be April Fool's Day (April 1st).

In this group of people the profile is very varied and we find from a criminal to a war veteran, a stockbroker or a philanthropist, all with very different characteristics.

The swindler tries to take advantage of this situation to get money from these people by gaining the trust of each of them.

To gain this trust, the swindler disguises himself in a different way according to the character's way of being. Thus, he disguises himself as a wealthy businessman, or as a beggar, depending on the person.

The story reflects that the swindler's interest was not only to get the money, but that he enjoyed the art of deception.

"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".