The confidence man held a fascination for Melville, Hawthorne, Howells, Johnson J. Hooper, Bret Harte, and Mark Twain. In this study the writers are grouped in

Karen Halttunen draws a vivid picture of the social and cultural development of the upwardly mobile middle class, basing her study on a survey of the conduct ma

General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1857 Original Publisher: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans

In Moby Dick Melville set out to write a "mighty book" on "a mighty theme." The editors of this critical text affirm that he succeeded. Nevertheless, their prol

Drawing on modern studies of rhetoric and the concept of the Trickster, the author examines Herman Melville, Mark Twain, and Nathanael West as creators of a fic