| Description |
x, 319 pages ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Contents |
1. "It is good to be shifty in a new country": assessments of America: Melville's The confidence man: duplicity and identity in a new country -- Poe's credentials: the confidence man as a new world artist -- 2. How to do it: making a self for fun and profit: Benjamin Franklin and the model self -- Making it: from Enlightenment to gilded age -- Promise land -- Shape shifting and self-reliance -- A solitary performance at Walden Pond -- 3. Tricking tricksters: survival in a confidence culture: Inside the gilded age: P.T. Barnum, Tom Sawyer, and Huckleberry Finn -- Diddling on a large scale: robber barons, snopeses, and V.K. Ratliff -- 4. "Something further may follow of this masquerade": contemporary conning: Playing for real -- Faith on the run -- It's just a game. |
| Local Note |
Gift of Paul and Mary Haas. |
| Subject |
American prose literature -- History and criticism.
|
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American prose literature. |
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Swindlers and swindling in literature.
|
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Swindlers and swindling in literature. |
|
United States -- Civilization.
|
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United States. |
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Civilization. |
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Swindlers and swindling -- United States.
|
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Swindlers and swindling. |
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Prose américaine -- Histoire et critique. |
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Escrocs dans la littérature. |
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Escroqueries -- États-Unis. |
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États-Unis -- Civilisation. |
| ISBN |
0195029399 : $19.95 |
|
9780195029390 |
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