Male, female, deft, fraudulent, constantly shifting: which of the masquerade' of passengers on the Mississippi steamboat Fidèle is the confidence man'? The central motif of Melville's last and most `modern' novel can be seen as a symbol of American cultural history.

Male, female, deft, fraudulent, constantly shifting: which of the masquerade' of passengers on the Mississippi steamboat Fidèle is the confidence man'? The central motif of Melville's last and most `modern' novel can be seen as a symbol of American cultural history.

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