Satirical Apocalypse: An Anatomy of Melville's "The Confidence-Man"

by Jonathan A. Cook

This valuable new addition to Melville studies offers a ground-breaking interpretation of Melville's last published novel, one of the most complex texts in American literature and a work that has long been noted for the divergent critical views it has elicited. Reading the novel as a generic hybrid of narrative satire and apolyptic vision, Cook situates the novel in its implicit theological, historical, and biographical he examines the novel's relation to Melville's heterodox ideas of the deity, to the increasingly commercialized cultural milieu of antebellum America, and to Melville's own life and literary career. Uncovering a wealth of new data on the novel's satirical applications, including its covert use of Melville's friends and family for character models, Cook offers a compelling reading of The Confidence-Man - one that is sure to influence our future conception of its creator.

296 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

There are multiple authors called Jonathan Cook. See Jonathan Cook, Jonathan Cook, Jonathan Cook, Jonathan Cook, Jonathan M. Cook, Jonathan Chase Cook, Jonathan C. Cook.