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

by Jonathan A. Cook

Overview

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 contexts: 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313294044
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	04/30/1996
Series:	Contributions to the Study of World Literature , #67
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)
Lexile:	1600L (what's this?)

About the Author

JONATHAN A. COOK has a Ph.D. from Columbia University. He has been a lecturer at Boston University and has published articles on Irving, Hawthorne, and Melville.

Table of Contents

Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction
Satirical Form: Parodic Masquerade
Historical Context: Mirror of Man
Allegorical Matrix: Mirror of God
Biographical Models: Fathers and Sons
Biographical Models: Literary Brethren
Interior Fables: Misanthropes and Philanthropists
Interpolated Essays: Apologia and Ars Poetica
Epilogue
Notes
Works Cited
Index

Editorial Reviews

A guide to Melville's novel, the last of his novels to be published in his lifetime, interpreting it as a satirical apocalypse in answer to the widespread millenial expectations of 19th-century America, written to express his feelings against his family and friends, the literary profession, and the Christian faith. Looks at Melville's life and career during the 1850s, and theoretical issues involved in the study of satire, and details the allegorical components of the novel and its characters. Of interest to literary scholars. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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