Promotional Information

Offers a revelatory new reading of Melville's last published novel; situating The Confidence-Man in its biographical, social, and theological contexts.

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

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.

Reviews

"Jonathan Cook has written a lucid and useful study, one all readers of Melville will be glad to have. Satirical Apocalypse provides a rich, historically informed reading of Melville's most enigmatic novel, The Confidence-Man. Cook's discussions of Melville's satirical purposes and allegorical structure are especially illuminating."-Larry J. Reynolds, Thomas Franklin Mayo Professor in Liberal Arts, Texas A&M University

?In this exhaustive study, Cook examines an impressive array of contextual material. Eschewing theory and jargon, Cook offers straightforward, persuasive, and impressively informed readings of characters and scenes as satires of political, religious, social, literary, and familial issues and events....Cook's study is invaluable as a guide to a complex and elusive novel....the book will be immensely valuable to Melville scholars and students of 19th-century America because it clearly summarizes all relevant historical and biographical material. All subsequent commentary on The Confidence-Man will have to consider Cook's work.?-Choice

"In this exhaustive study, Cook examines an impressive array of contextual material. Eschewing theory and jargon, Cook offers straightforward, persuasive, and impressively informed readings of characters and scenes as satires of political, religious, social, literary, and familial issues and events....Cook's study is invaluable as a guide to a complex and elusive novel....the book will be immensely valuable to Melville scholars and students of 19th-century America because it clearly summarizes all relevant historical and biographical material. All subsequent commentary on The Confidence-Man will have to consider Cook's work."-Choice