{"product_id":"book-br5d","title":"The Confidence-Man","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn his ninth and final novel, cultural observer, novelist, and poet Herman Melville gives us a picture of everything wrong with America in the decade preceding the Civil War.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEvoking Chaucer's \u003ci\u003eCanterbury Tales\u003c\/i\u003e, this is a story of interlocking tales from a group of steamboat passengers traveling down the Mississippi toward New Orleans. Aboard the \u003ci\u003eFidèle \u003c\/i\u003ecan be found all manner of con man, from those selling stock in failing companies and herbal cure-all \"medicines\" to those who are raising money for a supposed charitable organization and those who simply ask for money outright. One man sneaks aboard ship to test the so-called confidence of the passengers, and everyone is forced to confront that in which he places his trust before journey's end. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMixing his trademark satirical style with allegory and metaphysical treatise, Melville's \u003ci\u003eThe Confidence-Man \u003c\/i\u003eis a precursor to the twentieth-century literary preoccupations with nihilism, existentialism, and absurdism.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Craig Black","offers":[{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":49301052260656,"sku":"BDbr5d","price":22.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Audio CD","offer_id":49301052293424,"sku":"ZEbr5d","price":34.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Audio MP3-CD","offer_id":49301052326192,"sku":"ZMbr5d","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2784\/9264\/files\/br5d-Square-cover.jpg?v=1775794029","url":"https:\/\/downpour.com\/products\/book-br5d","provider":"Downpour","version":"1.0","type":"link"}