Talk:The Confidence-Man

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Latest comment: 2 months ago by Maurice Magnus in topic Melville's nine novels

Ralph Waldo Emerson

This novel was also an expression of Melville's skepticism of Ralph Waldo Emerson's writings--User:Lord_Chess

Would you care to elaborate upon this idea with relevant citations? --Todeswalzer|Talk 23:23, 11 December 2006 (UTC)Reply

you can read the book on this link

http://www.online-literature.com/melville/confidence-man —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.162.105.10 (talk) 18:56, 15 September 2008 (UTC)Reply

Friends episode?

A search of the Friends site linked in note #4 reveals no episode titled "The One With the Confidence." To put in a reference to a nonexistent episode like this would be consistent with Melville's humor in the novel...but if the episode doesn't exist, it should probably be cut. Sorry to be a party-pooper. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Glenntwo (talkcontribs) 20:29, 18 June 2011 (UTC)Reply

Melville's nine novels

I am reverting your reversion, and I hope that you won't consider it an editing war, because I will explain your mistake. Melville's first nine books are all novels. A "romance" is a type of novel. See Romance (prose fiction). Although "Romance" as a type of novel has no precise definition, it is safe to say that none of Melville's nine novels are romances, according to the discussion at Romance (prose fiction). But it wouldn't matter if they were. Hawthorne's novels are often called "romances," but nobody would deny that they are novels. See "Literary styles and themes" under Nathaniel Hawthorne. Therefore, even if Melville's novels are romances, which they are not, they are nevertheless novels.

And certainly none of Melville's books are travel memoirs. One type of Travel literature is the travel memoir, and a memoir is "nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories." Melville's nine books are all fiction. Some are based to a degree on Melville's experiences, but many novels are based on their author's experiences. In none of Melville's novels is he a character; every character in all of them is fictional, even if some may be based to a degree on real people. Maurice Magnus (talk) 11:10, 31 August 2024 (UTC)Reply