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THE CONFIDENCE MAX: His ISUsqvexde. BrEmxxxUelyilul New York: Dix k. Edwards.When a man of genius, as Mr. Melville trnques- | tionablj is, presents a book to the world, he is well ; aware that it will sell, and be read, for genius is so ; rare, and its intimations so refreshing, that people ’ are sure to avail themselves of its utterance. This : book will no doubt sell and re ward the publisher, a!- ■ though it will add no verdure to the green chaplet i of the writer.Passages of great beauty certainly abound; there are gleams of a fine insight; there is sharp lined , character-drawing; there are portraits even, so ruthlessly drawn that we do not fail of recognizing the originals as existing in life; the scene is well laid, also—on board of a steamer in that great Western . thoroughfare, the Mississippi; but the spirit which breathes into the work the breath of life, for the book is alive all through, is a ghastly, an unhealthy . one. It is better to be deceived a thousand times than live in perpetual distrust of our kind. A brave, , true man does not grow bitter because he has been , wronged, hut he learns a wholesome need from ; thence to do something himself to ameliorate evil in ; the world. , /The Confidence Man assumes various disguises on • board of this boat, all of which he sustains with ad* \ mirable tact and consummate ability; the character 1is drawn with wonderful skill and completeness; his ease, his assurance, his gentlemanly instincts are hit off to the life; but he is a vampyre who gloats over the credulity of his kind, and preys upon their sensibilities that he may reach their pockets. The writer has expended talent and thought enough i upon tbi9 scoundrel to have constructed a hero who ] should challenge our love, and the whole tissue of , the book is made black and revolting by a delinea- , gtlon which is devilish rather than human.The work will do positive harm, by unsettling ideas, sowing distrust, and hardening as to our kind* We arise from its perusal as if awaking from an in-eabue. This is not the province of art, which Is to elevate, to inspire. It is a desseeration of the fine talents and affluent genius of the author, who, it is to be hoped, will not give more space to a subject which is already too well completed. Satire that has no mellowness is inhuman; we are made worserather than better from it. T
Newspaper Details
United States Journal
Spruce, New York, US
Fri, May 01, 1857
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Scott N.
USA 04 Mar 2020
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United States Journal
