NOTE: Of the titles in this volume, this review concerns only The Confidence Man.

Melville’s last novel was met mostly with ignorance. Perhaps it was Melville’s form and style, summed by his own words, “There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness is the true method.” Though more true of Moby Dick than The Confidence Man, I suspect readers still didn’t quite know what to make of a novel that, despite being orderly by comparison, was nearly three-quarters dialog; without a discernable plot; and having no protagonist. However, the theme itself – an excoriation of “blind faith” in personal and business dealings – is the plot and protagonist. Ironically, it was a study of ignorance. Naturally, it was ignored.

Absolutely beautiful, full of the late and more subtle vintage nursed in Melville's later obscurity.

Well I have only read Moby Dick so far, but I still plan to read the rest.

Oh, the stories are great, but what really tickles me about this volume is that in the real first edition, the author's name is spelled "Herman Meville" on the title page. Library of America pulled those from bookstore shelves as quickly as possible, and put out a false first edition with the page corrected. I have a real first edition. Do you?

Pierre loves his mother like a sister, his sister like a wife, and his ex-fiance like a cousin. Plus two romantic friendships with a male cousin and boyhood friend. This is an insane book, beautifully written, poetic and philosophical, with one of the most sudden, craziest feel bad endings I've seen since Dostoevsky's The Demons. In the last few chapters there is one murder, two suicides, and one death by shock/heartbreak.

I was amazed just how much I loved this collection. Pierre was shockingly good, Israel Potter relatively typical, The Piazza tales well deserve their reputation and both The Confidence-Man and Billy Budd are masterpieces. I think this was about my fifth read of The Confidence-Man and it just gets better (and more complex) with every reading.

I had to read "Pierre," "The Confidence Man," and various other Melville short stories out of this volume. I really enjoyed some of the stories and I really didn't care for others. Overall, this just reinforced the fact that Moby Dick was Melville's peak and it was all downhill from there.

Pierre - finished 11/26/14

Israel Potter - finished 01/20/15

The Piazza Tales - finished 04/11/16

The Confidence-Man - finished 04/17/17

Uncollected Prose – finished 07/22/18

Billy Budd - finished 01/20/19

The “Library of America” did a fantastic job in choosing the writings from Melville in this collection. I only intended on reading “Pierre or, The Ambiguities” but found myself reading captivated by Melville’s writing. From the Piazza tales to Melville’s reviews of writers, like Hawthorne and Cooper; this read was worth it.

-- I'm reading Israel Potter.

Massive book, but I only reread the little novella Billy Budd, which I haven't looked at since high school. Probably Melville is a very bad idea for teen readers (unless they come to Melville of their own volition, of course). But as an ancient mariner, I can see its worth, and how, with Billy, Claggart, and Capt. Vere, Melville looks at three "types" of men and of how fate can burn them (and in this case, did).

Billy is one of those we-all-know-one sorts whose great advantage in life is to be beautiful or handsome or whatever like-adjective you wish. On top of that, though, and much more rare, he's also innocent as a Garden of Eden rabbit. Claggart, on the other hand, is the type who simply finds himself driven to hate at the very sight of Billy. Yes, this was all pre-Freud, who would have a field day with the whole thing.

And Capt. Vere? A great miniature study of heart vs. head, emotion vs. logic, civil law vs. martial law. The good captain positions things like he has no choice -- no free will -- and has to do what he has to do, given the circumstance, location, players, and events. I would say the novella's ending states otherwise, but sometimes "otherwise" is beyond mere mortals' capabilities.

Thus are men sometimes pieces on a chessboard. Check, mate.

[just Billy Budd]