Confidence trick (books and literature)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contents 1 Notable confidence tricks in literature 1.1 Nineteenth century 1.2 Twentieth century 1.3 Twenty-first century 2 See also

[edit] Notable confidence tricks in literature

[edit] Nineteenth century

• The Confidence-Man (1857) — novel by Herman Melville; the main character tests confidence of other people
• Les Misérables (1862) — novel by Victor Hugo; the Thénardiers, two of the primary villains, scam money from people
• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) — novel by Mark Twain; two characters, The Duke and the Dauphin are grifters
• "The Red-Headed League" (1891) — Sherlock Holmes story by Arthur Conan Doyle, which involves a sort of confidence trick used to enable a bank robbery

[edit] Twentieth century

• Simon Templar (1928—1963), also known as "The Saint," a main character in Leslie Charteris' novels and stories who is often involved in scams and cons
• The Twelve Chairs (1928) and The Little Golden Calf (1931) – satirical novels by Ilf and Petrov; the main character, Ostap Bender, is a con man, who has carried out most of the tricks listed below, and The Little Golden Calf contains a fictional secret society of con men called Children of Lieutenant Schmidt
• The Space Merchants (1953) — sci-fi novel by Frederik Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth is replete with con games practiced by corporations
• Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man: The Early Years (1954) – Thomas Mann's unfinished novel about a German con man
• The Stainless Steel Rat (1961 – present) – series of sci-fi novels by Harry Harrison; the protagonist, James Bolivar diGriz ("Slippery Jim"), is a con man and uses abundant schemes and frauds
• Travis McGee (1964–1984), fictional character in John D. MacDonald's series of detective novels, frequently uses con games or has them tried against him
• The Golden Egg (1984) — psychological thriller novel by Tim Krabbé features a chemistry teacher who employs con for the purpose of kidnapping
• Repairman Jack (1984–present), fictional character in F. Paul Wilson's series of novels, often runs scams on other con artists.
• If Tomorrow Comes (1985) — novel by Sidney Sheldon, which has a con artist as the main character and is mostly based on trickery and deception
• Hellblazer (1988 – present) — ongoing horror comic book series; the main character, John Constantine, uses confidence scams, trickery and magick

[edit] Twenty-first century

• The Brethren (2000) — novel by John Grisham features a con run by three incarcerated judges
• Matchstick Men (2002) — novel by Eric Garcia; the main characters are con artists
• American Gods (2001) — novel by Neil Gaiman uses a two-man con as a major plot element
• The Egyptologist (2004) — In this Arthur Phillips novel, Ralph Trilipush is a brilliant con who eventually cons himself.
• Going Postal (2004) — Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel features a convicted and condemned con artist Moist von Lipwig, who applies the principles of the con in his new job as Postmaster General
• The Lies of Locke Lamora (2006) — fantasy novel by Scott Lynch follows the adventures of a group of con artists known as the Gentlemen Bastards
• Many of the crime novels by Jim Thompson involve confidence artists

[edit] See also

Confidence trick