Swindler, spy, rebel : the confidence woman in nineteenth-century America / Kathleen De Grave.

By:

De Grave, Kathleen, 1950-

Material type: Text

TextPublication details: Columbia : University of Missouri Press, �1995.Description: 1 online resource (x, 270 pages)Content type:

text

Media type:

computer

Carrier type:

online resource

ISBN:

0826260314
9780826260314

Subject(s): Genre/Form:

Additional physical formats: Print version:: Swindler, spy, rebel.DDC classification:

810.9/352042 20

LOC classification:

PS366.S95 D4 1995eb

Online resources:

Click here to access online

Contents:

1. Confronting the confidence woman -- 2. The confidence woman in context -- 3. Types of confidence women in history -- 4. Autobiographies of confidence women -- 5. Literature : muting the voice -- 6. The writer as confidence woman -- 7. Stowe to Wharton : a bold move.

Action note:

digitized 2010 committed to preserve

Summary: One would not expect a police officer to describe a criminal as "remarkable," "well worth knowing," or "excellent." Yet some did when their quarry was a confidence woman. Blackmailer, swindler, or pickpocket: the confidence woman could take any form. Regardless of their different motives and tactics, confidence women have much in common, for they have long been misrepresented in American literature and culture. In Swindler, Spy, Rebel: The Confidence Woman in Nineteenth-Century America, Kathleen De Grave redresses the exaggerations and distortions by examining how the line between fact and fiction blurs.Summary: Drawing from a variety of sources, such as memoirs, diaries, detective reports, newspaper accounts, and sociological studies written during the period, De Grave first presents a historical context. By comparing the exploits of such women as "Chicago May" Churchill, "Big Bertha" Heyman, and Ellen Peck to those of fictional women who used the same strategies in noncriminal situations, De Grave broadens the definition of the confidence woman beyond criminality to include adventuresses, soldiers/spies, and "gold diggers." Next, she relates how the confidence woman appears in autobiographies and in fiction. She further expands her argument to include the narrative devices of nineteenth-century women writers who used a kind of confidence game as a way to lure their readers into the text.

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Includes bibliographical references (pages 251-262) and index.

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One would not expect a police officer to describe a criminal as "remarkable," "well worth knowing," or "excellent." Yet some did when their quarry was a confidence woman. Blackmailer, swindler, or pickpocket: the confidence woman could take any form. Regardless of their different motives and tactics, confidence women have much in common, for they have long been misrepresented in American literature and culture. In Swindler, Spy, Rebel: The Confidence Woman in Nineteenth-Century America, Kathleen De Grave redresses the exaggerations and distortions by examining how the line between fact and fiction blurs.

Drawing from a variety of sources, such as memoirs, diaries, detective reports, newspaper accounts, and sociological studies written during the period, De Grave first presents a historical context. By comparing the exploits of such women as "Chicago May" Churchill, "Big Bertha" Heyman, and Ellen Peck to those of fictional women who used the same strategies in noncriminal situations, De Grave broadens the definition of the confidence woman beyond criminality to include adventuresses, soldiers/spies, and "gold diggers." Next, she relates how the confidence woman appears in autobiographies and in fiction. She further expands her argument to include the narrative devices of nineteenth-century women writers who used a kind of confidence game as a way to lure their readers into the text.

Electronic reproduction. [S.l.] : HathiTrust Digital Library, 2010. MiAaHDL

Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. MiAaHDL

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Print version record.

English.

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