Skip to content
You are not logged in |Login  
     
Limit search to available items
Book Cover
Bestseller
BestsellerE-Book
Author De Grave, Kathleen, 1950-

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

Publication Info. Columbia : University of Missouri Press, [1995]
©1995

Copies

Location Call No. Status
 Rocky Hill - Downloadable Materials  EBSCO Ebook    Downloadable
Rocky Hill cardholders click here to access this title from EBSCO
Description 1 online resource (x, 270 pages)
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 251-262) and index.
Access Use copy Restrictions unspecified star MiAaHDL
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.
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.
Reproduction Electronic reproduction. [S.l.] : HathiTrust Digital Library, 2010. MiAaHDL
System Details 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. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL
Processing Action digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL
Note Print version record.
Subject American prose literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism.
Swindlers and swindling -- United States -- History -- 19th century.
Women and literature -- United States -- History -- 19th century.
Alienation (Social psychology) in literature.
Swindlers and swindling in literature.
Female offenders in literature.
Women spies in literature.
Deception in literature.
LITERARY CRITICISM -- American -- General.
Alienation (Social psychology) in literature. (OCoLC)fst00805273
American prose literature. (OCoLC)fst00807422
Deception in literature. (OCoLC)fst00888981
Female offenders in literature. (OCoLC)fst00922643
Swindlers and swindling. (OCoLC)fst01140414
Swindlers and swindling in literature. (OCoLC)fst01140418
Women and literature. (OCoLC)fst01177093
Women spies in literature. (OCoLC)fst01178573
United States. (OCoLC)fst01204155
Spion.
Betrüger <Motiv>.
Literatur.
Frau <Motiv>.
United States.
Chronological Term 1800 - 1899
Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc. (OCoLC)fst01411635
History. (OCoLC)fst01411628
Other Form: Print version: De Grave, Kathleen, 1950- Swindler, spy, rebel. Columbia : University of Missouri Press, ©1995 0826210058 (DLC) 95010288 (OCoLC)32201781
ISBN 0826260314 (electronic bk.)
9780826260314 (electronic bk.)
-->
Add a Review