Confidence tricks in literature

This is a list of notable literary works involving confidence tricks.

Nineteenth century and earlier

• The Book of Swindles (Du pian xin shu, 1617) – story collection by Zhang Yingyu; ^[1] China's first collection of stories about fraud, featuring twenty-four categories of swindle, circa late Ming dynasty
• The Government Inspector (1836) – play by Nikolai Gogol; the main character deceives the corrupt officials of a small town into believing that he is a government inspector
• Dead Souls (1836) – novel by Nikolai Gogol; ^[2] the main character poses as a wealthy landowner so that he can acquire the souls of dead serfs
• The Confidence-Man (1857) – novel by Herman Melville; ^[3] 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; ^[4] 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

Twentieth century

• The Miracle Man (1914), play by George M. Cohan, the main characters are con artists.
• Simon Templar (published 1928–1963), also known as "The Saint", a main character in Leslie Charteris' novels and stories who is often involved in scams and cons ^[5]
• The Twelve Chairs (1928) and The Little Golden Calf (1931) – satirical novels by Ilf and Petrov; ^[6] 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
• Farewell, My Lovely (1940) – novel by Raymond Chandler, the villains Marriott and Amthor are con-artists.
• The Space Merchants (1952) – sci-fi novel by Frederik Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth is full of 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 (published 1964–1984) – a character in John D. MacDonald's series of detective novels, frequently uses con games or has them tried against him
• Only When I Larf (1968) – comic thriller by Len Deighton describing the activities of a team of three fictional confidence tricksters.
• 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) – a 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
• The Brethren (2000) – novel by John Grisham features a con run by three incarcerated judges

Twenty-first century

• 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 ^[7]
• 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
• The Collectors (2006) – novel by David Baldacci; one of the main characters cons a casino owner out of $40 million
• Mr. Monk in Trouble – mystery novel by Lee Goldberg based on the television series Monk features several subplots set in the 1850s where criminals salt their mines with rather ingenious methods
• Six of Crows (2015) – a fantasy novel by Leigh Bardugo; one of the main seeks revenge on the man who once conned him and his brother

See also

• Picaresque novel

References

1. Carlitz, Katherine (2019-11-01). "The Book of Swindles: Selections from a Late Ming Collection". Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture. 6 (2): 483–486. doi:10.1215/23290048-8042032. ISSN   2329-0048.
2. Cornwell, Neil (2006). The Absurd in Literature. Manchester University Press. p. 45. ISBN   978-0-719-07409-7.
3. Knight, Peter (2021). Reading the Market: Genres of Financial Capitalism in Gilded Age America. Johns Hopkins University Press. doi:10.1353/book.47478.
4. Hutchinson, Stuart (1991), "Twain: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)", The American Scene, London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 113–129, doi:10.1057/9780230373198_7, ISBN   978-1-349-39011-3 , retrieved 2025-11-10
5. Mason, Fran (2012), "Between Law and Crime: The Chivalric 'Criminal' Detective", Hollywood's Detectives, London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 51–78, doi:10.1057/9780230358676_3, ISBN   978-1-349-36767-2 , retrieved 2025-11-10
6. Likhachev, Dimitriy Sergeyevich (1983). "Two Literary Descendants of Jingle in Russian Soviet Literature". Dickens Studies Newsletter. 14 (3): 97–101. ISSN   0012-2432.
7. Stepanek, Ellyn (2008). POP-CULTURE ARTIFACTS: VICE, VIRTUE AND VALUES IN AMERICAN GODS (Thesis). Cleveland State University.