Confidence Game

James Judson HarmonProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 29K words
Chapters: 3

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Confidence Game by Jim HarmonAuthor: Harmon, Jim, 1933-2010,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Feb 26, 2016

Editor's review

Confidence Game is a work by Jim Harmon, reissued as a free eBook through Project Gutenberg and classified under American and Canadian literature (PS). Harmon was long active in pulp fiction and screenwriting, and his style tends to carry the brisk pace and dramatic tension of genre fiction. The title's hint of a "confidence game" makes the book a useful entry point for understanding mid-twentieth-century American popular literature. As a public-domain electronic text, its value lies not in binding or edition but in accessibility: readers can download the full text directly and observe how popular narrative of the time handled deception, interpersonal maneuvering, and mistaken identity. One should not expect heavy literary analysis; it is better read as a story with suspense, through which one can appreciate the craft of genre writing. For readers studying the history of popular fiction or the Project Gutenberg catalogue, it also has some value as a sample.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy mid-twentieth-century American popular fiction and want light suspense stories
Those who want free public-domain English eBooks for everyday English reading
Enthusiasts studying the Project Gutenberg catalogue or the history of popular literature
Writers who want to observe how genre narrative handles themes of deception and trust

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting deep literary analysis or classic, canonical texts
Readers who need a Chinese translation and do not want to read the English original
Contemporary readers unused to the pace and diction of early popular fiction

Reading tips

Read the story through once without looking up words, grasping the plot progression and character relationships
On a second reading, mark dialogue related to "trust" and "deception" and observe how the author builds suspense
Read it alongside other mid-century American popular novels in the Project Gutenberg collection and compare how they handle similar subjects
After finishing, summarize the core conflict in two or three sentences to check whether you have grasped the main narrative line

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a full-length novel?

The information only identifies it as a literary work by Jim Harmon, classified under American and Canadian literature, without stating its length. Texts in Project Gutenberg are usually complete works, but whether it is a novel or a novella/short story must be confirmed by opening the eBook text.

What English level is needed to read this book?

As mid-twentieth-century popular fiction, its sentence structures are generally not complex, but it contains slang and colloquial expressions of the period. Readers with intermediate English reading ability who are willing to use a dictionary can basically finish it.

Why is this book worth reading?

Its main value lies in being freely available and in offering a sample for observing American popular genre narrative. Readers can see how popular stories of that era organized suspense and handled interpersonal maneuvering, without the cost of buying a paper book.

Comments

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About the author

James Judson Harmon Author · American · 1933–2010

Jim Harmon (Harmon, Jim, 1933–2010), born James Judson Harmon in Mount Carmel, Illinois, was an American short-story writer and historian of popular culture. In the 1950s and 1960s he contributed dozens of short stories to science fiction magazines such as Galaxy and If, writing with a light, ingenious touch and finding fantasy in everyday situations; his representative pieces were collected in Harmon's Galaxy. Other titles in the collection, including Confidence Game, Break a Leg, Measure for a Loner, No Substitutions, Name Your Symptom, Charity Case, The Air of Castor Oil and Always a Qurono, show the variety of his short fiction. He is also known for his studies of the golden age of American radio, notably The Great Radio Heroes, which earned him the nickname "Mr. Nostalgia." Public information on the details of his life is limited, and existing accounts center on his science fiction shorts and his writing on nostalgia and popular culture.