Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man

Recommended by Susanna Siegel, Edgar Pierce Professor of Philosophy

An extended meditation on the relationship between personal freedom and the exhilaration that can come from controlling people’s perceptions purely by words, wit, gesture, and other embodied means of impersonation — not just in isolated moments of conversation, but in entire social roles. Felix Krull feigns illness to miss school and escape from military service, and eventually grows into a confidence man.