Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man: The Early Years

Thomas Mann. Stated first American edition. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1955. Both unclipped dust jacket and hardcover are in Very Good+ condition. Original price $4.50 on inside flap. Dust jacket designed by the great George Salter. Other than former owner signature, no markings or writing found in the book, 384 pp. Translated by Denver Lindley.   The book is from the estate of Jack Lockhart, New York. 

This was one of Mann’s most playful and ironic works, markedly different in tone from his more serious novels like The Magic Mountain or Death in Venice. Despite its comic tone, the book reveals deeper philosophical and psychological themes under the surface.

The book follows the youthful adventures of Felix Krull, a charming and intelligent young man who uses his wit, beauty, and flair for deception to climb the social ladder. Raised in a declining bourgeois family, Krull reinvents himself as a master of impersonation, eventually securing a position at a luxury hotel in Paris and impersonating nobility.

Hailed on the jacket as "the picaresque novel of our time," the novel follows Felix Krull, a rogue and artist, from his childhood through his early manhood. Prior to the authors Nobel Prize win.