Sheppard Lee, Written by Himself. Vol. 2 (of 2)

Published in 1836, this wild early American novel asks what happens when a man can literally step into another person's life. Sheppard Lee, our slippery protagonist, finds himself inhabiting the body of Abram Skinner, a wealthy miser who abandoned his own children. Now trapped in Skinner's skin, Lee experiences something unexpected: the genuine pull of parental love for children who despise him. The sons, spoiled by inherited wealth, have descended into vice. The daughter, whom Skinner neglected, faces an uncertain future. Lee must navigate this family's collapse from the inside, feeling real emotions for people he once observed from outside. It's a satirical juggernaut, dissecting how wealth corrupts, how parents fail children, and how identity might be the most fragile thing we possess. Bird writes with a satirist's precision, skewering American capitalism and the myth that money buys happiness. This volume crackles with dark humor and genuine pathos. For readers who wonder where science fiction came from, here is one of its strangest, most overlooked ancestors: a 19th-century body-swap novel that has lost none of its edge.