Humbug: Hoaxes, Impostors and the Art of the Swindle

The result is fourteen delightful tales for us and a number of new partners for him. With those partners (he always has at least one) he works his way through a number of confidence games. Some they win, some they lose, some go into extra innings. They seem never to end just the way you figure they will. In the end he conquers almost all, except for the English language, which often seems to defeat him. (Intro by Leslie Walden)

This was also (according to Twain) an attempt to write a book without mention of the weather, the first of its kind in fictitious literature. Indeed, all the weather is contained in an appendix, at the back of the book, which the reader is encouraged to turn to from time to time. (Summary by Wikipedia and John Greenman)

After the funeral (in Westminster Abbey), Priam Farll marries a widow and lives a happy life until the loss of his wife’s money means he has to take up painting again. A connoisseur of art recognises his style but thinks the paintings are by an imposter. He makes a fortune by buying his works through a small dealer and selling them in America as genuine. Meanwhile Priam Farll refuses through his obstinate shyness to prove his own identity. (Summary by Simon Evers)

But at the same time, a serious of notorious swindles, thefts and other crimes plagued London and the surrounding environs. The mysterious detective Klimo, did a thriving business by attempting to resolve the crimes. Little did Londoners suspect that Klimo and Carne were one and the same, and the notorious activity remained unsolved until a confession was obtained by Lord Amberly, from the man who became known as A Prince of Swindlers. - Summary by Dr.PGould

The novel portrays a Canterbury Tales-style group of steamboat passengers whose interlocking stories are told as they travel down the Mississippi River toward New Orleans. The novel is written as cultural satire, allegory, and metaphysical treatise, dealing with themes of sincerity, identity, morality, religiosity, economic materialism, irony, and cynicism. Many critics have placed The Confidence-Man alongside Melville's Moby-Dick and "Bartleby the Scrivener" as a precursor to 20th-century literary preoccupations with nihilism, existentialism, and absurdism. (Introduction by Wikipedia)

Despite supposedly completing the trilogy's second part, Gogol destroyed it shortly before his death. Although the novel ends in mid-sentence (like Sterne's Sentimental Journey), it is usually regarded as complete in the extant form.

In Russia before the emancipation of the serfs in 1861, landowners were entitled to own serfs to farm their land. Serfs were for most purposes considered the property of the landowner, and could be bought, sold, or mortgaged against, as any other chattel. To count serfs (and people in general), the measure word "soul" was used: e.g., "six souls of serfs". The plot of the novel relies on "dead souls" (i.e., "dead serfs") which are still accounted for in property registers. On another level, the title refers to the "dead souls" of Gogol's characters, all of which visualise different aspects of poshlost (an untranslatable Russian word which is perhaps best rendered as "self-satisfied inferiority", moral and spiritual, with overtones of middle-class pretentiousness, fake significance, and philistinism). (Summary from Wikipedia)

He transforms himself into 'Captain Face', and enlists the aid of Subtle, a fellow conman and Dol Common, a prostitute. In The Alchemist, Jonson unashamedly satirizes the follies, vanities and vices of mankind, most notably greed-induced credulity. People of all social classes are subject to Jonson's ruthless, satirical wit. He mocks human weakness and gullibility to advertising and to "miracle cures" with the character of Sir Epicure Mammon, who dreams of drinking the elixir of youth and enjoying fantastic sexual conquests. The Alchemist focuses on what happens when one human being seeks advantage over another. In a big city like London, this process of advantage-seeking is rife. The trio of con-artists - Subtle, Face and Dol - are self-deluding small-timers, ultimately undone by the same human weaknesses they exploit in their victims. (Summary by Wikipedia)

Cast: Subtle, First Neighbor: Elizabeth Klett Face: ToddHW Dol Common: Arielle Lipshaw Dapper, Second Officer: Nathanial W.C. Higgins Drugger, Third Neighbor: Thomas Leigh Moore Lovewit: Kevin Johnson Sir Epicure Mammon: Algy Pug Pertinax Surly, Fifth Neighbor, First Officer: Alan Mapstone Tribulation Wholesome: TriciaG Ananias: Martin Geeson Kastril: David Nicol Dame Pliant: Amy Gramour Fourth Neighbor: Charlotte Duckett Narrator: Kristingj

Link to Volume 2

Because of this he believed the photographs of fairies taken by the Cottingley girls were proof of the existence of such beings. In this book he presents his stance on the issue. Eventually it was proven that the photographs were indeed a hoax. (Summary by Amy Gramour)

The Donation of Constantine is a forged imperial decree, supposedly enacting a perpetual transfer of authority over the western part of the Roman Empire from the emperor to the Pope.

George Psalmanazar, who passed himself off as a native of Formosa (Taiwan), wrote a fanciful book about the island, which made a splash in 18th-century London.

The Great Moon Hoax was a series of fantastical descriptions of the moon, published in the 1830s by the New York newspaper The Sun, and falsely attributed to the famous astronomer Sir John Herschel.

Bram Stoker tells the legend of Sebastian of Portugal, the "Hidden King", and the story of Franz Mesmer, the purveyor of "animal magnetism" from whose name the word "mesmerize" is derived.

"An Architectural Monograph on a New England Village" is a painstakingly documented and illustrated description of a village that never existed.

James Macpherson presented the Poems of Ossian as a traditional epic cycle translated from Scottish Gaelic, but modern scholars believe that he largely wrote the poems himself.

E. G. Redmond tells of a hoax involving postage stamps, the first of which was conceived by a stamp collector in Germany.

"Sketch of the Mosquito Shore" was a glowing but false account of the Central American coast, in which one could buy land from the author.