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Riveting. --Daily Mail
A joy to read. --The Independent on Sunday
A brisk, breezy and hugely entertaining survey of literary hoaxes over the past couple of centuries. --Financial Times
A joy to read. --The Independent on Sunday
A brisk, breezy and hugely entertaining survey of literary hoaxes over the past couple of centuries. --Financial Times
Book Description
The ultimate readers' guide to the works that fooled publishers, readers and critics the world over
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have always been interested in things which are not quite what they seem so I was immediately intrigued by this book. It details some of the most well known literary hoaxes - such as Hitler's Diaries, Chatterton's poetry and William Henry Ireland's fake Shakespeare documents. There are also many others less well known. The author suggests that Australia has been the largest producer of literary hoaxes relative to the size of its population and she devotes a whole chapter to specifically Australian hoaxes. The most well known of these is perhaps the Ern Malley poems - supposedly written by a nearly illiterate garage mechanic but actually penned by two poets who were getting tired of the fads and fancies of the literary scene.
What I found most interesting about the book is the varied reactions when the public found out about the hoaxes. Some hoaxers were forgiven and others were driven into obscurity. The reactions seem to have depended to a certain extent on the personality of the hoaxer and the people who had been the so-called victims of the hoax. Where pomposity was exposed there seems to have been little backlash against the perpetrators.
My particular favourite was a wholly insubstantial book created by a radio D J and his late night listeners. He suggested - in discussion with listeners phoning in - that people should go into book shops and ask for a particular book. This very soon created a great deal of talk about the nonexistent book to the extent that when a listener who was in on the hoax mentioned it at a dinner party several people claimed to have read it! A university student even managed to write a paper on the book and its author without anyone realising it was a hoax.
I thought the book raised some interesting questions about the dividing line between fact and fiction. Memoirs are a particular case in point with several instances of people publishing their life stories as fact when they would not have been regarded as a hoax if they had been published as fiction. The case of Herman Rosenblat is a good example where a touching war time memoir was revealed as a fake though the author assures us the book is about to be published instead as fiction. Hoaxes are therefore alive and well and living the 21st century.
The book is well written with a wry humour well suited to its subject. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone interested in the byways of literary history. It is a fascinating insight into the minds of people who carry out these deceptions and into the minds of those who are deceived. My only criticism is the lack of an index though the contents list is quite detailed. I loved the physical appearance of the book as it looks like a faked Penguin publication which fits the subject matter perfectly. Well worth reading.
What I found most interesting about the book is the varied reactions when the public found out about the hoaxes. Some hoaxers were forgiven and others were driven into obscurity. The reactions seem to have depended to a certain extent on the personality of the hoaxer and the people who had been the so-called victims of the hoax. Where pomposity was exposed there seems to have been little backlash against the perpetrators.
My particular favourite was a wholly insubstantial book created by a radio D J and his late night listeners. He suggested - in discussion with listeners phoning in - that people should go into book shops and ask for a particular book. This very soon created a great deal of talk about the nonexistent book to the extent that when a listener who was in on the hoax mentioned it at a dinner party several people claimed to have read it! A university student even managed to write a paper on the book and its author without anyone realising it was a hoax.
I thought the book raised some interesting questions about the dividing line between fact and fiction. Memoirs are a particular case in point with several instances of people publishing their life stories as fact when they would not have been regarded as a hoax if they had been published as fiction. The case of Herman Rosenblat is a good example where a touching war time memoir was revealed as a fake though the author assures us the book is about to be published instead as fiction. Hoaxes are therefore alive and well and living the 21st century.
The book is well written with a wry humour well suited to its subject. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone interested in the byways of literary history. It is a fascinating insight into the minds of people who carry out these deceptions and into the minds of those who are deceived. My only criticism is the lack of an index though the contents list is quite detailed. I loved the physical appearance of the book as it looks like a faked Penguin publication which fits the subject matter perfectly. Well worth reading.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Anyone interested in literary hoaxes of all sorts, as I am, will enjoy this book. I suppose, too, we all want to know why the authors passed off these stories as the truth. It's probably a mixture of greed and a desire/need for fame and attention, perhaps more the latter than the former, but who really knows?
Written with appropriate humor, this book documents some of the most famous literary hoaxes, including Rosenblat's Holocaust hoax 'Apples Over The Fence', which was withdrawn before publication, but not before it had generated huge publicity and he and his wife had appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show (interestingly she also initially endorsed James Frey's hoax of harrowing addiction 'A Million Little Pieces'). Perhaps the most difficult and sensitive to expose, it is a brave person who dares to call a Holocaust 'victim' a liar after all.
It is true that many 'autobiographical' literary hoaxes would pass perfectly acceptably as 'fiction' but most would then lose much of their appeal. It is the 'true story' aspect that makes them fascinating in people's minds I think. Especially in the case of memoirs there is the 'what if that had been me?' factor, 'how would I have coped?' Fiction would not have the same grip.
In any event a fascinating insight into both the hoaxers and the fooled and a book I would recommend. I loved the 'fake' cover, as well.
Written with appropriate humor, this book documents some of the most famous literary hoaxes, including Rosenblat's Holocaust hoax 'Apples Over The Fence', which was withdrawn before publication, but not before it had generated huge publicity and he and his wife had appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show (interestingly she also initially endorsed James Frey's hoax of harrowing addiction 'A Million Little Pieces'). Perhaps the most difficult and sensitive to expose, it is a brave person who dares to call a Holocaust 'victim' a liar after all.
It is true that many 'autobiographical' literary hoaxes would pass perfectly acceptably as 'fiction' but most would then lose much of their appeal. It is the 'true story' aspect that makes them fascinating in people's minds I think. Especially in the case of memoirs there is the 'what if that had been me?' factor, 'how would I have coped?' Fiction would not have the same grip.
In any event a fascinating insight into both the hoaxers and the fooled and a book I would recommend. I loved the 'fake' cover, as well.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you have a weakness for old school literary gossip and love hearing the stories behind the novels and their authors, this is the book for you.
'Telling tales' is a collection of the stories of the most (in)famous literary hoaxes we know of. The hoaxes are classified after a system, and each story is short and can be read on it's own. The book is perfect for travelling to work or - as in my case - for reading in the small spaces of peace you have when taking care of a baby.
The stories themselves are everything from entertaining to sad, and the book is really a collection of human folly. It will equip you with good conversational topics for dinner parties with other literary geeks, and for that alone it is worth the read. However, don't expect writing and plot that will take your breath away - this is not fiction as such.
'Telling tales' is a collection of the stories of the most (in)famous literary hoaxes we know of. The hoaxes are classified after a system, and each story is short and can be read on it's own. The book is perfect for travelling to work or - as in my case - for reading in the small spaces of peace you have when taking care of a baby.
The stories themselves are everything from entertaining to sad, and the book is really a collection of human folly. It will equip you with good conversational topics for dinner parties with other literary geeks, and for that alone it is worth the read. However, don't expect writing and plot that will take your breath away - this is not fiction as such.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Written well, formatted badly.
Telling Tales is a collection of some of the most interesting literary hoaxes committed in the last two centuries, neatly arranged each under its own subheading and then arranged... Read more
Published 13 days ago by H. Whitehead
.
This book was requested for Christmas and my son is absolutely delighted with it. My other son started to read a passage whilst we were wrapping up presents and we now both want... Read more
Published 5 months ago by LIZZIEB
If you believe this ...
Surely this book is itself at least partially a hoax or a parody? It doesn't have an index, references or bibliography. It does have numerous spelling and grammatical errors. Read more
Published 21 months ago by MarmiteCyclist
competenty retold
Katsoulis's "Telling Tales" is an interesting though unreferenced guide to literary forgeries that could have started a thousand years earlier had the writer known her subject... Read more
Published on 4 May 2010 by barbicandy
Tall Tales
This book contains a satisfyingly good collection of unlikely tales that are true ! However the writing style is often sloppy, bordering on jazzy journalese rather than straight... Read more
Published on 15 April 2010 by Mrs. B. Bowen
TELLING TALES
Interesting, clever book cover but somewhat pedestrian in the writing, almost dull despite the fascinating tales told - just a recitation of the facts all well researched but not... Read more
Published on 15 April 2010 by J. H. Gibson
Great book, amusing, fascinating and... well, is it all true?
Reading this book is like having lots of childhood illusions about the honest of man destroyed! I read it thinking "Do people really do this? Read more
Published on 31 Dec 2009 by Yossu
A great read, but don't use it to study English.
A fascinating account of literary hoaxes through the ages. The writing is lively and maintains the reader's interest throughout. Read more
Published on 11 Nov 2009 by Barry
Ripping yarns
This is a fantastic little book for anyone with an interest in hoaxes or the history of literature. Well written and full of fascinating gems of literary deception. Read more
Published on 18 Oct 2009 by E. Clarke
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