Literary Hoaxes: An Eye-Opening History of Famous Frauds

Literary Hoaxes: An Eye-Opening History of Famous Frauds - Melissa Katsoulis This book takes us on a tour of famous literary hoaxes starting with Dionysius and his fake Sophocles through the Hilter Diaries and on to James Frey. The book does distinguish between hoaxes and plagiarism and explains the basic reasons people perpetrate hoaxes and then in very organized segments and chronologically arranged chapters, gives the reader a short taste of the various hoaxes.
I really wanted to love this book but the truth is I didn’t. The writing was a little “textbook” (which this book does not pretend to be) so it did not flow for me as well as it could have and left me skimming over parts, when a more entertaining writing style might have had me captivated.
That being said I still think it is a worthwhile to pick up from the library and get an overview of some important literary history. Two things this book did successfully was peak my interest in a couple of the hoaxes enough for me so that I will be exploring them a little more thoroughly and, truly amaze me at the tenacity, dedication, patience and sheer chutzpah these hoaxers had to carry out their schemes. Goodness only knows what might have been created if they had put their creative talents to legitimate use.