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The subject of imposture is always an interesting one, and impostors in one shape or another are likely to flourish as long as human nature remains what it is, and society shows itself ready to be gulled. The histories of famous cases of imposture in this book have been grouped together to show that the art has been practised in many forms—impersonators, pretenders, swindlers, and humbugs of all kinds; those who have masqueraded in order to acquire wealth, position, or fame, and those who have done so merely for the love of the art. So numerous are instances, indeed, that the book cannot…mehr

Produktbeschreibung
The subject of imposture is always an interesting one, and impostors in one shape or another are likely to flourish as long as human nature remains what it is, and society shows itself ready to be gulled. The histories of famous cases of imposture in this book have been grouped together to show that the art has been practised in many forms—impersonators, pretenders, swindlers, and humbugs of all kinds; those who have masqueraded in order to acquire wealth, position, or fame, and those who have done so merely for the love of the art. So numerous are instances, indeed, that the book cannot profess to exhaust a theme which might easily fill a dozen volumes; its purpose is simply to collect and record a number of the best known instances. The author, nevertheless, whose largest experience has lain in the field of fiction, has aimed at dealing with his material as with the material for a novel, except that all the facts given are real and authentic. He has made no attempt to treat the subject ethically; yet from a study of these impostors, the objects they had in view, the means they adopted, the risks they ran, and the punishments which attended exposure, any reader can draw his own conclusions.
Autorenporträt
Irish author Bram Stoker (1847-1912), best known for writing Dracula (1897), studied mathematics at University of Dublin's Trinity College, graduating with honors in 1870. After a brief career at Dublin Castle as a civil servant with a side hustle as a theatre critic for the Dublin Evening Mail, Stoker became a long-time manager of the Lyceum Theater in London's West End as the personal assistant of Sir Henry Irving, a famous actor of that era. Stoker's first novel, The Primrose Path, was published in 1875, and his last, The Lair of the White Worm, in 1911. Stoker's fascination with Egyptology, mummification, and the supernatural is evident in The Jewel of Seven Stars, a Gothic horror story, the first edition of which had a somewhat ambiguous and tragic ending. When the second edition was published in 1912, Stoker had replaced the ending for a new happier one. Stoker died in London of exhaustion at sixty-four years old, leaving behind a wife, Florence, and son, Noel. His remains were cremated, and his urn is displayed at the Golders Green Crematorium and Mausoleum, keeping company with the likes of Sigmund Freud, Peter Sellers, and Keith Moon.