Please note: In order to keep Hive up to date and provide users with the best features, we are no longer able to fully support Internet Explorer. The site is still available to you, however some sections of the site may appear broken. We would encourage you to move to a more modern browser like Firefox, Edge or Chrome in order to experience the site fully.

Supporting your high street Find out how »
The Century of Deception : The Birth of the Hoax in the Eighteenth Century, Hardback Book

The Century of Deception : The Birth of the Hoax in the Eighteenth Century Hardback

Hardback

Only a few left - usually despatched within 24 hours

Description

In 1749, a newspaper advertisement appeared declaring that a man would climb inside a bottle on the stage of a London theatre.

Although the crowds turned up in their hundreds to witness the trick, the performer didn't.

Over the following decades, elaborate jokes and fanciful tales would continue to bamboozle people across England.

In The Century of Deception, magician and historian Ian Keable tells the engrossing stories of these eighteenth-century hoaxes and those who were duped by them.

The English public were hoodwinked time and time again, swallowing whole tales of rapping ghosts, a woman who gave birth to rabbits, a levitating Frenchman in a Chinese Temple and outrageous astrological predictions.

Not only were the hoaxes widely influential, drawing in celebrities such as Samuel Johnson, Benjamin Franklin and Jonathan Swift, they also inflamed concerns about 'English credulity'.

Information

Save 22%

£20.00

£15.45

Only a few left - usually despatched within 24 hours
Add to Basket
Sign in to add to wishlist
 
Free Home Delivery

on all orders

 
Pick up orders

from local bookshops

Information