Famous Impostors

What It's About

A collection of true accounts of deception, drawn from several centuries of European history. Stoker begins with royal pretenders such as Perkin Warbeck, who claimed to be the murdered Duke of York, the false Czar Stephan Mali, the false Dauphins of France, and Olivia Serres, who styled herself "Princess Olive". He moves on to practitioners of magic (Paracelsus, Cagliostro, Mesmer), the legend of the Wandering Jew, and the financier John Law and his Mississippi Scheme. Later chapters cover witchcraft and clairvoyance, with Doctor Dee, La Voisin, Sir Edward Kelley, Mother Damnable and the witch-hunter Matthew Hopkins. They also cover Arthur Orton, the Tichborne Claimant, and women who lived as men, including Hannah Snell, La Maupin and Mary East. The book closes with a set of hoaxes, the Chevalier d'Éon, and the "Bisley Boy" legend about Queen Elizabeth I.

Key Concepts

Stoker's preface says he is not interested in moralising. He groups the cases to show that imposture takes many forms, from impersonation and pretence to swindling and humbug, and that it flourishes wherever society is ready to be gulled. Ambition, credulity and the lure of the throne run through the book, as do the risks impostors faced and the punishments that followed exposure. The final chapter is the most contested. Stoker takes seriously the folk tale that Elizabeth I was replaced in childhood by a boy, a theory historians reject as legend. The book is a lively popular history, and readers should treat its sources and conclusions with some caution.

About the Author

Bram Stoker (1847–1912) was an Irish writer born in Clontarf, Dublin. He worked as a civil servant before moving to London, where he spent nearly three decades as business manager of the Lyceum Theatre under the actor Henry Irving.