Famous Impostors

by Bram Stoker

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Pages: 174

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Preface
7:49
Pretenders - Perkin Warbeck; The Hidden King
42:20
Pretenders - Stephan Mali; The False Dauphins
27:30
Pretenders - Princess Olive
30:16
Practitioners of Magic
51:45
The Wandering Jew
24:41
John Law
37:42
Witchcraft and Clairvoyance - Witches; Doctor Dee; La Voisin
43:27
Witchcraft and Clairvoyance - Sir Edward Kelley; Mother Damnable; Matthew Hopkins
36:04
Arthur Orton (Tichborne claimant)
46:29
Women as Men
31:21
Hoaxes, etc.
27:09
Chevalier D'Eon
19:44
The Bisley Boy Part 1
30:43
The Bisley Boy Part 2
40:45
The Bisley Boy Part 3
31:12

Famous Impostors (1910) is a public domain work.

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About this book

Crowns, money and public belief are the prizes at stake in Bram Stoker's collection of historical impostures. Published in 1910, it brings together royal claimants, practitioners of magic, disputed identities and elaborate hoaxes. The opening places Perkin Warbeck and other pretenders against the unsettled politics of the English succession. Stoker also considers Arthur Orton's claim to the Tichborne identity and devotes extended attention to the Bisley Boy tradition, which he investigates as a challenge to Queen Elizabeth's identity.

The account of Edward Kelley and Doctor Dee shows deception working through personal trust. Kelley cultivates Dee's interests in occult knowledge, enters his service as a seer and draws a wealthy patron into their experiments. These biographical sketches offer readers a study of the ambitions behind false claims and the willingness of audiences to accept them. Stoker's treatment of belief, evidence and reputation gives the collection its continuing interest.

About the author

Bram Stoker

Bram Stoker (1847-1912) was an Irish writer and, for nearly three decades, business manager of London's Lyceum Theatre. Though he wrote several novels and short-story collections, his reputation rests entirely on Dracula, whose blend of folklore, travelogue, and Victorian dread has never gone out of print.