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Hoax: Truth and Lies in the Age of Enlightenment
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 5, 2026
Hoax was such a fascinating read because it takes stories that could easily feel like strange little pieces of the past and makes them feel surprisingly close to the world we live in now. I loved how the book kept making me question who was actually lying and who was simply telling the story that people wanted to believe. The cases of Mary Toft Elizabeth Canning and Princess Caraboo were especially memorable because behind the deception there were real people dealing with power money gender class and the desperate need to be heard. What I enjoyed most was that the author never made the hoaxers feel like simple villains. Their stories are messy and sometimes sad and that made me far more interested in understanding why they did what they did. The opening with the Bottle Conjurer immediately pulled me in and the atmosphere of eighteenth century London made these events feel almost like scenes unfolding right in front of me. I also loved how the book slowly connects those old stories with our own world of fake news misinformation politics and artificial intelligence. By the end I found myself thinking much more carefully about how easily people can believe something when the story is good enough and how quickly a lie can become something bigger than the person who started it. This is history that feels alive curious and full of surprises and I honestly found myself wanting to know what strange story would appear next. It left me entertained but also a little more suspicious of certainty itself which I think is exactly what a book called Hoax should do.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
While this book is subtitled “Truth and Lies in the Age of Enlightenment,” it could easily be revised to read “Truth and Lies in the Age of the Internet.” The examination of hoaxes perpetrated in the 18th C as evidenced in this book (hoax actually became a word during this time) while lacking the technology or more sophisticated things as we may have today, gullibility and deceit is still a constant. The author even posits our age’s problem with misinformation and disinformation has a corollary to the Enlightenment.
In the age of reason or enlightenment, a rationalist’s search for truth was done through observing nature and using reason. As Pelling writes, though, “in our most confident moments when the voices clamour to proclaim truth, that doubt and uncertainty creep in so effectively (page 6).” In the 18th C when new ideas, industries and advances were coming along, people looked for proof still harnessed to old ideas - clinging to the known in fear of the unknown. In today’s world the parallel is QAnon for example.
Using three real examples of hoaxes - Fanny Lynes who supposedly became a ghost, Mary Bateman who proclaimed magical powers, and Mary Willocks, who created an identity to take her out of poverty - Pelling tells the story of how and who created the story, profited from it and what happened when the truth emerged. In the telling you are treated to the life, sounds, smells and fears of 18th C British folk - ab extra bonus in reading the book. The obsession with which each hoax was explored, accepted and then debunked reads like a good mystery - and shows that really we haven’t changed all that much.
In her brilliant last chapter when Pelling brings all three hoaxes together, she notes “credulity” is a choice we make. “Human beings lean toward certain fantasies not necessarily because we believe them, but because they offer community, a sense of purpose and belonging to third alienated on the bargains, as well as those at the centre (page 309).” And, “Truth, then, is a relative term, understood not in black and white, but in terms of tribal identity and survival strategy .” Pelling points out we have to get to the grey, sort out the facts and then understand why hoaxes persist to perhaps eliminate them.
This was such a fascinating read and aligns with a few other books I’ve come across recently. This topic - hoax or disinformation or the like - is so relevant today because our sense of truth and reality is becoming so distorted.
I actually purchased this book from Blackwell’s, a London bookseller, as it had already been published in Britain - so I got to read all the delightful English spellings. It was a marvelous purchase and an excellent read. Highly recommend!
In the age of reason or enlightenment, a rationalist’s search for truth was done through observing nature and using reason. As Pelling writes, though, “in our most confident moments when the voices clamour to proclaim truth, that doubt and uncertainty creep in so effectively (page 6).” In the 18th C when new ideas, industries and advances were coming along, people looked for proof still harnessed to old ideas - clinging to the known in fear of the unknown. In today’s world the parallel is QAnon for example.
Using three real examples of hoaxes - Fanny Lynes who supposedly became a ghost, Mary Bateman who proclaimed magical powers, and Mary Willocks, who created an identity to take her out of poverty - Pelling tells the story of how and who created the story, profited from it and what happened when the truth emerged. In the telling you are treated to the life, sounds, smells and fears of 18th C British folk - ab extra bonus in reading the book. The obsession with which each hoax was explored, accepted and then debunked reads like a good mystery - and shows that really we haven’t changed all that much.
In her brilliant last chapter when Pelling brings all three hoaxes together, she notes “credulity” is a choice we make. “Human beings lean toward certain fantasies not necessarily because we believe them, but because they offer community, a sense of purpose and belonging to third alienated on the bargains, as well as those at the centre (page 309).” And, “Truth, then, is a relative term, understood not in black and white, but in terms of tribal identity and survival strategy .” Pelling points out we have to get to the grey, sort out the facts and then understand why hoaxes persist to perhaps eliminate them.
This was such a fascinating read and aligns with a few other books I’ve come across recently. This topic - hoax or disinformation or the like - is so relevant today because our sense of truth and reality is becoming so distorted.
I actually purchased this book from Blackwell’s, a London bookseller, as it had already been published in Britain - so I got to read all the delightful English spellings. It was a marvelous purchase and an excellent read. Highly recommend!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I enjoyed this immensely, I intended to listen for half an hour before I got on with other things, but Madeleine Pelling captured my interest and held on tight both with her writing and her narration.
Hoax is extremely well researched, but moreover you can feel the authors passion for her work and her own rapture in the tales she relays.
A factual history book with all the enjoyment of a novel is a rarity, I think it’s testament to the author as much as the content that it was so very enjoyable.
Highly recommended for those partial to a conspiracy theory or the unknown.
My gratitude to Profile Books Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this ALC 🎧
Hoax is extremely well researched, but moreover you can feel the authors passion for her work and her own rapture in the tales she relays.
A factual history book with all the enjoyment of a novel is a rarity, I think it’s testament to the author as much as the content that it was so very enjoyable.
Highly recommended for those partial to a conspiracy theory or the unknown.
My gratitude to Profile Books Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this ALC 🎧
June 24, 2026
I absolutely loved this. I read a lot of nonfiction history but this is one of the most interesting books I’ve read in a while!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews