April 2023: April Fool

Hoaxing other people on the first day of April is a time-honoured tradition in many countries (although some do this on other days of the year). But there are also many kinds of hoaxes played out in history, and I invite you to explore them this month.

There have been complicated deceptions and carefully prepared traps to confuse the enemy in wartime, such as fake radio stations in World War 2. The Trojan Horse comes to mind and Potemkin villages.

There are impostors claiming to be royalty (usually by interested powerful parties), such as the False Dimitris in Russia, the Dauphin during the French Revolution, Anastasia of Russia, and lesser mortals like Princess Caraboo. Other people sometimes switch identities, as in Royal Flash or Lisa and Lottie.

Reading about fools and jesters at court would also fit for this theme, for instance Margaret George’s monumental Henry VIII is narrated by his jester. There is also Till Eulenspiegel, a late medieval jester who is part of German and Dutch folklore, who features in Tyll and The Legend of Thyl Ulenspiegel and Lamme Goedzak.

A list of hoaxes can also be found on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hoaxes
Have fun!

I'm not technically literate enough to add a new section to the Wiki. Help is appreciated!

The Farseer Triology by Robin Hobbs fits this category (as well as Lions and Tigers). The main characters are Fitz, Nighteyes (wolf), and the Fool.

What about famous fake letters? Would that work or do you want the fakes/hoaxes to be people?

>3 Tess_W: That would work, too.

I've added the topic to the Wiki.

This is going to be fun and you've given me a project for today as I am going to sort through my historical fiction to find a book about a hoax!

a thousand ships is good for the trojan horse also second assassins apprentice Many works by shakespears fit too

Reread of King Lear, but a first-read of King Lear (Norton Critical Edition). My favorite Shakespearean fool is Feste, but there's no Norton Critical of Twelfth Night. I may get around to a reread of Twelfth Night anyway. And I've got Christopher Moore's Fool around the house somewhere.

I could also do a Dostoevsky reread (it's been half-a-century) of The Idiot (better translated as "The Holy Fool"). This character type is fairly common in Russian literature, and Yeshua in The Master and Margarita is such a type. In fact, one might even read a biography of Tolstoy, because his last days take on the type of the Holy Fool.

And I do need to finish up Don Quijote (Norton Critical Edition), which I started for last July's "Mental Health" topic.

Aside from the bible,is there anything written about Jacob stealing his brothers birthright by putting lamb skin on his arms to fool is father to keep his hairy brother Esau out the running (of all the famous stories, this one had me shaking my head the most)

>8 cindydavid4:
As soon as I read your question I thought of Red Tent by Anita Diamant. That who tragedy was based on a hoax. The father had no intention of letting Dinah marry the prince, so they fooled him into getting circumcised and then killed him.

I am going to read Fool's Tale by Nicole Galland. This book is set in Wales in the late 1100's and is the story of Isabel Mortimer and the Welsh King. There is a love triangle involving the King's Fool.

>9 benitastrnad:
I swore if the mentioned one more time why it was called the red tent I was going to throw it the floor, and I did But you are right that is a good example

I like it! And your suggestion of the Margaret George book was the first thing I thought of (not for me, as I've already read it, but that it would fit) before reading the rest of your blurb.

Such a great topic, I like this idea so much!
At first I thought that it would be hard to find something fitting on my shelves, but the suggestions in this thread are a big help. Shakespeare, Assassin's Apprentice or a novel about Troy are all options available to me.

I came up with a number of books that would fit this topic but I have decided to go with the Georgette Heyer Regency Romance entitled False Colors. I am looking for light reads right now and this one sounds appealing. It involves a set of twins with one brother impersonating his twin.

>5 DeltaQueen50: Thanks, Judy!
>15 DeltaQueen50: One of my favourites!

Fixed it she who became the sun During the ming dynasty, a girl takes dead brothers name and wants to becomes emperor

>18 cindydavid4:
She Who Became the Sun is an excellent idea. I should read that one. I have had it on my TBR list since the pre-publication publicity.

My current plan is to read Kassandra by Christa Wolf. It is a retelling of the Trojan War and I have wanted to reread it for a long time. It also ties in with AlphaKIT.

For any Daphne DuMaurier fans, her novel The Scapegoat would be excellent for this theme. I wish I had not already read it!

>21 dianelouise100: thanks for the heads up. There was a time when I read her novels regularly and this gives me the opportunity to renew that with this one I've never read!

a thousand ships is about the women of troy. The horse was probably the biggest April Fool joke ever. Excellent read

>22 john257hopper: You’re welcome. Look forward to your response to it.

I read Destination Unknown by Agatha Christie which surprisingly fits this topic very well. Several characters are imposters, and everyone is fooled by the big mystery that is at the centre of the novel.

The main character is Hilary Craven who has nothing to live for as her daughter has died and her husband has left her. She is recruited by the secret service and agrees to impersonate the wife of a brilliant scientist who has vanished, as have several other scientists recently. The book was written in 1954 and it is firmly set in its time against the backdrop of the Cold War. Soon Hilary is off to Morocco and the adventure unfolds.

Of course most of the story is rather improbable, but reading it was gripping and fun and I read it almost in one sitting.

>8 cindydavid4: I've been watching Mythologies of the World on The Great Courses (now Wondrium), and I'm currently in the segments on African mythology. In Lecture 33 on the Dausi epic, there's a discussion of a younger son who disguises himself as the eldest brother (it's not a case of twins, and there are quite a number of brothers) to obtain an inheritance, in a way that's reminiscent of the Jacob-Esau disguise. This could be coincidence, but according to Wikipedia (Jacob in Islam, under the section The legacy of Jacob) it's noted that the tricking of Isaac does appear in Muslim commentaries though not in the Quran itself.

I'm not sure how Jewish scriptures would have reached the area of Mali and Mauretania, where the Dausi epic comes from, but I wonder if Islamic traditions in some way conveyed this story to the peoples of the Dausi epic.

Have no idea but given the size of the muslim empire at the time, I wouldnt be surprised . And Id suggest that while the story first appeared in the Hebrew torah,I suspect like many such stories, they were based on even earlier myths

I saw and loved the movie the talented mr ripley and just noticed it on my shelves so think Ill read that for this month

I enjoyed my read of False Colours, a twin-swapping romp by Georgette Heyer. Although this book was rather slow to get going, I was quickly caught up in the author's clever plot, fun banter and interesting characters.

I’ve decided to reread Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey. It’s been years since I read it, so although I remember the outcome, a lot of the story will seem new to me.

I read another novel that fits this topic very well, without intending it: The Autumn Bride by Anne Gracie, a historical romance. In this novel, four young women act as impostors when they claim to be the nieces of an elderly aristocratic lady. They fool everyone, apart from - of course - the real nephew of the lady, who then falls in love with the eldest of the women.

Oh just remembered there was a play, later movie called Anastasia, by play Anastasia by Marcelle Maurett, where a women claiming to be the Royal Princess of the Romanovs tries to pass herself off . Remember it being very powerful

I read Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann. I was expecting the book to be about Till Eulenspiegel, but it was as much about the 30 Years War as it was about Tyll himself. It was an interesting read, but very different from what I expected. I wrote more about it on my thread.

I finished A Midsummer Night's Dream, with Puck and Bottom and the best line--still true today:

"Lord, what fools these mortals be!"

>24 dianelouise100: I enjoyed The Scapegoat. As you say, perfect for this theme. Well written and atmospheric, though I can't really believe English John could be accepted so readily in practice.

My full review is at my thread here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/347050#8125799

>35 john257hopper: Thanks for link to your review. I agree with you—a far-fetched novel, but fun.

Just finished the talented Mr Ripley I had already seen the movie and loved it; reading the book makes me appreciate how the movie was written, because it was a perfect match. Which meant I skimmed abit. But still an amazing book.

I have finally started a book for this prompt myself: Royal Flash.

ETA: And I finished it on the last day of the month. April hasn't been kind, there's been a cyber attack on the library where I work, and my reading has taken a nosedive. But things are looking up...

King's Fool / Margaret Campbell Barnes
3 stars

Will Somers was Henry VIII’s court jester from the time his daughter Mary was around 10 years old. Will remained Henry’s jester through all Henry’s wives until Henry passed away. Initially, Will found work for a local merchant, but when he accompanied that merchant to Court, he was enticed to stay and work as Henry’s jester. Will apparently became quite close with Henry and his family. This book has a fictional romance component to it.

There was a short author’s note at the start that explained that the romance was fictional, though much of the rest of the story is true; I always appreciate that kind of note or I would have wondered. I actually found Will’s life more interesting initially when he worked for the merchant, but then my interest waxed and waned through the rest of it. It seemed like Henry went through his last 5 wives very quickly in this book (and I suppose he really did, but this book seemed to speed that up), but of course that wasn’t the focus of the book, either. Overall, it was ok for me.

While Son of a Trickster, was not set in history, I think it met fit the April Fool category. It was a coming of age story of an indigenous teen in Northern BC. His fractured and fractious family was steeped in the traditions and lore of the ancestors while barely hanging on in the present. It’s the first book in a trilogy and I wonder how Jared will fare and if he’ll be able to hold on to the sobriety he found by the end of the first book.

Late yesterday evening I finished up the last of the supplementary materials in King Lear (Norton Critical Edition), having done a reread of the play (I hadn't read it in ages) in the NCE version. There are actually some significant differences between the Quarto and the First Folio, and often editors attempt a merger of the two versions.

As usual, some of the supplementary essays were better than others. My own liking was drawn most to the article on Shakespearean marriages and the article on the state. There was also a good piece discussing the differences between the Quarto and First Folio versions and the reason (probably political) for the differences.

My favorite Shakespearean fool is Feste (isn't he everyone's?), but Lear's is a major Shakespearean fool; and there's also the element of "foolery" in Edgar's clothing himself as a wandering lunatic.

I finally finished Fool's Tale by Nicole Galland. This work of historical fiction was set in Wales in one year - 1199. It is the story of the King's best friend and court fool and his affair with the King's wife. It is a retelling of the King Arthur/Lancelot/Guinevere triangle but set in 12th century Wales involving the King of this small Welsh kingdom, his wife, and his best friend and court jester. The tension in the novel comes from within and without. The inner pressure is that the King knows he is living on borrowed time as his kingdom is small and he must produce and heir. The outer pressure is that the kingdom is caught between the bigger power of Llewellyn the Great in north Wales and the Marcher barons of England in the person of Roger Mortimer. This was a good historical novel but I have to admit that it was a long slog of reading. It was a good story but it just never caught fire with me and so the reading drug out for several months. This was a surprise to me as I usually like novels set in Medieval times. This novel was also filled with details of Welsh law and customs. If you like this time period this is a good historical novel, and don't take my assessment of it as gospel on this novel.