The Great Pretenders

Intriguing and entertaining stories of the great unsolved mysteries of disputed identity. Did the son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette die during his imprisonment in the Temple Tower or was he one of the fellows claiming to be the lost dauphin after the Terror had ended? Was Kaspar Hauser, the abandoned boy who claimed to have been imprisoned in a cell and given only bread and water, really the missing crown prince of Baden? And when an eccentric and reclusive duke built a complex set...
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Intriguing and entertaining stories of the great unsolved mysteries of disputed identity. Did the son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette die during his imprisonment in the Temple Tower or was he one of the fellows claiming to be the lost dauphin after the Terror had ended? Was Kaspar Hauser, the abandoned boy who claimed to have been imprisoned in a cell and given only bread and water, really the missing crown prince of Baden? And when an eccentric and reclusive duke built a complex set of tunnels and rooms beneath his country estate, who is to say that he didn't also have a second life as a shopkeeper with a separate family in London? In this highly entertaining work covering the most famous unsolved cases of disputed identity, Jan Bondeson uses all the evidence at hand plus his medical knowledge to ascertain the true stories behind these fascinating histories. 20 illustrations.