George Psalmanazar (–1763)

Psalmanazar was a white guy who claimed to be from Japan (Formosa) in order to get free drinks. People liked his ridiculous stories because he claimed to have been kidnapped by Jesuits and everyone at the time hated the Jesuits. Then someone convinced him to write a book about his homeland. It sold well until his lies fell apart and he got into big trouble with all his bullshit.
Unfortunately the story of the writing of this book is a lot more interesting than the material itself. It goes into fashion, religion, geography etc. but its all really dry and boring with nothing of interest as far as i can recall.
Better to just google Psalmanazar and skip this piece of dross.… (més)