About this book
Henry Neville's The Isle of Pines stands as a fascinating literary hoax from 1668 that captivated European readers for centuries. This rare historical text presents itself as a genuine account of English voyagers who discover an uncharted island during the Elizabethan era, complete with elaborate details that fooled scholars and collectors alike.
Paired with Worthington Chauncey Ford's meticulous bibliographic essay, this audiobook offers unprecedented insight into one of literature's most ingenious deceptions. Ford's scholarly investigation—originally presented to Boston's prestigious Club of Odd Volumes in 1918—traces the work's extraordinary publication history across multiple European editions and languages. He examines how The Isle of Pines circulated in Dutch, French, Italian, and German versions, influenced later adventure narratives, and even sparked comparisons to Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe.
Beyond its role as proto-science fiction, this work reveals seventeenth-century anxieties about exploration, colonial expansion, and the blurred boundaries between fact and fiction. Ford's accompanying research explores the book's authorship, various textual variants, and its peculiar status as a literary forgery that achieved canonical importance through sheer ingenuity.
Perfect for audiobook listeners interested in literary history, bibliography, early modern exploration narratives, and the archaeology of hoaxes, this unique edition combines entertainment with scholarly rigor—offering both the captivating original text and the detective work that unmasked its true nature.
