The Truth Against the World

Résumé du livre

During Iolo Morganwg's lifetime, Britain was obsessed with literary forgery. The controversies surrounding James Macpherson's Ossian and Thomas Chatterton's Rowley poems raised disturbing questions about the nature of authenticity in literary, historical and antiquarian contexts. Against this rumbling background of debate Iolo quietly forged a vast and complex oeuvre, weaving fact and fiction together so tightly it would take a century to unpick: his creations had a profound effect on Welsh national identity and helped to bring about a Celtic cultural revival in Brittany. Quoting extensively from unpublished manuscripts, this pioneering work explores Iolo's own version of the 'Truth', and reveals some of the hidden influences behind Britain's most successful (and hence, perhaps, least visible) Romantic forger.