From Publishers Weekly
Reading Bondeson-who is drawn to sensational, even penny-dreadful material that he examines in a sober and scientific tone-is always a guilty pleasure. In his latest, Bondeson (Buried Alive; etc.) addresses historical enigmas, imposters and eccentrics in half a dozen case histories of lost heirs, secret marriages, immortal kings and mysterious simpletons. There is Kaspar Hauser, who turned up in Nuremberg in 1828 with neither identification nor, apparently, memories of his origins; his partisans still insist he was a kidnapped prince of Baden. There is the legend that grew around a certain Russian hermit, suggesting he was actually Czar Alexander I, who purportedly had faked his own death in 1825 in order to retire into religious contemplation. Bondeson relates these stories with a straight if skeptical face, often allowing them to collapse under their own convoluted contradictions. The Victorian-era courtroom antics alone are worth the price of admission when a beefy Australian butcher sues to be recognized as the meager missing heir to the baronetcy of Titchborne. Modern DNA tests have corroborated the theory that George III did not secretly beget several children with a Quaker wife named Hannah Lightfoot and that the son of Louis XVI did die in prison during the French Revolution, though literally hundreds of pretenders have turned up. Bondeson, a physician and professor at the University of Wales College of Medicine, has only cursory conclusions about why these cases (along with new variants such as Elvis and Princess Di sightings) fascinate us, but there's no question that, in Bondeson's lively retellings, they do. 20 b&w illus. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
Medical professor Bondeson, author of Buried Alive(2001), among others, has written an engrossing series of essays on various historical mysteries. Some--such as the true identity of Kaspar Hauser, the abandoned boy who turned up in Germany after years in a cell and was thought by many to be the missing crown prince of Baden--are generally well known. Others--such as Tichbourne Claimant, the dissolute son of one of England's richest families who went missing in a shipwreck--are known only to a few. But Bondeson invests them all with the same import and exhaustive analyses, which can leave the reader swimming in details. The author's medical background obviously comes into play here, as he often attempts to finalize the solution by DNA testing. Those looking for definitive answers to individual cases, though, will be disappointed. After all, these cases are long-standing mysteries because of their problematic natures, and, in the end, all Bondeson can do is lay out all sides, which he does thoroughly and compellingly. Allen Weakland
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Kirkus Reviews
Entertaining studies of classic imposters and a public inclined to be gullible even before the age of TV.


Book Description
"A guilty pleasure....The Victorian-era courtroom antics alone are worth the price of admission."—Publishers Weekly Jan Bondeson, M.D., focuses his medical expertise and insightful wit on the great unsolved mysteries of disputed identity of the last two hundred years. Did the son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette really die in the Temple Tower, or did the Lost Dauphin reappear among the throngs of pretenders to the throne? And what does DNA testing reveal about the Dauphin's mummified heart? Who was Kaspar Hauser: an abused child, the crown prince of Baden, or a pathological liar? In this highly entertaining work covering the most famous cases of disputed identity, Jan Bondeson uncovers all the evidence, then applies his medical knowledge and logical thinking to ascertain the true stories behind these fascinating histories. 36 illustrations.


About the Author
Jan Bondeson, M.D., professor at the University of Wales College of Medicine, Cardiff, is the author of Buried Alive, A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities, and The London Monster, among other works.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Jan Bondeson, M.D., focuses his medical expertise and insightful wit on the great unsolved mysteries of disputed identity of the last two hundred years. Did the son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette really die in the Temple Tower, or did the Lost Dauphin reappear among the throngs of pretenders to the throne? And what does DNA testing reveal about the Dauphin's mummified heart? Who was Kaspar Hauser: an abused child, the crown prince of Baden, or a pathological liar? In this highly entertaining work covering the most famous cases of disputed identity, Jan Bondeson uncovers all the evidence, then applies his medical knowledge and logical thinking to ascertain the true stories behind these fascinating histories. 36 illustrations.