Coming first
The False Baron
Marriage, Murder and the Con Man Who Hunted Wealthy Women
A stranger arrives in respectable society claiming rank, estates and connections. Women believe him. Lawyers believe him. Families believe him. Behind the performance lies a trail of false identities, marriages, money, disappearance and finally a murder prosecution.
Der falsche Baron von Münchhausen, ein Frauenspeculant appeared in the German true-crime collection Der neue Pitaval in 1861. The Worlds Unread edition presents the complete narrative in English, based on the original printed text and checked against the surviving source.
This edition
The book includes a new English translation, an introduction placing the case and its nineteenth-century editors in context, a chronology, source notes, and explanations of genuine contradictions in the historical text rather than silently correcting them.
Translated and introduced by Paul Barnes.