Sentimental Frauds

Abstract

This paper examines the class action against James Frey, alleging fraud because of his falsehoods in A Million Little Pieces. Memoirs often include inaccuracies or elaborate fabrications - including demonstrably false claims about the author's background and experiences - and yet, until the suit against Frey, there had never been a lawsuit against a memoirist alleging fraud on this basis. To explore the nature of the fraud allegations in this case, I turn to the eighteenth-century sentimental novel, which similarly linked readers’ reactions to the author’s emotional authenticity. Fraud was an ongoing concern for sentimental novelists, some of whom used elaborate editorial ploys to disavow responsibility for the text, while others populated their novels with fraudulent characters, intended as foils for the protagonist. Following a discussion of these novels, I conclude by considering the implications of the Frey case for future claims of literary fraud, and I compare this example with the suit against Laura Albert for fraud in transactions relating to her novel Sarah (1999), published under the name J.T. LeRoy.

Keywords: fraud, literary memoirs, sentimental novels, Frey, Mackenzie, Fielding