Forgery in Art and Literature

Forgery is a huge theme in this book. It seems every character is involved in it in one way or another. Chatterton created medieval documents and passed them off as genuine, even going so far as creating a fake monk to act as the writer. Stewart Merk copied his boss's painting style to copy his previous works and create a few of his own. Harriet Scrope took the plot of someone else's novel to create a new work of her own. All three of these people created these works in order to make money, as the definition states. Merk and Chatterton where honest about their creations to at least a few people and did not go out of their way to hide their actions. Harriet strove to create a work of fiction of her own memoirs rather than admit the truth.

Throughout the novel...