{"product_id":"9781803997711-victor-lustig-the-man-who-conned-the-world","title":"Victor Lustig","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Man Who Conned the World\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eA fresh account of one of history's most notorious con artists by an acclaimed biographer\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e'Fascinating.'\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e - \u003cem\u003eDaily Mail\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e‘An incredible story\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e’ - \u003cem\u003eDaily Mirror\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe period after the First World War was a golden age for the confidence man.\u003c\/strong\u003e ‘A new kind of entrepreneur is stirring amongst us,’ \u003cem\u003eThe Times\u003c\/em\u003e wrote in 1919. ‘He is prone to the most detestable tactics, and is a stranger to charity and public spirit. One may nonetheless note his acuity in separating others from their money.’\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEnter \u003cem\u003eVictor Lustig\u003c\/em\u003e (not his real name). An Austro-Hungarian with a dark streak, by the age of sixteen he had learned how to hustle at billiards and lay odds at the local racecourse. By nineteen he had acquired a livid facial scar in an altercation with a jealous husband.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat blemish aside, he was a man of athletic good looks, with a taste for larceny and foreign intrigue. He spoke six languages and went under nearly as many aliases in the course of a continent-hopping life that also saw him act as a double (or possibly triple) agent. Along the way, he found time to dupe an impressive variety of banks and hotels on both sides of the Atlantic; to escape from no fewer than three supposedly impregnable prisons; and to swindle Al Capone out of thousands of dollars, while living to tell the tale. Undoubtedly the greatest of his hoaxes was the sale, to a wealthy but gullible Parisian scrap-metal dealer, of the Eiffel Tower in 1925.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn a narrative that thrills like a crime caper, best-selling biographer Christopher Sandford draws on newly released documents to tell the whole story of the greatest conman of the twentieth century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41602654994529,"sku":"9781803997711","price":15.29,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0092\/7504\/8033\/files\/stand_30142194.jpg?v=1726732376","url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9781803997711-victor-lustig-the-man-who-conned-the-world","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}