To Forge, or Not to Forge?

Whether it's the mysterious Arabic manuscript undergirding Don Quixote or the autobiography at the heart of Robinson Crusoe, novels have long relied on "false documents" - elaborately conceived texts that, by claiming to be factual, boost a novel's sense of realism, of being a credible world unto itself. These writers worked hard to create a sense of authenticity around their false documents, writing introductions or commentaries that painted themselves as humble custodians of the found text. The technique could also be useful for disassociating an author from a book's political content, as Voltaire did by claiming that Candide was translated from the work of a "Dr Ralph".