History Main / TheLiar

[[redirect:Literature.{{Liar}}]]

'''''The Liar''''' can refer to the following works:

* "Literature/TheLiarFolktale", a traditional folktale of Armenia.
* ''Literature/TheLiarNovel'', the 1991 novel by Creator/StephenFry.

'''Note''': When linking to these two works, use "[=Literature/{{The Liar|Folktale}}=]" and "[=Literature/{{The Liar|Novel}}=]" respectively. As these works share the same title and namespace, there is no other way to tell them apart.

'''''The Liar''''' can refer to either of these two works of literature:

'''Note''': When linking to these two works, use "''[=Literature/{{The Liar|Folktale}}''" and "''[=Literature/{{The Liar|Novel}}=]''" respectively. As these works share the same title and namespace, there is no other way to tell them apart.

[[redirect:Literature/TheLiar]]

[[redirect:Literature/TheLiarNovel]]

''The Liar'', [[StephenFry Stephen Fry's]] first novel, is, more or less, a ComingOfAgeStory about a compulsive liar. It centers around a young man named Adrian Healey, beginning with his public school years and ending sometime after he graduates from [[{{Oxbridge}} Cambridge]]. In between, he falls in love with his beautiful underclassman, Hugo Cartwright, forges an "unpublished" Dickens manuscript, works as a rent boy [[spoiler:(allegedly)]], and [[spoiler:gets involved in a pretend murder mystery.]] The novel is told in AnachronicOrder with a liberal dosage of UnreliableNarrator, although the book is written in the third person.

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!!''TheLiar'' provides examples of:
* TheAlcoholic: [[spoiler:Cartwright, by the end.]]
* AnachronicOrder: The whole book. It takes at least two reads to get the whole story.
* AuthorAvatar: Adrian shares some similarities with a young StephenFry.
* BedmateReveal: Between Peter and Joe in ''Peter Flowerbuck''.
* BelievingTheirOwnLies: Adrian asks Professor Trefusis whether these sorts of lies could be picked up by a lie detector.
* ComfortingComforter: Done once by Cartwright.
* ComingOfAgeStory: At its core.
* ConsummateLiar: Adrian
* [[DudeShesLikeInAComa Dude, He's, Like, In A Coma]]: Part of a gambit by Adrian.
* HoldingTheFloor: Adrian does this to keep a meeting regarding Trefusis's trial from being televised.
* LoverAndBeloved: Adrian is briefly in this kind of a relationship with an actor. [[spoiler:Except he isn't.]]
* PlatonicProstitution: Occurs in ''Peter Flowerbuck.''
* RedLightDistrict: Picadilly
* SeamlessSpontaneousLie: Adrian is full of these.
* ShowWithinAShow: ''Peter Flowerbuck''
* StreamOfConsciousness: When Adrian is hooked up to the Mendax.
* UnreliableNarrator: Adrian, again.

* [[DudeShesLikeInAComa Dude, He's, Like, In A Coma: Part of a gambit by Adrian.

* StreamOfConscious: When Adrian is hooked up to the Mendax.

* TheAlcoholic: [[spoiler: Cartwright, by the end.]]

* UnreliableNarrator: Adrian