""The Habit of Lying" is a highly original, exceptionally sophisticated, continuously illuminating work of literary and cultural theory, and an intellectual feast of the first order. There seems no facet of Smyth's topic that escapes his careful, immensely intelligent attention."--Barbara Herrnstein Smith, Duke University

John Vignaux Smyth is Chair of the Department of English at Portland State University. He is the author of A Question of Eros: Irony in Sterne, Kierkegaard, and Barthes.

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One. Philosophy
1. The Liar as Scapegoat: Rationality and Unanimity
2. The Analytics of Fiction
Part Two. Literature
3. Lying for No Reason: Lying and Obscenity in Defoe
4. Lies and Truths: Mimetic-Sacrificial Falsification in Stendahl
5. Fundaments and Accidents: Mimesis and Mendacity in Molloy
6. The Violence of Fiction: Concealment and Sacrifice in Malone Dies and The Unnamable
Part Three. Dress
7. Fashion Theory
Conclusion
Appendix: One Rene Girard and Paul de Man
Notes
Bibliography
Index