Confessions of the Fox

The Foreword introduces Dr. Voth and the framing narrative of his discovery of the Confessions of the Fox manuscript. Voth muses over the shared roots of “loss” and “lust” in German, wondering if there is a German word for losing oneself in a project as he has lost himself in the manuscript he is studying. Voth is a professor at an unnamed university that is currently renovating its library, gutting the floors dedicated to the humanities to make way for an expensive new lounge and office area. As part of these renovations, the university is selling books from those floors to make room. Voth discovers an old, uncatalogued manuscript within the piles of books and receives it for free from a student volunteer. As he dives deeper into the manuscript, he realizes there is something unusual about it and he needs to protect it from his corporate publisher (10). Voth decides to publish the book independently, expecting heavy backlash from the corporation he is contracted to publish under.

Voth believes the manuscript contains science, history, and truth that shouldn’t be under the thumb of a corporation and the profit motive. He believes that the manuscript contains hidden messages and information for the LGBTQ+ community, communicated through the legend of the folk hero and thief of 18th-century London,