… to walk a fine line between recommending honesty towards oneself and politeness towards others, while novelists grappled with their characters’ attempts to attain or reject a sociable sincerity that proved to be elusive. Practices > Reading & … of lies, although he accepted that there were exceptions: he excluded ‘jocose lies’ that are self-evident and uttered without any intention to deceive from his list of lies. White lies, however, are arguably meant to deceive, if for … indicating a story that was not strictly accurate rather than a deception. This, however, led him into trouble with those he deeply offended by heedlessly accusing them of having told a lie, however unintentional the offence. 4 At …