Quote:

>You lie like a dentist at a fair.

This expression is used by one of the characters in the English translation of "The Age of Reason" (1945) by Jean-Paul Sartre, translated by Eric Sutton (1962).

It gets zero Google-hits.

Maybe it's a literal translation of a French idiom. Any ideas as to why French dentists at fairs might embody the quiddity of dishonesty?




Something that is interesting to me is that the book, when looked up in French the book is listed as:
Quote:

Les Chemins de la Liberte I: L'Age de Raison

which when translated into the English language becomes:
Quote:

WAYS OF FREEDOM/1. The AGE OF REASON



In light of this mistake on something as simple as the title of the book, it stands to prove, to me at least, that the book contents are misquoted as well. Thus in my mind, the only way to truly know what the actual saying or proverb truly is and the implied meaning there of, is to get the original work, read it or have some one who can read French peruse it and explain the exact word usage, then go from there. (I know, bad run on sentence, but I do not care today.)

Just a thought.

Rev. Alimae