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The Fraud
The extraordinary first historical novel from bestselling author of White Teeth Zadie Smith
It is 1873. Mrs Eliza Touchet is the Scottish housekeeper - and cousin by marriage - of a once famous novelist, now in decline, William Ainsworth, with whom she has lived for thirty years.
Mrs Touchet is a woman of many interests: literature, justice, abolitionism, class, her cousin, his wives, this life and the next. But she is also sceptical. She suspects her cousin of having no talent; his successful friend, Mr Charles Dickens, of being a bully and a moralist; and England of being a land of facades, in which nothing is quite what it seems.
Andrew Bogle meanwhile grew up enslaved on the Hope Plantation, Jamaica. He knows every lump of sugar comes at a human cost. That the rich deceive the poor. And that people are more easily manipulated than they realise. When Bogle finds himself in London, star witness in a celebrated case of imposture, he knows his future depends on telling the right story.
The 'Tichborne Trial' captivates Mrs Touchet and all of England. Is Sir Roger Tichborne really who he says he is? Or is he a fraud? Mrs Touchet is a woman of the world. Mr Bogle is no fool. But in a world of hypocrisy and self-deception, deciding what is real proves a complicated task...
Based on real historical events, The Fraud is a dazzling novel about truth and fiction, Jamaica and Britain, fraudulence and authenticity, and the mystery of 'other people.'
It is 1873. Mrs Eliza Touchet is the Scottish housekeeper - and cousin by marriage - of a once famous novelist, now in decline, William Ainsworth, with whom she has lived for thirty years.
Mrs Touchet is a woman of many interests: literature, justice, abolitionism, class, her cousin, his wives, this life and the next. But she is also sceptical. She suspects her cousin of having no talent; his successful friend, Mr Charles Dickens, of being a bully and a moralist; and England of being a land of facades, in which nothing is quite what it seems.
Andrew Bogle meanwhile grew up enslaved on the Hope Plantation, Jamaica. He knows every lump of sugar comes at a human cost. That the rich deceive the poor. And that people are more easily manipulated than they realise. When Bogle finds himself in London, star witness in a celebrated case of imposture, he knows his future depends on telling the right story.
The 'Tichborne Trial' captivates Mrs Touchet and all of England. Is Sir Roger Tichborne really who he says he is? Or is he a fraud? Mrs Touchet is a woman of the world. Mr Bogle is no fool. But in a world of hypocrisy and self-deception, deciding what is real proves a complicated task...
Based on real historical events, The Fraud is a dazzling novel about truth and fiction, Jamaica and Britain, fraudulence and authenticity, and the mystery of 'other people.'
464 pages, Hardcover
First published September 5, 2023
About the author
Zadie Smith
115 books15.2k followersZadie Smith is an English novelist, essayist, and short-story writer. Her debut novel, White Teeth (2000), immediately became a best-seller and won a number of awards. She became a tenured professor in the Creative Writing faculty of New York University in September 2010.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 3,683 reviews
September 5, 2023
The last thing I want to feel about a 464-page novel after I finish it is lukewarm. Sadly, though, that was my general impression of Zadie Smith's latest offering.
Before I begin, it helps to know that The Fraud is comprised of three main storylines: the story of Eliza Touchet, a widow, and her life with her cousin-by-marriage and writer William Ainsworth; the Tichborne trial, a wildly popular case wherein a man claimed that he was, in fact, the long presumed-dead baronet Sir Roger Tichborne; and the story of the life of Andrew Bogle, a formerly enslaved man who was one of the witnesses in the Tichborne trial.
With that in mind, I'll start with the positives: Smith's writing is great, and I generally enjoyed Eliza as a protagonist. At almost 70 years old, her education and life experiences make her a compelling point-of-view to follow, especially when it comes to some of the themes that the novel is trying to explore: freedom, justice, activism, love. Eliza is strongly on the side of abolitionism, having spent many years attending meetings and consuming resources on the matter; that she is an ally to and proponent of this cause is something she takes to be a key part of herself and her values. And yet, in several key scenes throughout the novel, Smith deftly unsettles this simple narrative that Eliza has built for herself: moments of tension, of discomfort, where Eliza doesn't quite live up to her ideals, where she is distinctly confronted and unsettled by her privilege (particularly her class and racial privilege).
So much for the positives; the negatives, on the other hand, I have a lot more to say about. I started off by saying that The Fraud is comprised of three storylines because this is, in my view, one of its fundamental problems as a novel: though technically connected, the storylines are disparate, and none of them feel like they particularly go anywhere. Each of these narratives feels like it exists discretely of the others: the Eliza-and-William storyline mostly consists of meetings with the famous literary men of the time (Dickens, Thackeray, etc.); the Tichborne storyline is, of course, focused on the trial itself; and the Bogle storyline is a separate chunk introduced halfway through into the book and then concluded about 70 pages later. The Eliza parts and the trial parts alternate, seemingly without rhyme or reason, so that you go from one chapter set in the present timeline during the Tichborne trial only to be thrust into a chapter set 20 years earlier where Eliza and William are hosting some random dinner, visiting someone, talking about something, etc. The whole structure of the novel feels confused, its story so sorely lacking cohesion that I felt like I was reading 3 separate books rather than one novel.
Another issue is that The Fraud has zero narrative momentum. At 464 pages, it is a longer novel, and as a longer novel, it is all the more important for it to be able to keep the narrative moving, to sustain interest for the entire course of its story--and this was just not the case here. With the exception of the Tichborne trial story, most of the novel's story is just...told to us: the Eliza storyline and the Bogle storyline are both in the past, both stories that have already happened and that are simply being recollected by their respective narrators. And I am just not the kind of reader who likes this style of storytelling: I would much rather read about the characters living through something than them telling me about something that they've already lived through. On top of this, the novel's chapters are so short that it makes it virtually impossible to be immersed in these recollected narratives: most chapters are only a couple of pages long, and most of them follow a discrete event (a dinner, a visit, a walk, a conversation) rather than carrying over events from the previous chapter(s). The storytelling just altogether feels too sequential: this happened, then this happened, then this happened, and then here I am. It's too inert, not dynamic enough, lacking climactic moments, drama, narrative intrigue.
Lastly, though The Fraud is clearly a heavily researched novel, it is also one whose research overtakes its narrative. More often than not, the research doesn't enrich or enliven the story so much as pad it out. There is just so much information in this novel, and in the absence of some kind of propulsive force to keep the narrative moving, it makes the novel feel bloated: it gets tiring, after a while, to keep track of so many names and places and histories and events.
As I'm writing this, I'm realizing that "tiring" is exactly the right word to characterize my experience of reading The Fraud. It's a novel that asks an investment of its reader that it does not reward that reader for: after the many pages of storylines, even after following so many characters over so many years and so many changes and so many places, it somehow feels like nothing really happens in this book. I picked it up; I read it; I finished it. Did I love it? No. Did I like it? Not really. It was just a book that I read--and for a book that is this long, that is this expansive, that is grappling with such interesting themes and such a rich historical period, that is just extremely disappointing.
Before I begin, it helps to know that The Fraud is comprised of three main storylines: the story of Eliza Touchet, a widow, and her life with her cousin-by-marriage and writer William Ainsworth; the Tichborne trial, a wildly popular case wherein a man claimed that he was, in fact, the long presumed-dead baronet Sir Roger Tichborne; and the story of the life of Andrew Bogle, a formerly enslaved man who was one of the witnesses in the Tichborne trial.
With that in mind, I'll start with the positives: Smith's writing is great, and I generally enjoyed Eliza as a protagonist. At almost 70 years old, her education and life experiences make her a compelling point-of-view to follow, especially when it comes to some of the themes that the novel is trying to explore: freedom, justice, activism, love. Eliza is strongly on the side of abolitionism, having spent many years attending meetings and consuming resources on the matter; that she is an ally to and proponent of this cause is something she takes to be a key part of herself and her values. And yet, in several key scenes throughout the novel, Smith deftly unsettles this simple narrative that Eliza has built for herself: moments of tension, of discomfort, where Eliza doesn't quite live up to her ideals, where she is distinctly confronted and unsettled by her privilege (particularly her class and racial privilege).
So much for the positives; the negatives, on the other hand, I have a lot more to say about. I started off by saying that The Fraud is comprised of three storylines because this is, in my view, one of its fundamental problems as a novel: though technically connected, the storylines are disparate, and none of them feel like they particularly go anywhere. Each of these narratives feels like it exists discretely of the others: the Eliza-and-William storyline mostly consists of meetings with the famous literary men of the time (Dickens, Thackeray, etc.); the Tichborne storyline is, of course, focused on the trial itself; and the Bogle storyline is a separate chunk introduced halfway through into the book and then concluded about 70 pages later. The Eliza parts and the trial parts alternate, seemingly without rhyme or reason, so that you go from one chapter set in the present timeline during the Tichborne trial only to be thrust into a chapter set 20 years earlier where Eliza and William are hosting some random dinner, visiting someone, talking about something, etc. The whole structure of the novel feels confused, its story so sorely lacking cohesion that I felt like I was reading 3 separate books rather than one novel.
Another issue is that The Fraud has zero narrative momentum. At 464 pages, it is a longer novel, and as a longer novel, it is all the more important for it to be able to keep the narrative moving, to sustain interest for the entire course of its story--and this was just not the case here. With the exception of the Tichborne trial story, most of the novel's story is just...told to us: the Eliza storyline and the Bogle storyline are both in the past, both stories that have already happened and that are simply being recollected by their respective narrators. And I am just not the kind of reader who likes this style of storytelling: I would much rather read about the characters living through something than them telling me about something that they've already lived through. On top of this, the novel's chapters are so short that it makes it virtually impossible to be immersed in these recollected narratives: most chapters are only a couple of pages long, and most of them follow a discrete event (a dinner, a visit, a walk, a conversation) rather than carrying over events from the previous chapter(s). The storytelling just altogether feels too sequential: this happened, then this happened, then this happened, and then here I am. It's too inert, not dynamic enough, lacking climactic moments, drama, narrative intrigue.
Lastly, though The Fraud is clearly a heavily researched novel, it is also one whose research overtakes its narrative. More often than not, the research doesn't enrich or enliven the story so much as pad it out. There is just so much information in this novel, and in the absence of some kind of propulsive force to keep the narrative moving, it makes the novel feel bloated: it gets tiring, after a while, to keep track of so many names and places and histories and events.
As I'm writing this, I'm realizing that "tiring" is exactly the right word to characterize my experience of reading The Fraud. It's a novel that asks an investment of its reader that it does not reward that reader for: after the many pages of storylines, even after following so many characters over so many years and so many changes and so many places, it somehow feels like nothing really happens in this book. I picked it up; I read it; I finished it. Did I love it? No. Did I like it? Not really. It was just a book that I read--and for a book that is this long, that is this expansive, that is grappling with such interesting themes and such a rich historical period, that is just extremely disappointing.
August 11, 2024
5 "Zwooning, Zelicious, Zagnificent, Ztupendous" stars !!!
Tie - The 2023 Gold Award (Mostest favorite Read)
Warmest thanx to Random House Canada, Netgalley and the incredible Zadie herself. This will be released September 5, 2023. I am providing an honest review.
I need to get a little gush out of my system....I love you Zadie, your mind, your creativity, your compassion and your sense of humor....I do I do I do....okay now onto the review.....
Zadie had created a masterful, immersive, important and triumphant historical biography that is not truly a biography but a backdrop for compassionate social commentary on both the Victorian novel and British society. Loosely based on historical figures such as a minor novelist, a pretender and a former Jamaican slave....tying them all together is a heroine that I will never forget; a Scottish woman with a heart, a brain, a soul and who on the side likes a little kink...yes folks a little kink...just a little....
I truly cannot rave more about a novel that is written beautifully, intelligently and with such wit and depth that I would laugh, rant and cry all within a few pages. She goes deeply into each character and laughs with and at them, explores inequities in gender, sexuality, race and class with a sweep of her beautiful hands. She never preaches but with her very soft light illuminates not only truths but deep wisdoms. This is so timely for our times of identity politics where narcissism and the most toxic of people hold center stage forgetting about the millions of brothers and sisters that are truly oppressed....
Zadie knows Us deeply, intimately
Zadie has her tongue in her cheek, gives a wicked little wink and juts out her hip while at the same time opening up her long and lovely arms to embrace us with love, compassion and the deepest understandings....
Zadie, I love you, I really do...
Tie - The 2023 Gold Award (Mostest favorite Read)
Warmest thanx to Random House Canada, Netgalley and the incredible Zadie herself. This will be released September 5, 2023. I am providing an honest review.
I need to get a little gush out of my system....I love you Zadie, your mind, your creativity, your compassion and your sense of humor....I do I do I do....okay now onto the review.....
Zadie had created a masterful, immersive, important and triumphant historical biography that is not truly a biography but a backdrop for compassionate social commentary on both the Victorian novel and British society. Loosely based on historical figures such as a minor novelist, a pretender and a former Jamaican slave....tying them all together is a heroine that I will never forget; a Scottish woman with a heart, a brain, a soul and who on the side likes a little kink...yes folks a little kink...just a little....
I truly cannot rave more about a novel that is written beautifully, intelligently and with such wit and depth that I would laugh, rant and cry all within a few pages. She goes deeply into each character and laughs with and at them, explores inequities in gender, sexuality, race and class with a sweep of her beautiful hands. She never preaches but with her very soft light illuminates not only truths but deep wisdoms. This is so timely for our times of identity politics where narcissism and the most toxic of people hold center stage forgetting about the millions of brothers and sisters that are truly oppressed....
Zadie knows Us deeply, intimately
Zadie has her tongue in her cheek, gives a wicked little wink and juts out her hip while at the same time opening up her long and lovely arms to embrace us with love, compassion and the deepest understandings....
Zadie, I love you, I really do...
December 1, 2023
“We mistake each other. Our whole social arrangement a series of mistakes and compromises. Shorthand for a mystery too large to be seen… Yet even once one had glimpsed behind the veil which separates people, as she had – how hard it proves to keep the lives of others in mind! Everything conspires against it. Life itself.”
If it were possible to give a book two ratings, I would do just that for my introduction to Zadie Smith, an author I’ve long desired to read. I would give her book five stars for brilliant, thought-provoking ideas and masterful prose. On the other hand, I would award this two or three stars based on the merits of this as a strong, cohesive, engaging story. When I read a novel, it needs to be equally compulsive and propulsive. This wasn’t. Yet, there were individual sentences and numerous passages that I recklessly highlighted while thinking, Wow, this is damn good stuff! First and foremost, however, I believe this is a book about truth and deception. We convince ourselves and others of our “truths”. We deliberately lie to others. Sometimes this is done to ease our consciences, sometimes to achieve or gain something, whether it is money or freedom or even love. We parade around with our masks securely attached. We are all frauds of one sort or another. We don’t let people know our true selves. Ms. Smith uses a particular historical event, the Tichborne Trial in England during the 1870s, to illustrate a point, while I’m merely prattling.
“But no story captured her quite like the saga of the Tichborne Claimant. It had everything: toffs, Catholics, money, sex, mistaken identity, an inheritance, High Court Judges, snobbery, exotic locations, ‘the struggle of the honest working man’ – as opposed to the ‘undeserving poor’ – and ‘the power of a mother’s love’.”
There’s a lot to be found here besides just the trial, however. The trial is a vehicle which allows Smith to share her ideas as well as a way for her to illuminate her main character, Eliza Touchet. She examines racism, particularly in relation to the colonization of Jamaica, feminism, the vocation of a writer, and the class system of England during the nineteenth century. The idea of “fraud” comes up in nearly every observation she makes through her numerous characters. The thing I liked best about this as a novel was Eliza. When Smith allows us those glimpses of Eliza’s reflections, I found myself gobbling those parts right down. But then we would be off and running with another character, another timeline. Chapters were short, ranging anywhere from one to maybe three or four pages. It’s a long book at 451 pages to stay on task with such a disjointed style; it made me feel disconnected.
I don���t know what else to say here. I’m glad I finally picked up one of Zadie Smith’s books. I wish I could say I loved it. I wish I had tried a non-fiction piece instead. I have a hunch that is the best format for her to share her intelligent mind with us readers. But I did have a very worthwhile discussion with my friend Lisa, so not all was lost. In fact, a lot is to be gained from talking with an insightful friend. I’ll read Smith again, but will reach for a collection of her essays next time around! See Lisa's thoughts here: Lisa's Review.
Since I failed to review this properly, I’ll share some of Smith’s intellectual nourishment:
“… the great majority of people turn out to be extraordinarily suggestible, with brains like sieves through which the truth falls. Fact and fiction meld in their minds.”
“There was a bracketed place in her brain where things were both true and not true simultaneously. In this same space one could love two people. Live two lives. Escape and be at home.”
“What possesses people? Unhappiness, always. Happiness is otherwise occupied. It has an object on which to focus. It has daises, it has snowdrifts. Unhappiness opens up the void, which then requires filling.”
“Justice has no time. It is eternal, it is now, it is yesterday, it is tomorrow. Every man branded like cattle feels that pain infinitely: it echoes across all time and all space.”
“As long as we profess to believe that two people may happily – or feasibly – invest all love and interest in this world solely in one another, till death do them part – well, then life, short as it is, will continue to be a human comedy, punctuated by tragedy. So she generally thought. Then there were these moments of grace when she startled herself with the idea that if anybody truly understood what is signified by the word ‘person’, they would consider twelve lifetimes too brief a spell in which to love a single soul.”
If it were possible to give a book two ratings, I would do just that for my introduction to Zadie Smith, an author I’ve long desired to read. I would give her book five stars for brilliant, thought-provoking ideas and masterful prose. On the other hand, I would award this two or three stars based on the merits of this as a strong, cohesive, engaging story. When I read a novel, it needs to be equally compulsive and propulsive. This wasn’t. Yet, there were individual sentences and numerous passages that I recklessly highlighted while thinking, Wow, this is damn good stuff! First and foremost, however, I believe this is a book about truth and deception. We convince ourselves and others of our “truths”. We deliberately lie to others. Sometimes this is done to ease our consciences, sometimes to achieve or gain something, whether it is money or freedom or even love. We parade around with our masks securely attached. We are all frauds of one sort or another. We don’t let people know our true selves. Ms. Smith uses a particular historical event, the Tichborne Trial in England during the 1870s, to illustrate a point, while I’m merely prattling.
“But no story captured her quite like the saga of the Tichborne Claimant. It had everything: toffs, Catholics, money, sex, mistaken identity, an inheritance, High Court Judges, snobbery, exotic locations, ‘the struggle of the honest working man’ – as opposed to the ‘undeserving poor’ – and ‘the power of a mother’s love’.”
There’s a lot to be found here besides just the trial, however. The trial is a vehicle which allows Smith to share her ideas as well as a way for her to illuminate her main character, Eliza Touchet. She examines racism, particularly in relation to the colonization of Jamaica, feminism, the vocation of a writer, and the class system of England during the nineteenth century. The idea of “fraud” comes up in nearly every observation she makes through her numerous characters. The thing I liked best about this as a novel was Eliza. When Smith allows us those glimpses of Eliza’s reflections, I found myself gobbling those parts right down. But then we would be off and running with another character, another timeline. Chapters were short, ranging anywhere from one to maybe three or four pages. It’s a long book at 451 pages to stay on task with such a disjointed style; it made me feel disconnected.
I don���t know what else to say here. I’m glad I finally picked up one of Zadie Smith’s books. I wish I could say I loved it. I wish I had tried a non-fiction piece instead. I have a hunch that is the best format for her to share her intelligent mind with us readers. But I did have a very worthwhile discussion with my friend Lisa, so not all was lost. In fact, a lot is to be gained from talking with an insightful friend. I’ll read Smith again, but will reach for a collection of her essays next time around! See Lisa's thoughts here: Lisa's Review.
Since I failed to review this properly, I’ll share some of Smith’s intellectual nourishment:
“… the great majority of people turn out to be extraordinarily suggestible, with brains like sieves through which the truth falls. Fact and fiction meld in their minds.”
“There was a bracketed place in her brain where things were both true and not true simultaneously. In this same space one could love two people. Live two lives. Escape and be at home.”
“What possesses people? Unhappiness, always. Happiness is otherwise occupied. It has an object on which to focus. It has daises, it has snowdrifts. Unhappiness opens up the void, which then requires filling.”
“Justice has no time. It is eternal, it is now, it is yesterday, it is tomorrow. Every man branded like cattle feels that pain infinitely: it echoes across all time and all space.”
“As long as we profess to believe that two people may happily – or feasibly – invest all love and interest in this world solely in one another, till death do them part – well, then life, short as it is, will continue to be a human comedy, punctuated by tragedy. So she generally thought. Then there were these moments of grace when she startled herself with the idea that if anybody truly understood what is signified by the word ‘person’, they would consider twelve lifetimes too brief a spell in which to love a single soul.”
September 22, 2023
I will admit to struggling with The Fraud. There are flashes of brilliance and humor, especially when Smith is writing about Ainsworth and his prolific, but bad writing, but at times she seems to fall victim to the same things she’s making fun of. The book meanders and I felt like Smith was trying to cram way too much into the story.
There are multiple parts to the story. It worked best when Smith concentrated on Eliza Touchet, the cousin by marriage of William Ainsworth. Through her eyes, we get to see the “Tichborne trial” when Roger Castro, an Australian butcher attempts to prove he is the true Lord Roger Tichborne. Andrew Bogle is a former Jamaican slave who swears that the claimant is truly Lord Tichborne. There’s a whole section devoted to his past and while I get why Smith wrote it, it also took me out of the primary story.
This isn’t an easy book to keep up with. It flips back and forth in time, and has a multitude of characters.
This is truly a story for the modern day. I would have sworn Smith made up the whole trial in an effort to make fun of Trump and his fan base who believe him regardless of the many lies he tells. But in actuality, this was an actual event and it just goes to prove that people are easily duped. As Barnum said “ there’s a sucker born every minute”.
In addition to the whole idea of “what is truth” is the idea of freedom. Not just the slaves, but women of the day. Eliza is invisible due to her sex and her age. She’s smarter than William, but she’s constrained by her sex. I did like what it had to say about who is a fraud. Not just Castro, but also Ainsworth and even Eliza herself.
This was not a satisfactory audio experience. The story meanders and I found it difficult to keep up at times. Also, Smith would have been better served with a professional narrator. She did a valiant job differentiating the voices, but my American ears struggled with her voice. She did a great job with the voices of Eliza and the “new” Mrs. Ainsworth, but her own voice sounded like she had marbles in her mouth.
There are multiple parts to the story. It worked best when Smith concentrated on Eliza Touchet, the cousin by marriage of William Ainsworth. Through her eyes, we get to see the “Tichborne trial” when Roger Castro, an Australian butcher attempts to prove he is the true Lord Roger Tichborne. Andrew Bogle is a former Jamaican slave who swears that the claimant is truly Lord Tichborne. There’s a whole section devoted to his past and while I get why Smith wrote it, it also took me out of the primary story.
This isn’t an easy book to keep up with. It flips back and forth in time, and has a multitude of characters.
This is truly a story for the modern day. I would have sworn Smith made up the whole trial in an effort to make fun of Trump and his fan base who believe him regardless of the many lies he tells. But in actuality, this was an actual event and it just goes to prove that people are easily duped. As Barnum said “ there’s a sucker born every minute”.
In addition to the whole idea of “what is truth” is the idea of freedom. Not just the slaves, but women of the day. Eliza is invisible due to her sex and her age. She’s smarter than William, but she’s constrained by her sex. I did like what it had to say about who is a fraud. Not just Castro, but also Ainsworth and even Eliza herself.
This was not a satisfactory audio experience. The story meanders and I found it difficult to keep up at times. Also, Smith would have been better served with a professional narrator. She did a valiant job differentiating the voices, but my American ears struggled with her voice. She did a great job with the voices of Eliza and the “new” Mrs. Ainsworth, but her own voice sounded like she had marbles in her mouth.
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November 21, 2023dnf @ 15%
This book single-handedly cured my sleep disorder. I don't usually fall asleep while reading, but The Fraud is the ultimate knockout.
Rarely have I not cared so deeply.
Maybe things would have eventually got going, but tbh I'd rather watch a whole bucket of paint dry than find out.
August 30, 2023
Zadie Smith is clever enough to make anything sound plausible, but the most outrageous elements of her new novel, “The Fraud,” are actually true.
In the 1860s, a butcher with a shadowy past claimed that he was Sir Roger Tichborne, the presumed-dead son of Lady Tichborne and the heir to a vast fortune. The evidence against the butcher seemed overwhelming: He could not remember his supposed classmates, could not recall basic facts of a gentleman’s education and could not even speak French, Tichborne’s first language. More damning, details about his “missing years” at sea were shown to be false. And yet for many thousands of devoted fans, the very audaciousness of his claim argued in its favor.
Two bizarre court cases involving hundreds of witnesses dragged on for years and filled a sewer of conspiracy theories. The butcher’s chief legal defender was an Irish barrister named Edward Kenealy, whose shameless histrionics — “whining, ranting, swearing, sermonizing, lecturing and embarking upon incredible rhetorical tangents” — make today’s Kraken-releaser Sidney Powell look like a legal genius. Wisely, Smith offers no explicit contemporary allusions, but she hardly needs to, as the Great Claimant of our own era struts across the public stage scrambling every norm of evidence and certainty.
The carbonated lunacy of this scandal could easily have powered “The Fraud” from start to finish. Smith, though, is at pains to keep the trials of the so-called Tichborne Claimant rumbling in the background. Earlier this summer, she wrote in the New Yorker that she had spent years determined not to. . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
In the 1860s, a butcher with a shadowy past claimed that he was Sir Roger Tichborne, the presumed-dead son of Lady Tichborne and the heir to a vast fortune. The evidence against the butcher seemed overwhelming: He could not remember his supposed classmates, could not recall basic facts of a gentleman’s education and could not even speak French, Tichborne’s first language. More damning, details about his “missing years” at sea were shown to be false. And yet for many thousands of devoted fans, the very audaciousness of his claim argued in its favor.
Two bizarre court cases involving hundreds of witnesses dragged on for years and filled a sewer of conspiracy theories. The butcher’s chief legal defender was an Irish barrister named Edward Kenealy, whose shameless histrionics — “whining, ranting, swearing, sermonizing, lecturing and embarking upon incredible rhetorical tangents” — make today’s Kraken-releaser Sidney Powell look like a legal genius. Wisely, Smith offers no explicit contemporary allusions, but she hardly needs to, as the Great Claimant of our own era struts across the public stage scrambling every norm of evidence and certainty.
The carbonated lunacy of this scandal could easily have powered “The Fraud” from start to finish. Smith, though, is at pains to keep the trials of the so-called Tichborne Claimant rumbling in the background. Earlier this summer, she wrote in the New Yorker that she had spent years determined not to. . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
May 26, 2024
Human error and venality are everywhere, churches are imperfect, cruelty is common, power corrupt, the weak go to the wall! What in the world can be relied on?
Rapture. Beauty. Grace translated - made visible. Had she ever truly heard music until this moment?
This reads to me like Smith's corrective to the 'fraud' of British Victorian history and literature that has traditionally been endemically white, which has written out so much about Caribbean slavery (as well as other predations of the Empire across the globe), about the abolitionist movement, even about the presence of non-white people in London and other British cities. It's only recently that this history is being prised open thanks to books like Black and British: A Forgotten History by David Olusoga, colour-blind and Black casting in nineteenth century-set TV series (Sanditon, Bridgerton) - and Smith's novel serves as a much-needed parallel that re-writes the conventional Victorian novel so that its heart is the story of Mr Bogle and his descendants, trafficked from Africa, enslaved in Jamaica, brought to London to act as witness in the sensational Titchborne court case that itself is built on issues of identity, fraud and authenticity.
It takes some time to get our bearings in this book. The start offers up Mrs Eliza Touchet who seems like a conventional housekeeper in 'the big house' of a Victorian novelist and man of letters, William Harrison Ainsworth, friend and rivals with Charles Dickens. But Eliza has more going on beneath her surface: she's an abolitionist and activist who won't be cowed in discussions with Ainsworth's friends about the economic 'necessity' for slavery - and who also has rather subversive relationships with Ainsworth himself as well as his first and second wives. Her rather naughty indictments of Dickens who makes a lot of money out of his sympathy for the poor and oppressed (I could feel Zadie winking at me here!), and her friendship with Mr Bogle give her a perspective that is rare to find in actual Victorian fiction:
At times the narrative feels a bit bogged down and directionless but Smith's wit and sardonic sense of humour keep the pages turning, and the payoff, once we can see the shape of this book, is worth it. I found this deceptively easy to read but there's real substance here such as that scene in my opening quotation where Eliza, ground down by establishment and authoritarian politics, listens to a choir made up of singers with all shades of skin and finds a moment of human transcendence.
Thanks to Penguin for an ARC via NetGalley
When Israel was in Egypt's land
Let my people go
Oppressed so hard they could not stand
Let my people go.
Rapture. Beauty. Grace translated - made visible. Had she ever truly heard music until this moment?
This reads to me like Smith's corrective to the 'fraud' of British Victorian history and literature that has traditionally been endemically white, which has written out so much about Caribbean slavery (as well as other predations of the Empire across the globe), about the abolitionist movement, even about the presence of non-white people in London and other British cities. It's only recently that this history is being prised open thanks to books like Black and British: A Forgotten History by David Olusoga, colour-blind and Black casting in nineteenth century-set TV series (Sanditon, Bridgerton) - and Smith's novel serves as a much-needed parallel that re-writes the conventional Victorian novel so that its heart is the story of Mr Bogle and his descendants, trafficked from Africa, enslaved in Jamaica, brought to London to act as witness in the sensational Titchborne court case that itself is built on issues of identity, fraud and authenticity.
It takes some time to get our bearings in this book. The start offers up Mrs Eliza Touchet who seems like a conventional housekeeper in 'the big house' of a Victorian novelist and man of letters, William Harrison Ainsworth, friend and rivals with Charles Dickens. But Eliza has more going on beneath her surface: she's an abolitionist and activist who won't be cowed in discussions with Ainsworth's friends about the economic 'necessity' for slavery - and who also has rather subversive relationships with Ainsworth himself as well as his first and second wives. Her rather naughty indictments of Dickens who makes a lot of money out of his sympathy for the poor and oppressed (I could feel Zadie winking at me here!), and her friendship with Mr Bogle give her a perspective that is rare to find in actual Victorian fiction:
She had always noticed a great many Chinese and Indian seamen in this area and they were all still here, but there were also several newer shops with their signs written in the ancient script of the Jews, and a small delegation of Turks - or at least men in fez hats - peering into the windows of a jeweller.
At times the narrative feels a bit bogged down and directionless but Smith's wit and sardonic sense of humour keep the pages turning, and the payoff, once we can see the shape of this book, is worth it. I found this deceptively easy to read but there's real substance here such as that scene in my opening quotation where Eliza, ground down by establishment and authoritarian politics, listens to a choir made up of singers with all shades of skin and finds a moment of human transcendence.
Thanks to Penguin for an ARC via NetGalley
June 28, 2023
I am very sorry to say that I'm glad that's over and done with.
I've not read any Zadie Smith since the outstandingly good White Teeth but The Fraud sounded so interesting on paper that I was extremely hopeful that it would be just as excellent. However what I ended up with was a confusing, mish mash of stories and timelines that made me long for the end.
To say I'm disappointed is an understatement.
We start with the story of William Harrison Ainsworth, a novelist and contemporary of Dickens and Thackeray. He was popular in his day but once Dickens arrived his popularity waned. We are also introduced to his cousin, Eliza, who is the main narrator of the book.
Eliza's story is intermingled with William's and that of his first and second wife.
Then we have another two strands - that of a celebrated case of the time - the Tichborne case where a claimant spends years trying to prove that he was the missing peer Sir Roger Tichborne believed lost at sea.
This is mingled with the story of his faithful servant, Bogle.
So we have two personal histories, a court case, another personal history and they are all mixed up with the major events of the age - Corn Law Repeal, Lancashire Mill workers strike, various Slave Trade Acts and The Great Exhibition to name but a few.
All in all this novel tried to pack in everything plus the kitchen sink. It jumped all over the place with plot and timeline. I found Bogles history interesting but you just started to get your teeth into a part and then found yourself in a different year with a different plot. I felt all at sea by the end.
Disappointing.
I've not read any Zadie Smith since the outstandingly good White Teeth but The Fraud sounded so interesting on paper that I was extremely hopeful that it would be just as excellent. However what I ended up with was a confusing, mish mash of stories and timelines that made me long for the end.
To say I'm disappointed is an understatement.
We start with the story of William Harrison Ainsworth, a novelist and contemporary of Dickens and Thackeray. He was popular in his day but once Dickens arrived his popularity waned. We are also introduced to his cousin, Eliza, who is the main narrator of the book.
Eliza's story is intermingled with William's and that of his first and second wife.
Then we have another two strands - that of a celebrated case of the time - the Tichborne case where a claimant spends years trying to prove that he was the missing peer Sir Roger Tichborne believed lost at sea.
This is mingled with the story of his faithful servant, Bogle.
So we have two personal histories, a court case, another personal history and they are all mixed up with the major events of the age - Corn Law Repeal, Lancashire Mill workers strike, various Slave Trade Acts and The Great Exhibition to name but a few.
All in all this novel tried to pack in everything plus the kitchen sink. It jumped all over the place with plot and timeline. I found Bogles history interesting but you just started to get your teeth into a part and then found yourself in a different year with a different plot. I felt all at sea by the end.
Disappointing.
January 12, 2024
Are all the characters in this novel frauds? Is everyone a fraud? Certainly Arthur Orton found guilty of impersonation in the historic 19th century trial fits the criminal definition. The now forgotten novelist William Ainsworth and his literary friends, (Dickens, Thackeray, and others), although not criminally fraudulent, could be accused. Even the “Manchester Free Trade Hall was fraudulent in its imitation of antiquity.” Eliza? The wives? The lawyers? You? Me? As in the children’s book, A House Is a House for Me, the more you search and think about it, the more guilty parties, the more instances of fraud, or at least deception.
Mrs. Touchet: cousin, housekeeper, lover, and cheerleader of William is a keen observer and sardonic protagonist. More than once she brought a smile to my face. I loved her observations, loved the way she developed as she matured. The sensational trial and her relationship with the Bogles brought a new dimension to her personality, an awareness of the social injustices of the day and the unrest of the working class. She was as muti-layered as the novel.
Zadie Smith is a brilliant writer. I thoroughly enjoyed this historic novel. Although 464 pages, many of the short chapters didn’t fill an entire page. I read it quickly. It has had mixed reviews both in professional reviews and on Goodreads. I can understand why, but I am strongly on the side of those who raved.
Some Favorite Lines
“What possesses people? Unhappiness, always. Happiness in otherwise occupied. It has an object on which to focus. Unhappiness opens up the void, which then requires filling.”
“In the misery of aristocrats she found proof of the ancient wisdom regarding camels, rich men and the eyes of needles.”
“She wished life’s pages could be flicked forward as a novel, to see if what followed was worth attending to in the present.”
“The great majority of people turn out to be extraordinarily suggestible, with brains like sieves through which the truth falls.”
“But nowhere in these mental projections had she imagined being asked to explain herself, no more than she expected the figures in her dreams to stop what they were doing and ask their sleeping author why they flew in a hot air balloon, or visited China, or dined with the Queen.”
Mrs. Touchet: cousin, housekeeper, lover, and cheerleader of William is a keen observer and sardonic protagonist. More than once she brought a smile to my face. I loved her observations, loved the way she developed as she matured. The sensational trial and her relationship with the Bogles brought a new dimension to her personality, an awareness of the social injustices of the day and the unrest of the working class. She was as muti-layered as the novel.
Zadie Smith is a brilliant writer. I thoroughly enjoyed this historic novel. Although 464 pages, many of the short chapters didn’t fill an entire page. I read it quickly. It has had mixed reviews both in professional reviews and on Goodreads. I can understand why, but I am strongly on the side of those who raved.
Some Favorite Lines
“What possesses people? Unhappiness, always. Happiness in otherwise occupied. It has an object on which to focus. Unhappiness opens up the void, which then requires filling.”
“In the misery of aristocrats she found proof of the ancient wisdom regarding camels, rich men and the eyes of needles.”
“She wished life’s pages could be flicked forward as a novel, to see if what followed was worth attending to in the present.”
“The great majority of people turn out to be extraordinarily suggestible, with brains like sieves through which the truth falls.”
“But nowhere in these mental projections had she imagined being asked to explain herself, no more than she expected the figures in her dreams to stop what they were doing and ask their sleeping author why they flew in a hot air balloon, or visited China, or dined with the Queen.”
October 7, 2023
Sorry this is so long, but it’s either “This is a great book!” - or the full version that follows. :-)
For some time Zadie Smith has been on my horizon as an author to check out, although I’m not sure that under most circumstances I would have selected a novel described as “Dickensian” as my first choice among her books. But then I stumbled on a podcast interview with Ms. Smith, and as soon as it was over I bought an audio copy of The Fraud and started listening. And listened every minute I could find until I’d finished.
In a year when I’ve had the privilege of reading many memorable books, this one stands out. So many layers, so many themes, so many memorable characters, all presented in a distinctive, insightful voice.
You can read six reviews of this book and get six different impressions of what it is about. Some will say that it’s about the Tichborne case, and that sensational fraud trial is definitely the backdrop of much of the action and ideas. Others will stress the way Smith confronts the matter of slavery, and the racism baked into the British colonization of Jamaica. 19th century British novelists (of the male variety) come in for their share of Smith’s sharply honed observations. And there is a strong representation of feminist ideas, as represented in the form of Eliza Touchet, from whose point of view we observe most of the people and events that make up the book.
As present as are all these themes in the book, the core, in my opinion, is the fluid nature of truth. Every individual’s experiences - where, when and how they live - coalesce into their own truth. Yes, there are immutable facts, but how they land on each person constitutes that person’s truth.
Smith’s Eliza Touchet, the same as most of the characters in this book, is based on a real person, a widow and cousin-by-marriage to William Ainsworth, novelist of limited talent but large ambition. In Smith’s telling, she has intense and complicated relationships with both Ainsworth and his wife, adding an emotional texture that balances the philosophical and historical elements of the book. She is also our window on the aforementioned novelists, the Tichborne case, and the circumstances of the British and Africans in Jamaica.
Throughout the book, and especially with the Tichborne case, Smith slyly holds up a mirror to contemporary American culture. (Although born in London, Smith lived for many years in the U.S. and had a front row seat to the 2016 election and the related matters.) The young heir to the enormous Tichborne fortune was presumed lost at sea in 1854. After a number of years, a man traveled from Australia to England claiming to be Roger Tichborne. His mother believed him, although no one else in the family did, and a mountain of facts argued against him (among other things, he spoke with a Cockney accent and knew no French, Tichborne’s first language). Yet many thousands of people supported him out of a belief that since the courts were known to be in collusion with the moneyed classes and stacked against the common man, he must by default be the real thing. His claims became their truth.
One of Tichborne’s supporters was Andrew Bogle, a former slave who knew Roger Tichborne as a child. His unwavering conviction that The Claimant was really Tichborne represents another form of truth, and Eliza’s discussions with him open the window on the economic and racial interactions between England and Jamaica.
A word about that adjective “Dickensian”. The book is set in Dickens’ time and place, and it’s peopled with colorful characters as his always were. But I didn’t find the text to be Dickensian in style. In short, Smith doesn’t need as many words to create similar vivid impressions. Well, she isn’t paid by the word, so I guess that makes sense.
Back to Eliza. I don’t think I’ve been as fond of a female character in a book since Mrs. Duszejko in Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. This observation from her is an example of why:
“The humiliations of girlhood. The separating of the beautiful from the plain and the ugly. The terror of maidenhood. The trials of marriage or childbirth – or their absence. The loss of that same beauty around which the whole system appears to revolve. The change of life. What strange lives women lead!”
I look forward to reading more of Smith. She has joined Tokarczyk as one of my most admired contemporary authors.
For some time Zadie Smith has been on my horizon as an author to check out, although I’m not sure that under most circumstances I would have selected a novel described as “Dickensian” as my first choice among her books. But then I stumbled on a podcast interview with Ms. Smith, and as soon as it was over I bought an audio copy of The Fraud and started listening. And listened every minute I could find until I’d finished.
In a year when I’ve had the privilege of reading many memorable books, this one stands out. So many layers, so many themes, so many memorable characters, all presented in a distinctive, insightful voice.
You can read six reviews of this book and get six different impressions of what it is about. Some will say that it’s about the Tichborne case, and that sensational fraud trial is definitely the backdrop of much of the action and ideas. Others will stress the way Smith confronts the matter of slavery, and the racism baked into the British colonization of Jamaica. 19th century British novelists (of the male variety) come in for their share of Smith’s sharply honed observations. And there is a strong representation of feminist ideas, as represented in the form of Eliza Touchet, from whose point of view we observe most of the people and events that make up the book.
As present as are all these themes in the book, the core, in my opinion, is the fluid nature of truth. Every individual’s experiences - where, when and how they live - coalesce into their own truth. Yes, there are immutable facts, but how they land on each person constitutes that person’s truth.
Smith’s Eliza Touchet, the same as most of the characters in this book, is based on a real person, a widow and cousin-by-marriage to William Ainsworth, novelist of limited talent but large ambition. In Smith’s telling, she has intense and complicated relationships with both Ainsworth and his wife, adding an emotional texture that balances the philosophical and historical elements of the book. She is also our window on the aforementioned novelists, the Tichborne case, and the circumstances of the British and Africans in Jamaica.
Throughout the book, and especially with the Tichborne case, Smith slyly holds up a mirror to contemporary American culture. (Although born in London, Smith lived for many years in the U.S. and had a front row seat to the 2016 election and the related matters.) The young heir to the enormous Tichborne fortune was presumed lost at sea in 1854. After a number of years, a man traveled from Australia to England claiming to be Roger Tichborne. His mother believed him, although no one else in the family did, and a mountain of facts argued against him (among other things, he spoke with a Cockney accent and knew no French, Tichborne’s first language). Yet many thousands of people supported him out of a belief that since the courts were known to be in collusion with the moneyed classes and stacked against the common man, he must by default be the real thing. His claims became their truth.
One of Tichborne’s supporters was Andrew Bogle, a former slave who knew Roger Tichborne as a child. His unwavering conviction that The Claimant was really Tichborne represents another form of truth, and Eliza’s discussions with him open the window on the economic and racial interactions between England and Jamaica.
A word about that adjective “Dickensian”. The book is set in Dickens’ time and place, and it’s peopled with colorful characters as his always were. But I didn’t find the text to be Dickensian in style. In short, Smith doesn’t need as many words to create similar vivid impressions. Well, she isn’t paid by the word, so I guess that makes sense.
Back to Eliza. I don’t think I’ve been as fond of a female character in a book since Mrs. Duszejko in Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. This observation from her is an example of why:
“The humiliations of girlhood. The separating of the beautiful from the plain and the ugly. The terror of maidenhood. The trials of marriage or childbirth – or their absence. The loss of that same beauty around which the whole system appears to revolve. The change of life. What strange lives women lead!”
I look forward to reading more of Smith. She has joined Tokarczyk as one of my most admired contemporary authors.
April 13, 2024
Deception
Zadie Smith’s The Fraud presents an intriguing story around deception and moral ambiguity, written in her glorious style that reinforces her as a great modern-day author. The Fraud is Zadie’s first journey into historical fiction, basing her novel on a 19th-century scandal in England where an ordinary butcher claimed to be the presumed-dead heir to the Tichbourne fortune – Sir Roger Tichbourne.
The main character in the story is Mrs Eliza Touchet, a cousin of William Ainsworth, who is also engaged as William's housekeeper, lover, and literary soundboard. William is an author, and part of a pensive literary circle, including Charles Dickens and William Thackeray. William’s writing skills seemingly fall behind Dickens's, and the discussions on his literary material provide lighter moments. Eliza’s presence provides an insightful narration of the old men at scholarly discussions, and her attendance at the trial of Sir Roger allows us to appreciate the main characters perpetrating the inheritance fraud. The notion of fraud pervades many of the scenes and characters in the book, including Eliza herself, and the sense of deception or dishonesty is an intriguing premise.
The novel's exploration of truth, identity, and morality felt shallow and underdeveloped. While these are undoubtedly great opportunities for exploration, Zadie fails to address them effectively, opting instead for surface-level observations that lack depth and insight. As a result, The Fraud feels more like a missed opportunity than a profound meditation on the human condition.
The novel's biggest shortcomings are the confusing narration, which sets multiple threads without any real sense of how they play off each other. The failure to build tension or sustain interest throughout its narrative is disappointing. Instead of ramping up the stakes or introducing compelling conflicts, Zadie seems content to coast along on the strength of her prose with an unmodulated pace that failed to keep me invested in the outcome.
Ultimately, The Fraud is a novel that promises much but falls short of its potential. While Smith's prose is as elegant and engaging as ever, it is not enough to overcome the narrative's shortcomings. Lacking depth, coherence, and emotional resonance, the novel ultimately failed to leave a lasting impression on me and a sense of disappointment rather than satisfaction.
Zadie Smith’s The Fraud presents an intriguing story around deception and moral ambiguity, written in her glorious style that reinforces her as a great modern-day author. The Fraud is Zadie’s first journey into historical fiction, basing her novel on a 19th-century scandal in England where an ordinary butcher claimed to be the presumed-dead heir to the Tichbourne fortune – Sir Roger Tichbourne.
The main character in the story is Mrs Eliza Touchet, a cousin of William Ainsworth, who is also engaged as William's housekeeper, lover, and literary soundboard. William is an author, and part of a pensive literary circle, including Charles Dickens and William Thackeray. William’s writing skills seemingly fall behind Dickens's, and the discussions on his literary material provide lighter moments. Eliza’s presence provides an insightful narration of the old men at scholarly discussions, and her attendance at the trial of Sir Roger allows us to appreciate the main characters perpetrating the inheritance fraud. The notion of fraud pervades many of the scenes and characters in the book, including Eliza herself, and the sense of deception or dishonesty is an intriguing premise.
The novel's exploration of truth, identity, and morality felt shallow and underdeveloped. While these are undoubtedly great opportunities for exploration, Zadie fails to address them effectively, opting instead for surface-level observations that lack depth and insight. As a result, The Fraud feels more like a missed opportunity than a profound meditation on the human condition.
The novel's biggest shortcomings are the confusing narration, which sets multiple threads without any real sense of how they play off each other. The failure to build tension or sustain interest throughout its narrative is disappointing. Instead of ramping up the stakes or introducing compelling conflicts, Zadie seems content to coast along on the strength of her prose with an unmodulated pace that failed to keep me invested in the outcome.
Ultimately, The Fraud is a novel that promises much but falls short of its potential. While Smith's prose is as elegant and engaging as ever, it is not enough to overcome the narrative's shortcomings. Lacking depth, coherence, and emotional resonance, the novel ultimately failed to leave a lasting impression on me and a sense of disappointment rather than satisfaction.
March 3, 2024
Zadie Smith in The New Yorker:
I love a ‘sly remove’ in historical fiction (or even a bold one, see recent examples You Dreamed of Empires or Glorious Exploits); anachronisms too, if done intentionally and to good purpose, are fine by me.
To further Smith’s cosplay analogy: if other novels wear superhero costumes, The Fraud is the weirdo that came dressed as the comic book itself. Because to its great detriment, The Fraud is structured like a Victorian novel, in eight volumes and bitty chapters, mimicking the serialised tomes of the day. This is a barrier to the modern reader (at least one who does not read a lot of classics) who is used to a more fluid narrative. It took me a long time to get invested in the story, or even to work out exactly what story was being told.
Persistence pays off with this one though. After struggling on, I was richly rewarded with captivating characters — Smith takes Dickensian archetypes and paints in all the finer details, rendering them with greater depth — and a story that takes on the Tichborne case from a brilliantly oblique angle.
Rather than focusing on the players in the absurd legal saga, Smith turns our gaze to the audience, the obsessed public and the media feeding their obsession. It plays directly to our current ‘post truth’ age without forcing the point. People were ever thus. Even The Fraud’s most rational character, Eliza Touchet, feels herself being lured in.
In another ‘angle or remove’ Smith zooms her lens on Andrew Bogle, a formerly enslaved Black Jamaican man, making him a focus rather than a background player. In doing so, she expands the narrative to take in British imperialism and slavery, while also creating a refreshingly unwhitewashed picture of Victorian London. Eliza’s guilt and conflicted feelings over inherited blood money from the slave trade is perhaps one of those anachronisms to good purpose.
The Fraud is frustrating and tedious in parts, but it rewards the effort you put into it. Verdict: Not guilty (of wasting my time). 4 stars.
‘Not all historical fiction cosplays its era, and an exploration of the past need not be a slavish imitation of it. You can come at the past from an interrogative angle, or a sly remove, and some historical fiction will radically transform your perspective not just on the past but on the present. These ideas are of course obvious to long-term fans of historical fiction, but they were new to me.’
I love a ‘sly remove’ in historical fiction (or even a bold one, see recent examples You Dreamed of Empires or Glorious Exploits); anachronisms too, if done intentionally and to good purpose, are fine by me.
To further Smith’s cosplay analogy: if other novels wear superhero costumes, The Fraud is the weirdo that came dressed as the comic book itself. Because to its great detriment, The Fraud is structured like a Victorian novel, in eight volumes and bitty chapters, mimicking the serialised tomes of the day. This is a barrier to the modern reader (at least one who does not read a lot of classics) who is used to a more fluid narrative. It took me a long time to get invested in the story, or even to work out exactly what story was being told.
Persistence pays off with this one though. After struggling on, I was richly rewarded with captivating characters — Smith takes Dickensian archetypes and paints in all the finer details, rendering them with greater depth — and a story that takes on the Tichborne case from a brilliantly oblique angle.
Rather than focusing on the players in the absurd legal saga, Smith turns our gaze to the audience, the obsessed public and the media feeding their obsession. It plays directly to our current ‘post truth’ age without forcing the point. People were ever thus. Even The Fraud’s most rational character, Eliza Touchet, feels herself being lured in.
In another ‘angle or remove’ Smith zooms her lens on Andrew Bogle, a formerly enslaved Black Jamaican man, making him a focus rather than a background player. In doing so, she expands the narrative to take in British imperialism and slavery, while also creating a refreshingly unwhitewashed picture of Victorian London. Eliza’s guilt and conflicted feelings over inherited blood money from the slave trade is perhaps one of those anachronisms to good purpose.
The Fraud is frustrating and tedious in parts, but it rewards the effort you put into it. Verdict: Not guilty (of wasting my time). 4 stars.
September 17, 2023
[1.5] A work of fiction must “hook" me within the first 75 pages or so (a “slow burn” for me is when that hook remains undetected beyond 50 pages). Zadie Smith’s eagerly anticipated book failed in this arena. Its nonlinear narrative contributed to my disinterest, leaving me feeling both unfulfilled and mildly confused. There’s no disputing that Smith is a cunning wordsmith, and the book's thumbnail description sounded intriguing. But the meandering story and generally tedious characters spurred me to give up and move on to the next prospect on my impossibly long reading wish list. I’m sure I am not alone among bookworms; I feel guilty giving up on a book after I've invested even a modest amount of time reading. But I have been prodding myself to cut my literary losses more often in hopes of discovering the next five-star read.
August 9, 2023
Zadie Smith’s novel is beautifully-researched, an unearthing and retelling of largely-forgotten histories and historical figures. At its centre is waspish, queer Eliza Touchet, housekeeper for her cousin William Harrison Ainsworth. A prolific writer, Ainsworth was once popular enough to outsell Dickens, but now he’s almost forgotten. Although his household is now cut off from England’s literary circles, everyone still avidly follows the news. Slowly Eliza becomes fascinated with the cause célèbre that is the Tichborne Case, in which a man claiming to be long-lost heir Roger Tichborne is now laying claim to a potential fortune. At the Tichborne Claimant’s side is his staunch supporter Andrew Bogle. Born a slave, Bogle grew up on a Jamaican sugar plantation, but was brought to England to become a manservant in his then-master’s household. The lives of Eliza and Andrew become unexpectedly intertwined, raising questions about freedom, self-delusion, storytelling and the nature of truth. Smith’s novel moves between England and Jamaica, shifting restlessly back and forth in time to tell Eliza and Andrew’s stories. The result is very readable but didn’t entirely work for me. The histories Smith uncovers are fascinating and important but I found the narrative’s episodic structure distracting, sometimes threatening to overwhelm or obscure its central themes and ultimate purpose. However, Bogle and Eliza were compelling characters and there were several memorably powerful episodes: particularly Smith’s vivid reimagining of slavery-era Jamaica.
Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Hamish Hamilton for an ARC
Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Hamish Hamilton for an ARC
Read
November 28, 2023This one is a mixed bag for me.
What I admire about this work:
The theme of imprisonment: 1. Slavery in Jamaica; 2. Arthur Orton, the man on trial; 3. Eliza, as a woman and as a Catholic; 4. the poor in England.
The concept that we are all frauds in some way: 1. William pretends to be a literary titan. 2. Dickens uses the poor to serve his own ends (at least in this novel) rather than for the purported humanitarian good. 3. Eliza puts on a facade over her sexuality, she isn't really a strict follower of the tenets of the Catholic church, and while she believes in abolition she accepts the annuity from her husband's money which came from slave labor. 4. Andrew Bogle, as a slave and then a black employee, never permits himself to show his true feelings, especially his anger. 6. Arthur Orton, pretends to be the heir of money in order to change his life. I would like to know more of his story. 7. England is a land of facades where many things are not what they seem. 8. Novelists write fiction which some readers interpret as literal truth.
What is true? "... the great majority of people turn out to be extraordinarily suggestible, with brains like sieves through which the truth falls. Fact and fiction meld in their minds." All those working people who wanted to see a working man triumph over the "Rich." They wanted to believe it so badly that they did despite evidence to the contrary.
The exploration of class, how Smith shows $=power. One of the questions Smith asks is who gets to decide what class you belong to or rise to?
Eliza's character. It's complex and multi-layered, she wrestles with her conscience at times, and I would like to see more of her internal struggle.
Strong prose. Smith writes great descriptions and I appreciate her sly humor and observations about human beings and their behaviors.
What doesn't work for me:
My biggest complaint is that I never sink into this story. I never get the feels; I stay in my head throughout.
For me the short chapters and the constant jumping around in time feels very choppy. I put forth way too much effort trying to stay with Smith.
Overall I feel like this is a book of parts or pieces that never quite completely fit together. This could have easily been three books which could have sunk more deeply into these questions and perhaps captured and held my interest.
Buddy Read with Candi
Her review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Publication 2023
What I admire about this work:
The theme of imprisonment: 1. Slavery in Jamaica; 2. Arthur Orton, the man on trial; 3. Eliza, as a woman and as a Catholic; 4. the poor in England.
The concept that we are all frauds in some way: 1. William pretends to be a literary titan. 2. Dickens uses the poor to serve his own ends (at least in this novel) rather than for the purported humanitarian good. 3. Eliza puts on a facade over her sexuality, she isn't really a strict follower of the tenets of the Catholic church, and while she believes in abolition she accepts the annuity from her husband's money which came from slave labor. 4. Andrew Bogle, as a slave and then a black employee, never permits himself to show his true feelings, especially his anger. 6. Arthur Orton, pretends to be the heir of money in order to change his life. I would like to know more of his story. 7. England is a land of facades where many things are not what they seem. 8. Novelists write fiction which some readers interpret as literal truth.
What is true? "... the great majority of people turn out to be extraordinarily suggestible, with brains like sieves through which the truth falls. Fact and fiction meld in their minds." All those working people who wanted to see a working man triumph over the "Rich." They wanted to believe it so badly that they did despite evidence to the contrary.
The exploration of class, how Smith shows $=power. One of the questions Smith asks is who gets to decide what class you belong to or rise to?
Eliza's character. It's complex and multi-layered, she wrestles with her conscience at times, and I would like to see more of her internal struggle.
Strong prose. Smith writes great descriptions and I appreciate her sly humor and observations about human beings and their behaviors.
What doesn't work for me:
My biggest complaint is that I never sink into this story. I never get the feels; I stay in my head throughout.
For me the short chapters and the constant jumping around in time feels very choppy. I put forth way too much effort trying to stay with Smith.
Overall I feel like this is a book of parts or pieces that never quite completely fit together. This could have easily been three books which could have sunk more deeply into these questions and perhaps captured and held my interest.
Buddy Read with Candi
Her review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Publication 2023
September 13, 2023
At one point Ainsworth exclaims:
‘The Eliot fellow?’
‘Her real name is Mrs Lewes. But yes. I like it.’
William made a face like a dog eating a lemon. ‘Couldn’t get through volume one–and aren’t there seven more to come? Once upon a time decent men satisfied themselves with three . . . What on earth does the woman need with so many?
This is a book of historical fiction in eight volumes (just like Middlemarch) by a wordsmith Zadie Smith. A story that is full to the brim with themes: novel writing (and her portrayal of Dickens is very compelling, I must admit, I never was more interested in him than while reading this novel. But then the moment was over. ), womanhood ('What really interested her in it all was the presumption. Of recognition, of respect – of attention itself. Why did he assume such things as his due? Was this what men assumed?') and sexuality, class, blackness in 19th century England (Jamaica’s history of slavery, the native land of Zadie's mother), and even more.
The fraud is referencing The Tichborne Trial that is the lifeline of the novel, every other theme is springing from it, chosen by Smith perhaps because:
‘From One Who Loves the Despised.’ pseudonymous subscriber to the tichborne claimant’s defence fund
I liked it a lot, there is a great presence to the main character. It’s also tongue in cheek, Zadie is winking at the reader throughout:
‘It is hard indeed to judge a respectable woman on her source of income, Mr Cruikshank, when so very few means of procuring an income are open to her.’
‘Touché, Mrs Touchet.’ That was the first time she heard Mr Charles Dickens tell that terrible joke. It would not be the last.
on Dickens’ funeral:
‘He never would have wanted it. Would have been furious, in fact–hated fuss. Pure vanity on their part. The Times should not have suggested it, and the bishop should never have allowed it. Charles was always against pomp and false honour of all kinds.’ ‘Yes, a man who names a son Alfred d’Orsay Tennyson Dickens clearly gave no thought to worldly fame.’
Old age had only condensed and intensified his flaws. People ejaculated, rejoined, cried out on every page. The many strands of the perplexing plot were resolved either by ‘Fate’, the fulfilment of a gypsy’s curse or a thunderstorm. It took over three hundred pages for young Hilary to work out that the servant who seemed unusually concerned with his future was his mother, and that the fellow who looked so very much like him that he could be his father was, indeed, his father.
Even though the last one is about Ainsworths, it reminded me of reading David Copperfield and Shirley.
What didn’t work as much was directionless of the plot, meandering for the bigger part of the middle of the book and emotional part, the last one is the worst in my opinion. For example, we hear a lot of references to the love affair with a woman that our main character supposedly loved dearly, yet we never feel that love, we never see it in her memories of that woman. And so whenever Smith goes for longing and grieving, that emotion is unearned. Also I think I’ve noticed the seams that sewn the whole story together a couple of times.
Yet this book has a lot to offer, it’s well researched and though it’s my first Zadie Smith, it won’t be the last.
Mrs Touchet had a theory. England was not a real place at all. England was an elaborate alibi. Nothing real happened in England. Only dinner parties and boarding schools and bankruptcies. Everything else, everything the English really did and really wanted, everything they desired and took and used and discarded – all of that they did elsewhere. - this made me think of Gravity’s rainbow
‘The Eliot fellow?’
‘Her real name is Mrs Lewes. But yes. I like it.’
William made a face like a dog eating a lemon. ‘Couldn’t get through volume one–and aren’t there seven more to come? Once upon a time decent men satisfied themselves with three . . . What on earth does the woman need with so many?
This is a book of historical fiction in eight volumes (just like Middlemarch) by a wordsmith Zadie Smith. A story that is full to the brim with themes: novel writing (and her portrayal of Dickens is very compelling, I must admit, I never was more interested in him than while reading this novel. But then the moment was over. ), womanhood ('What really interested her in it all was the presumption. Of recognition, of respect – of attention itself. Why did he assume such things as his due? Was this what men assumed?') and sexuality, class, blackness in 19th century England (Jamaica’s history of slavery, the native land of Zadie's mother), and even more.
The fraud is referencing The Tichborne Trial that is the lifeline of the novel, every other theme is springing from it, chosen by Smith perhaps because:
‘From One Who Loves the Despised.’ pseudonymous subscriber to the tichborne claimant’s defence fund
I liked it a lot, there is a great presence to the main character. It’s also tongue in cheek, Zadie is winking at the reader throughout:
‘It is hard indeed to judge a respectable woman on her source of income, Mr Cruikshank, when so very few means of procuring an income are open to her.’
‘Touché, Mrs Touchet.’ That was the first time she heard Mr Charles Dickens tell that terrible joke. It would not be the last.
on Dickens’ funeral:
‘He never would have wanted it. Would have been furious, in fact–hated fuss. Pure vanity on their part. The Times should not have suggested it, and the bishop should never have allowed it. Charles was always against pomp and false honour of all kinds.’ ‘Yes, a man who names a son Alfred d’Orsay Tennyson Dickens clearly gave no thought to worldly fame.’
Old age had only condensed and intensified his flaws. People ejaculated, rejoined, cried out on every page. The many strands of the perplexing plot were resolved either by ‘Fate’, the fulfilment of a gypsy’s curse or a thunderstorm. It took over three hundred pages for young Hilary to work out that the servant who seemed unusually concerned with his future was his mother, and that the fellow who looked so very much like him that he could be his father was, indeed, his father.
Even though the last one is about Ainsworths, it reminded me of reading David Copperfield and Shirley.
What didn’t work as much was directionless of the plot, meandering for the bigger part of the middle of the book and emotional part, the last one is the worst in my opinion. For example, we hear a lot of references to the love affair with a woman that our main character supposedly loved dearly, yet we never feel that love, we never see it in her memories of that woman. And so whenever Smith goes for longing and grieving, that emotion is unearned. Also I think I’ve noticed the seams that sewn the whole story together a couple of times.
Yet this book has a lot to offer, it’s well researched and though it’s my first Zadie Smith, it won’t be the last.
Mrs Touchet had a theory. England was not a real place at all. England was an elaborate alibi. Nothing real happened in England. Only dinner parties and boarding schools and bankruptcies. Everything else, everything the English really did and really wanted, everything they desired and took and used and discarded – all of that they did elsewhere. - this made me think of Gravity’s rainbow
December 20, 2023
Difficult to critique this. It's like two different novels stitched together. I was utterly loving it to begin with. We're taken into the home of a novelist who despite his popularity isn't very good. He's friends with Dickens, Thackeray and other celebrities of the time. It's all observed from the point of view of his widowed cousin, Eliza who is my favourite character of the year. She has been made cynical by her experiences but still secretly harbours a childlike hope in the possibility of change. Zadie here brings all her wisdom into play. And the tone poised between tenderness and satire is so finely-tuned. There's also a fantastic evocation of Victorian London. But Zadie Smith has too much intellectual vitality to write a straightforward historical social comedy. The problem began for me when the novel moved to Jamaica and the slave plantation. This section never came alive for me. Bogle, a former slave who is the chief witness in the trial of a man claiming to be an aristocrat believed by his family to have drowned, should have been a compelling character but remained shadowy. I never felt Zadie knew him. The connection between him and Eliza felt forced and flimsy. Dramatisation left the novel; it became all telling now. So the novel wheezed and stumbled to an unsatisfying conclusion. Shame because it had the potential to be her best book.
October 28, 2023
This book offers so much to admire and enjoy. For starters, there's the wonderful voice of Eliza Touchet, the main narrator -- the widowed cousin of the middle-rate Victorian novelist William Ainsworth --whose smart insights into human nature are told with just enough of an old-fashioned speech pattern to make her perspective clearly not modern, without being "prithee" quaint. As well, the book brilliantly spans 40 years of social changes, as Eliza slowly grows more conscious of racism, class prejudice, and the devastating impact of industrial capitalism. I also loved the interweaving of time shifts (though I know that not all readers like that technique).
Plus, it's fun to see famous writers like Dickens and Thackery portrayed as real people--flirtatious, cutthroat, hypocritical, and pompous.
(Almost all the less-famous characters, including Eliza and William, are also based on real people.)
And yet, after around 300 pages, I was bored. I was even tired of Eliza's too-clever-by-half insights.
One reason is that there's just no plot. Lots of quips, compelling characters, social commentary, lovely dialogue, even some interesting background stories. But -- leading to what? What's at stake?
Yes, there is a central plot that revolves around the eponymous Fraud -- an actual court case that enthralled England in the mid-1800s, in which a butcher from Australia claimed to be the long-lost heir to a huge fortune. (As this novel makes clear, there are plenty of other frauds in its pages, too -- including William; perhaps including all novelists.) Still, readers can easily look up the outcome of the Tichborne Case, so there's not really any suspense. And even if there were, nothing is directly at stake for Eliza, William, or their friends and family.
Of course the trial can be read as a metaphor for how easily people are whipped into a passion by charismatic liars. But again, there doesn't seem to be much at stake, not even a few hours of mobs running rampant. No January 6 insurrection. No Salem witch trials.
William's writing career has disintegrated; there are hints of money worries. However, no one seems to fret overly much.
How about Eliza's growing social consciousness? Without any narrative ramifications -- for instance, if she was arrested at a violent protest -- it's character development, not a story.
The long digression into the family history of Andrew Bogle, the Fraud's key defender, is certainly fascinating, starting with his African-born father's capture into Caribbean slavery. But it's too overly preachy, and Bogle is too perfect. And again, it doesn't provide a plot for the main narrative; it's a backstory.
Bravely, this novel takes on many important topics, and writes about them beautifully. Unfortunately, the one topic it slights is a key one for a work of fiction: The story itself.
Plus, it's fun to see famous writers like Dickens and Thackery portrayed as real people--flirtatious, cutthroat, hypocritical, and pompous.
(Almost all the less-famous characters, including Eliza and William, are also based on real people.)
And yet, after around 300 pages, I was bored. I was even tired of Eliza's too-clever-by-half insights.
One reason is that there's just no plot. Lots of quips, compelling characters, social commentary, lovely dialogue, even some interesting background stories. But -- leading to what? What's at stake?
Yes, there is a central plot that revolves around the eponymous Fraud -- an actual court case that enthralled England in the mid-1800s, in which a butcher from Australia claimed to be the long-lost heir to a huge fortune. (As this novel makes clear, there are plenty of other frauds in its pages, too -- including William; perhaps including all novelists.) Still, readers can easily look up the outcome of the Tichborne Case, so there's not really any suspense. And even if there were, nothing is directly at stake for Eliza, William, or their friends and family.
Of course the trial can be read as a metaphor for how easily people are whipped into a passion by charismatic liars. But again, there doesn't seem to be much at stake, not even a few hours of mobs running rampant. No January 6 insurrection. No Salem witch trials.
William's writing career has disintegrated; there are hints of money worries. However, no one seems to fret overly much.
How about Eliza's growing social consciousness? Without any narrative ramifications -- for instance, if she was arrested at a violent protest -- it's character development, not a story.
The long digression into the family history of Andrew Bogle, the Fraud's key defender, is certainly fascinating, starting with his African-born father's capture into Caribbean slavery. But it's too overly preachy, and Bogle is too perfect. And again, it doesn't provide a plot for the main narrative; it's a backstory.
Bravely, this novel takes on many important topics, and writes about them beautifully. Unfortunately, the one topic it slights is a key one for a work of fiction: The story itself.
July 19, 2023
The Fraud, Zadie Smith's first foray into historical fiction, sets out to weave together a trio of disparate, somewhat interconnected narratives in order to tell a story of class, race and gender in 19th century England, and how the faces which we choose to show to the world (or else are compelled to show) are not necessarily reflective of our true selves. It is an ambitious, sweeping novel, but ultimately failed to live up to an exciting premise.
Initially we are introduced to Eliza Touchet, a formidable widow whose life has ended up bound to the uncertain fortunes of her cousin by marriage, novelist William Ainsworth. Through Mrs Touchet, whose views on subjects such as the abolition of slavery and women's independence are unusually progressive for the time, Smith highlights the deeply entrenched inequities which persisted in British society at the time. Some of the strongest parts of the novel highlight the real-life hypocrisy of renowned philanthropist Charles Dickens advocating for the poor at home while vocally dismissing the plight of enslaved Africans in the British colonies, and of famed abolitionist William Wilberforce living comfortably on his family's sugar fortune. Moreover, modern readers will empathise with Mrs Touchet's exasperation at her cousin and his friends' and family's failure to show any compassion for the slaves - surely a precusor to the kind of conversations so many of us have had with wilfully ignorant strangers in Facebook comment sections. Mrs Touchet is a likeable, interesting protagonist, and I was initially intrigued to follow her life story chronologically, before I realised this was not going to happen.
The other two stories focus on the Tichborne case, a source of contemporary fascination whereby a man surfaced claiming to be the long-lost heir to the aristocratic Tichborne family, as well as Andrew Bogle, a freed man who was a crucial witness at the Tichborne trial. Unfortunately, the real failure of this novel for me was that the three stories meandered with little momentum or traditional narrative structure and didn't ever reach the kind of synergy I had expected from a writer of Smith's talents. Mrs Touchet's story is interspersed with anecdotes about the trial and the polarised public reaction to it, but there is no apparent pattern or logic to their inclusion, and her story is hard enough to sustain interest in already, leaping and bounding backwards and forwards as it does between various episodes in her life, many of which seem totally insignificant. In several of these chapters, which often recount visits Mrs Touchet made with her cousin or people who visited them, Mrs Touchet herself feels like a proxy for the reader as she inwardly rolls her eyes at the self-indulgent ramblings of these 'awful people', ramblings which we too have to suffer through. Mrs Touchet has borne more than her share of loss and hardship over the course of her life, but because of the non-linear way in which her story is presented, I never felt very invested in anything that happened to her, which was just as well because the next time an event or relationship would be referenced it would likely be from a perspective of twenty years after it occurred.
The Fraud is a long book and it feels it, due to the lack of any real forward momentum or narrative tension. It has undoubtedly been fastidiously researched, and some of the historical content is interesting and thought-provoking, but rather than contexualising and deepening the story, a lot of the historical information Smith includes only serves to stultify an already achingly slow narrative.
Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin General UK for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this book.
Initially we are introduced to Eliza Touchet, a formidable widow whose life has ended up bound to the uncertain fortunes of her cousin by marriage, novelist William Ainsworth. Through Mrs Touchet, whose views on subjects such as the abolition of slavery and women's independence are unusually progressive for the time, Smith highlights the deeply entrenched inequities which persisted in British society at the time. Some of the strongest parts of the novel highlight the real-life hypocrisy of renowned philanthropist Charles Dickens advocating for the poor at home while vocally dismissing the plight of enslaved Africans in the British colonies, and of famed abolitionist William Wilberforce living comfortably on his family's sugar fortune. Moreover, modern readers will empathise with Mrs Touchet's exasperation at her cousin and his friends' and family's failure to show any compassion for the slaves - surely a precusor to the kind of conversations so many of us have had with wilfully ignorant strangers in Facebook comment sections. Mrs Touchet is a likeable, interesting protagonist, and I was initially intrigued to follow her life story chronologically, before I realised this was not going to happen.
The other two stories focus on the Tichborne case, a source of contemporary fascination whereby a man surfaced claiming to be the long-lost heir to the aristocratic Tichborne family, as well as Andrew Bogle, a freed man who was a crucial witness at the Tichborne trial. Unfortunately, the real failure of this novel for me was that the three stories meandered with little momentum or traditional narrative structure and didn't ever reach the kind of synergy I had expected from a writer of Smith's talents. Mrs Touchet's story is interspersed with anecdotes about the trial and the polarised public reaction to it, but there is no apparent pattern or logic to their inclusion, and her story is hard enough to sustain interest in already, leaping and bounding backwards and forwards as it does between various episodes in her life, many of which seem totally insignificant. In several of these chapters, which often recount visits Mrs Touchet made with her cousin or people who visited them, Mrs Touchet herself feels like a proxy for the reader as she inwardly rolls her eyes at the self-indulgent ramblings of these 'awful people', ramblings which we too have to suffer through. Mrs Touchet has borne more than her share of loss and hardship over the course of her life, but because of the non-linear way in which her story is presented, I never felt very invested in anything that happened to her, which was just as well because the next time an event or relationship would be referenced it would likely be from a perspective of twenty years after it occurred.
The Fraud is a long book and it feels it, due to the lack of any real forward momentum or narrative tension. It has undoubtedly been fastidiously researched, and some of the historical content is interesting and thought-provoking, but rather than contexualising and deepening the story, a lot of the historical information Smith includes only serves to stultify an already achingly slow narrative.
Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin General UK for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this book.
September 28, 2024
A fascinating, compelling read.
November 20, 2023
The Fraud by Zadie Smith is her first historical fiction novel and I will admit this may be the hardest book I have tried to review all year. Don’t get me wrong. Like all her books, it is beautifully written but it is also very complex. The story and the title are based on a true fraud casethe Ticheborne trial but, in truth, fraud could describe pretty much every character here, some of which are also based on real people including Charles Dickens and William Harrison Ainsworth, a well-known author and rival of Dickens at the time but who has since been mostly forgotten or, to be fair, unknown to me. The story is told in the third person by Eliza Touchet, Ainsworth’s cousin, housekeeper, and lover. She develops an interest in the Ticheborne trial which concerns a nobleman, once thought dead but now supposedly returned from Australia.
As I said I wrestled with trying to understand and follow the action in this book. It often leaps around in time and there are a lot of characters and events referenced. I found myself flipping back through the pages, wondering where I lost track. Had it been a lesser writer, I suspect I would have given up but the prose, the character of Eliza, and the references to the history both of the trial and, even more, of attitudes towards slavery and the abolitionist movement kept me going and, despite my confusion, I am glad I did. However, I will definitely read it again to try to better follow and capture what I missed this first time.
I received a copy of this novel from Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada in exchange for an honest review
As I said I wrestled with trying to understand and follow the action in this book. It often leaps around in time and there are a lot of characters and events referenced. I found myself flipping back through the pages, wondering where I lost track. Had it been a lesser writer, I suspect I would have given up but the prose, the character of Eliza, and the references to the history both of the trial and, even more, of attitudes towards slavery and the abolitionist movement kept me going and, despite my confusion, I am glad I did. However, I will definitely read it again to try to better follow and capture what I missed this first time.
I received a copy of this novel from Netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada in exchange for an honest review
August 29, 2023
DNF
I reached the 100 page mark, and with the prospect of 350 more pages ahead of me I decided that I'd stop there. This is my second Zadie Smith and, while I can see a lot of the strengths of her writing and the knowledge she embeds in it, I think it's perhaps just not for me. I found the people within this book to be really dull and uninviting - I just didn't care about them after spending 100 pages trying to care. After reading a handful of reviews I think my reservations about the style and content of this book aren't going to be shaken out of me by reading on, so I simply won't!
I reached the 100 page mark, and with the prospect of 350 more pages ahead of me I decided that I'd stop there. This is my second Zadie Smith and, while I can see a lot of the strengths of her writing and the knowledge she embeds in it, I think it's perhaps just not for me. I found the people within this book to be really dull and uninviting - I just didn't care about them after spending 100 pages trying to care. After reading a handful of reviews I think my reservations about the style and content of this book aren't going to be shaken out of me by reading on, so I simply won't!
February 4, 2024
I started out loving this book but in the end found it a bit meandering and unfocused. I found the narrative set in Jamaica to be very strong and I was also intrigued by the back story of Mrs. Touchet and the Ainsworths. However, I didn't feel like the threads were tied together very satisfyingly and, while I'm not a lazy reader and generally don't mind leaping about in time, I did find the chronology confusing. Perhaps what I am saying is that novel's "present day" sections were the least appealing (and yet they were quite long) and both sets of back story (Mrs. Touchet and Bogle) felt like they deserved more development.
Also, oddly, because I hadn't read anything about the book (other than to know that the reviews were generally positive), I was initially enchanted by the invention of Ainsworth, a literary mediocrity to slot in beside the star of Dickens, and thought that Smith's creativity in dreaming up his dreadful sounding books was truly astonishing. It was a little disappointing actually to learn that he and his work and Mrs. Touchet were all real. I still admire Smith's careful research and detailed recreation of the period (I caught one anachronistic use of boycott but otherwise none of the clunkers that often annoy me in historical fiction), but my initial thought ("It takes a great writer to create a truly bad one, in full Victorian voice no less”) was tempered by Ainsworth's facticity.
Anyway, despite the disappointments, there is always a lot to like in Zadie Smith's writing and it is was interesting to learn about the whole episode of the fraud (which also seemed like an inspired invention but was all true)!
Also, oddly, because I hadn't read anything about the book (other than to know that the reviews were generally positive), I was initially enchanted by the invention of Ainsworth, a literary mediocrity to slot in beside the star of Dickens, and thought that Smith's creativity in dreaming up his dreadful sounding books was truly astonishing. It was a little disappointing actually to learn that he and his work and Mrs. Touchet were all real. I still admire Smith's careful research and detailed recreation of the period (I caught one anachronistic use of boycott but otherwise none of the clunkers that often annoy me in historical fiction), but my initial thought ("It takes a great writer to create a truly bad one, in full Victorian voice no less”) was tempered by Ainsworth's facticity.
Anyway, despite the disappointments, there is always a lot to like in Zadie Smith's writing and it is was interesting to learn about the whole episode of the fraud (which also seemed like an inspired invention but was all true)!
August 18, 2023
why griffins and other mythological creatures monopolize emblems the world over. why established institutions would rather be represented by creatures that do not exist and why we find that it instills confidence.
December 12, 2023
My experience with Zadie Smith is a bit spotty. I consider her debut WHITE TEETH to be one of the best books that I’ve ever read (adore it). But I did (temporarily) DNF her novel SWING TIME and her short story collection GRAND UNION. I chalked it up as both of them not being right for me at those respective moments, but now I have to wonder.
Because I aim to be transparent when it comes to expressing my thoughts on the books that I’ve read, I gotta admit that I found reading her latest THE FRAUD to be a mostly exhausting experience. I wouldn’t say I hated it (there’s a whole lot to love here), but there were certainly a lot of elements that felt like slog territory.
The book takes place in the late 1800s and we are introduced to Scottish housekeeper Eliza Touchet, who is cousin by marriage to the once celebrated British novelist, William Ainsworth. She believes Ainsworth is not as talented as he believes he is. She has a deep interest in literature and considers herself an abolitionist. Soon the nation is swept up with the sensationalized trial of a butcher who claims to be the presumed dead heir to a family fortune. Is he a fraud? Eliza seems to think so and this is the beginning of her interest in the formerly enslaved Andrew Bogle, who happens to be the star witness for the trial.
I read this book in about six huge chunks, which is probably the best way to do it. But some of those reading chunks were exhilarating while other times tedious. I’d say that the pacing was lackluster, plus the book felt padded. But I’ll get to that later.
There is lots to love here: Smith’s writing is dense yet colorful. There is a humorous lilt to her writing; boisterous and quite funny. Smith has a great ear for dialogue; I’ll say that the characters voices were very much her biggest strength here. Eliza, William (unintentionally hilarious man), Bogle, and all of the side characters have their moments to shine. The dialogue was such a delight. At times, I wished this novel was a play instead.
I also thought the title was brilliant. Who exactly is the fraud? Well, as this book might suggest: they’re all frauds. Better yet, we’re all frauds. We sometimes live through the eyes of others which causes us to lose sight of ourselves. Curating our personalities, copying others, masquerading our actual feelings and thoughts. As for the characters in this book, there could be a case made for everyone, so who exactly is the fraud the book’s title has in question? There’s the literal impersonator, who is being presented as a fraud to the characters and to us, the readers. But then we have Ainsworth, the writer who struggles with accusations of plagiarism. We even start to wonder about our dear Eliza, who is shown here as the heart and soul of the novel, but there is evidence to suggest that perhaps she is the biggest fraud of all. (There are also other characters this could pertain to, but I won’t say, in order to allow you the element of surprise).
But the biggest case of fraud could be the actual novel itself. The book is a fluid mixture of fact and fiction. Most of these characters were real-life people, several plot points are actual historical events. But the line between fact and fiction is entirely blurred, it’s hard to tell which parts are true and which parts are fraudulent.
Woof, that was long. Similar to the way this book feels. To put it bluntly, this book should have been chopped in half. It could easily lose 150 to 200 pages. It’s ironic that a novel that spends a lot of time making fun of writers who have meandering writing styles turns out to be a book with a meandering writing style. After a while, I started to think that the length had more to do with padding; I don’t think anything in here justified the daunting length.
Due to the content in the book, it’s obvious that Smith was trying to emulate lengthy Victorian novels. Charles Dickens is a prominent character in the novel and there are mentions of several famous Victorian novelists, poets, and their literature. The vibe of THE FRAUD is supposed to feel like or be a deconstruction of novels of yore. But the style of extremely short chapters with vignette styles did not work for me. Several of these vignettes felt tiresome, uninspired, and didn’t pack a whole lot of insight. Instead, it felt like padding, in order for them to mirror the doorstoppers expected from novels written at that time. And the fact that this year I’ve read two Victorian novels from authors featured in here (Dickens and George Eliot) and neither made me feel exhausted and worn out, shows me that Smith’s novel lacked cohesion and control. In those former novels, every word counted. Here, it was laborious.
I felt its length. I felt its research. And as much as I appreciated the ambition, it didn’t make for an immersive or stimulating experience. The book is whip smart but by the end of the day, I was stifled and worn out. And if I’m going to be extra-blunt, mostly bored.
Didn’t hate this book, but that was mostly because the characters, themes, and wit were so strong. I couldn’t help getting on board, I just wish the ride wasn’t such a long trip.
Because I aim to be transparent when it comes to expressing my thoughts on the books that I’ve read, I gotta admit that I found reading her latest THE FRAUD to be a mostly exhausting experience. I wouldn’t say I hated it (there’s a whole lot to love here), but there were certainly a lot of elements that felt like slog territory.
The book takes place in the late 1800s and we are introduced to Scottish housekeeper Eliza Touchet, who is cousin by marriage to the once celebrated British novelist, William Ainsworth. She believes Ainsworth is not as talented as he believes he is. She has a deep interest in literature and considers herself an abolitionist. Soon the nation is swept up with the sensationalized trial of a butcher who claims to be the presumed dead heir to a family fortune. Is he a fraud? Eliza seems to think so and this is the beginning of her interest in the formerly enslaved Andrew Bogle, who happens to be the star witness for the trial.
I read this book in about six huge chunks, which is probably the best way to do it. But some of those reading chunks were exhilarating while other times tedious. I’d say that the pacing was lackluster, plus the book felt padded. But I’ll get to that later.
There is lots to love here: Smith’s writing is dense yet colorful. There is a humorous lilt to her writing; boisterous and quite funny. Smith has a great ear for dialogue; I’ll say that the characters voices were very much her biggest strength here. Eliza, William (unintentionally hilarious man), Bogle, and all of the side characters have their moments to shine. The dialogue was such a delight. At times, I wished this novel was a play instead.
I also thought the title was brilliant. Who exactly is the fraud? Well, as this book might suggest: they’re all frauds. Better yet, we’re all frauds. We sometimes live through the eyes of others which causes us to lose sight of ourselves. Curating our personalities, copying others, masquerading our actual feelings and thoughts. As for the characters in this book, there could be a case made for everyone, so who exactly is the fraud the book’s title has in question? There’s the literal impersonator, who is being presented as a fraud to the characters and to us, the readers. But then we have Ainsworth, the writer who struggles with accusations of plagiarism. We even start to wonder about our dear Eliza, who is shown here as the heart and soul of the novel, but there is evidence to suggest that perhaps she is the biggest fraud of all. (There are also other characters this could pertain to, but I won’t say, in order to allow you the element of surprise).
But the biggest case of fraud could be the actual novel itself. The book is a fluid mixture of fact and fiction. Most of these characters were real-life people, several plot points are actual historical events. But the line between fact and fiction is entirely blurred, it’s hard to tell which parts are true and which parts are fraudulent.
Woof, that was long. Similar to the way this book feels. To put it bluntly, this book should have been chopped in half. It could easily lose 150 to 200 pages. It’s ironic that a novel that spends a lot of time making fun of writers who have meandering writing styles turns out to be a book with a meandering writing style. After a while, I started to think that the length had more to do with padding; I don’t think anything in here justified the daunting length.
Due to the content in the book, it’s obvious that Smith was trying to emulate lengthy Victorian novels. Charles Dickens is a prominent character in the novel and there are mentions of several famous Victorian novelists, poets, and their literature. The vibe of THE FRAUD is supposed to feel like or be a deconstruction of novels of yore. But the style of extremely short chapters with vignette styles did not work for me. Several of these vignettes felt tiresome, uninspired, and didn’t pack a whole lot of insight. Instead, it felt like padding, in order for them to mirror the doorstoppers expected from novels written at that time. And the fact that this year I’ve read two Victorian novels from authors featured in here (Dickens and George Eliot) and neither made me feel exhausted and worn out, shows me that Smith’s novel lacked cohesion and control. In those former novels, every word counted. Here, it was laborious.
I felt its length. I felt its research. And as much as I appreciated the ambition, it didn’t make for an immersive or stimulating experience. The book is whip smart but by the end of the day, I was stifled and worn out. And if I’m going to be extra-blunt, mostly bored.
Didn’t hate this book, but that was mostly because the characters, themes, and wit were so strong. I couldn’t help getting on board, I just wish the ride wasn’t such a long trip.
October 1, 2023
It pains me to give a Zadie Smith book 3 stars! I'm not even sure what to say about this latest by one of my favorite authors.
Here goes:
- I think this would be better in print than audio, even though Zadie does a marvelous job of narrating. Too many characters and time periods to keep track of with ones ears. Plus the book has some interesting formatting which is lost when listening.
- I was off and on engaged in this story. I wasn't sure what Smith's aim was. To tell a fictionalized story of a true event that had England enraptured? To write a historical novel featuring real authors of the mid-19th century?
- I would get caught up in Eliza Touchet's story and then would be jerked away to the trial of The Claimant, a man who claimed to be Robert Tichborne, heir to the Tichborne estate. Touchet is the narrator of the book, both of the author salons she was witness to and the trial. I often wondered what she felt was the more important story! I did love Eliza's character and Zadie did a marvelous job of voicing her.
- I think it helps to have at least passing knowledge of Charles Dickens. He and so many of his contemporaries are featured, and I was glad to already know who most of these people were or fear I'd be dealing with another layer of confusion.
- Maybe Smith has the Maggie O'Farrell effect on me. Which is to say, I love both of these authors' contemporary works, but not as much their historical ones.
Don't let me dissuade you from reading this if you really like Zadie. But be apprised of my recommendation - print not audio. And my feelings about this one won't stop me from gobbling up her next novel, stories or set of essays!
UPDATE: I just discovered this July, 2023, New Yorker article in which Smith describes her reasons for the book and her process of writing it over several years. Delightful and something I wish I had read before reading the book.
Why I'm reading this: Squee! Just cleared the hold list for Smith's latest and am particularly excited after seeing friend Jaidee's "5 "Zwooning, Zelicious, Zagnificent, Ztupendous" stars !!!"
Here goes:
- I think this would be better in print than audio, even though Zadie does a marvelous job of narrating. Too many characters and time periods to keep track of with ones ears. Plus the book has some interesting formatting which is lost when listening.
- I was off and on engaged in this story. I wasn't sure what Smith's aim was. To tell a fictionalized story of a true event that had England enraptured? To write a historical novel featuring real authors of the mid-19th century?
- I would get caught up in Eliza Touchet's story and then would be jerked away to the trial of The Claimant, a man who claimed to be Robert Tichborne, heir to the Tichborne estate. Touchet is the narrator of the book, both of the author salons she was witness to and the trial. I often wondered what she felt was the more important story! I did love Eliza's character and Zadie did a marvelous job of voicing her.
- I think it helps to have at least passing knowledge of Charles Dickens. He and so many of his contemporaries are featured, and I was glad to already know who most of these people were or fear I'd be dealing with another layer of confusion.
- Maybe Smith has the Maggie O'Farrell effect on me. Which is to say, I love both of these authors' contemporary works, but not as much their historical ones.
Don't let me dissuade you from reading this if you really like Zadie. But be apprised of my recommendation - print not audio. And my feelings about this one won't stop me from gobbling up her next novel, stories or set of essays!
UPDATE: I just discovered this July, 2023, New Yorker article in which Smith describes her reasons for the book and her process of writing it over several years. Delightful and something I wish I had read before reading the book.
Why I'm reading this: Squee! Just cleared the hold list for Smith's latest and am particularly excited after seeing friend Jaidee's "5 "Zwooning, Zelicious, Zagnificent, Ztupendous" stars !!!"
August 24, 2023
Have you ever spent a dinner in the company of men who fancy themselves rather the intellectuals? The ego stroking and egging, the name dropping, the astonishing degree to which well educated, well travelled, men can hold such ill informed opinions.
If you had a riot of a time at such a gathering, then by all means, you might adore this mash-up (I cannot call it a novel, it is three disparate novels rather unconvincingly pasted together around the edges).
Myself, I tend to leave the party long before anyone has the chance to become drunk and even more insufferable. And, to that note, I am DNFing this book around 250 pages in.
I've previously enjoyed Zadie Smith's books, but her first attempt at historical fiction is not for me. For me, if a book exceeds 400 pages, it needs some sort of momentum - I am bored almost to tears trying to force my way through the endless repetitive and "trying too hard" discourses of these pages with next to no plot to spur me on.
This is an ambitious piece of writing, and an ambitious read!! I hate to DNF an ARC, but I cannot spend another three hours of my one short life in this treacle.
I did have a little skip ahead and it looks like a vaguely more interesting storyline is introduced, but I've just got nothing left to give at this point.
The Fraud could be about a great many things and I dare say it is, but amongst it this is a book about just how tedious a middle class white man can be. And I fail to understand why anyone would choose tedium as entertainment.
If you had a riot of a time at such a gathering, then by all means, you might adore this mash-up (I cannot call it a novel, it is three disparate novels rather unconvincingly pasted together around the edges).
Myself, I tend to leave the party long before anyone has the chance to become drunk and even more insufferable. And, to that note, I am DNFing this book around 250 pages in.
I've previously enjoyed Zadie Smith's books, but her first attempt at historical fiction is not for me. For me, if a book exceeds 400 pages, it needs some sort of momentum - I am bored almost to tears trying to force my way through the endless repetitive and "trying too hard" discourses of these pages with next to no plot to spur me on.
This is an ambitious piece of writing, and an ambitious read!! I hate to DNF an ARC, but I cannot spend another three hours of my one short life in this treacle.
I did have a little skip ahead and it looks like a vaguely more interesting storyline is introduced, but I've just got nothing left to give at this point.
The Fraud could be about a great many things and I dare say it is, but amongst it this is a book about just how tedious a middle class white man can be. And I fail to understand why anyone would choose tedium as entertainment.
September 13, 2023
I cannot believe that I read the whole thing. It started out bad and got worse.
Read
September 30, 2024De tal pano coçado e verdade roubada são feitos os romances.
Corria o ano de 2009 quando um exemplar de Cântico de Natal, de Charles Dickens, foi arrematado pela maior soma até então atingida por uma sua obra. À laia de incipit, a misteriosa dedicatória: «a Mrs. Touchet».
Eliza Touchet, prima por afinidade, do outrora grande ficcionista William Ainsworth (rival maior de Dickens) não ficou para a história — um pouco como o seu primo, que, ao contrário de Boz, deixou de ser relevante muito depressa —, mas o acaso fez com que, durante o decorrer da sua vida, várias personalidades e eventos lhe marcassem a história.
Uma simples governanta em casa do primo, a senhora Touchet organizava inúmeras reuniões de escritores do círculo mais próximo de Ainsworth, entre eles Thackeray e o afamado Dickens — desses tempos advirá a misteriosa dedicatória. Porém, pela mão de Zadie Smith, a história desta família acaba inteligentemente por se ligar a questões sociais, culturais, políticas e identitárias tanto como literárias.
Assim, em plena época vitoriana, os Ainsworth e Touchet são arrancados do seu idílio e atirados para a praça pública. Na ordem do dia, o caso Tichborne.
Estamos na década de 60/70, quando um há muito desaparecido herdeiro se faz anunciar: irreconhecível para os familiares, o suposto baronete conta com o apoio de muitos milhares de pessoas. Entre eles, antigos colaboradores, empregados, amigos, impostores, conhecidos de vista e inúmeros apoiantes de uma causa (na realidade, uma luta entre os poderes estabelecidos) que ninguém parece saber muito bem qual é.
Sarah, segunda mulher do escritor, está fascinada com o «demandante», o presumível baronete Tichborne, ao passo que a sua prima, Eliza Touchet, se deixa deslumbrar pela figura anquilosada de Andrew Bogle, antigo escravo jamaicano que se alia ao réu para contar a sua versão da história.
História. Desta palavra central nasce toda a narrativa de A Fraude. Todos temos a nossa história, as nossas histórias. Todos contamos as nossas histórias da forma que melhor nos convém. Para contar essas histórias, todos usamos palavras, todos estamos, em cada momento, a criar ficções.
Da mesma forma que Dickens e Ainsworth criaram mundos povoados de caricaturas, também o nosso mundo é povoado pela nossa caricatura em diferentes fases da nossa vida. Estas questões atormentam Eliza Touchet e, pela mão de Zadie Smith (ou assim se espera), também atormentarão o leitor.
Desde 1830, a vida da senhora Touchet é partilhada com a de várias outras pessoas (a do primo, das suas esposas, filhas, amigos), mas até que ponto são o eles quem dizem ser? Até que ponto se dão eles a conhecer?
Que podemos nós saber sobre as outras pessoas? Quanto do mistério de outra pessoa podia a nossa inteligência intuir?
E a própria Eliza Touchet? Quem é a senhora Touchet?
Quem era ela, afinal? Quem era a gente dela? As Senhoras de Llangollen? Mas por outro lado houvera, e continuava a haver, William. E agora este sentimento estranho por Bogle. Tinha sido bloomer dominadora com Frances, a musa feminina para William, e talvez, nalguma utopia imaginada, pudesse encontrar-se num terreno comum, de igualdade, com uma alma inteligente como Bogle, que parecia viver como ela sempre tinha desejado viver, isto é, sem ilusões. Como seria ter dentro de si um nome para todas estas variadas pessoas e ardências? Mas o seu nome era Sra. Touchet!
O caso do demandante à baronia Tichborne alimenta estas reflexões. Andrew Bogle alarga o escopo da metanarrativa.
Assinar uma petição e perder metade dos amigos; assinar a outra e perder a outra metade. Digo-te uma coisa: seja qual for a verdade da questão, não é agradável nem civilizado dividir a comunidade convivente de Londres ao meio por causa de uma agitação que acontece a milhares de milhas daqui.
Que verdades se escondem nas histórias? E que palavras usar para chegar à verdade?
Para Eliza Touchet é evidente que nem as palavras dos grandes escritores servem — não servem as palavras do primo Ainsworth, não servem as palavras de Dickens. A dada altura, as palavras do escravo Bogle parecem-lhe as mais acertadas, mas também essas não passam de pompa e circunstância.
O que é que se apodera das pessoas? A infelicidade, sempre. A felicidade, essa, está ocupada. Tem um objeto sobre o qual se concentra.(...)A infelicidade abre o vazio, que depois é necessário preencher.(...)
Há sempre muitas coisas a requerer atenção, mas quando o vazio se abre só existe o vazio.
À luz do século XXI, a Inglaterra vitoriana apresenta-se cheia de contradições, hipocrisias, idiossincrasias contra as quais nos posicionamos. Mas no centro de tudo, então como agora, permanecem estas questões. Aquilo que damos de nós, aquilo que recebemos dos outros — onde reside a verdadeira identidade? Quem sou eu? — princípio de identidade; Quem é o outro? — princípio de alteridade.
Interpretamo-nos erradamente uns aos outros. Todo o nosso enquadramento social é uma série de interpretações erradas e compromissos. A versão abreviada de um mistério tão grande que é impossível vê-lo. (...)Mas mesmo depois de vermos o outro lado do véu que separa as pessoas, como ela tinha visto como é dificil ter em mente as vidas dos outros! Tudo conspira contra isso. Até a própria vida.
O caso Tichborne tinha de tudo para alimentar a maior polémica do século: naufrágios, heranças escabrosas, plantações exóticas, escravos, mortes, um julgamento infindável, condenações bastante sérias e, por detrás dele, pessoas bem reais: Roger Tichborne ou antes Tom Castro*, Andrew Bogle, William Ainsworth, Eliza Touchet — cada um destes nomes uma miríade de histórias contadas e por contar.
Uma grande parte da vida é ilusão. Cada tentativa de fazer uma travessia, cada ambição de grande altitude que qualquer pessoa possa conceber neste mundo — tudo acaba por cair, inevitavelmente, aos Seus pés, e resulta em nada.
Recorrendo ao estilo (e estrutura) do romance vitoriano, mas fazendo ao mesmo tempo a cisão com esta época, Zadie Smith intercala capítulos, títulos de capítulo, epístola, diferentes vozes e cenários, anacronia, retrato social, romance histórico e de intervenção.
De forma muitíssimo ambiciosa, recorre ao fait-divers para recriar uma época através da qual põe os nossos dias em perspectiva. Lançando mão da diacronia e da sincronia, abre caminho para uma análise da história total (a própria pluralidade da narrativa permite uma leitura assente na história comparada; através da deslocação intercalada da diagese aos espaços colonizados, A Fraude fornece um insight da interpenetração mútua da história e um caminho de comparação direta ainda pouco explorado pela literatura ocidental).
Resulta daqui que A Fraude, de Zadie Smith, se apresente como uma obra de lenta progressão, pouquíssimo enredo e baixo impacto emocional que inaugura o percurso da autora na ficção histórica de forma inteligente e inovadora. Fico a pensar se será este o tempo certo para esta obra ou se, a julgar pela receção deste livro fora dos círculos especializados, ainda estará para vir o verdadeiro reconhecimento. Acho que a própria autora trata de responder (inadvertidamente ?) aos seus críticos, colocando na boca das suas personagens as palavras certas:
Não há aventura, não há drama, nada que estimule o sangue ou o gele. Devo dizer que não consigo compreender as recensões entusiásticas.(...)É só uma quantidade de gente a tratar das suas vidas numa aldeia — vidas desinteressantes, ainda por cima. Um tema ainda mais enfadonho do que um julgamento. Querem que fiquemos admirados por ser uma mulher? Um evidente golpe publicitário da Blackwood's, e é ver como o público cai na armadilha! É só disso que tratam os romances destas senhoras modernas? De pessoas?
* À boa maneira vitoriana, Tom Castro foi postumamente reconhecido pela família Tichborne. Sob o seu caixão foi dada permissão para colocar um cartão com a seguinte inscrição: «Sir Charles Doughty Tichborne».
Corria o ano de 2009 quando um exemplar de Cântico de Natal, de Charles Dickens, foi arrematado pela maior soma até então atingida por uma sua obra. À laia de incipit, a misteriosa dedicatória: «a Mrs. Touchet».
Eliza Touchet, prima por afinidade, do outrora grande ficcionista William Ainsworth (rival maior de Dickens) não ficou para a história — um pouco como o seu primo, que, ao contrário de Boz, deixou de ser relevante muito depressa —, mas o acaso fez com que, durante o decorrer da sua vida, várias personalidades e eventos lhe marcassem a história.
Uma simples governanta em casa do primo, a senhora Touchet organizava inúmeras reuniões de escritores do círculo mais próximo de Ainsworth, entre eles Thackeray e o afamado Dickens — desses tempos advirá a misteriosa dedicatória. Porém, pela mão de Zadie Smith, a história desta família acaba inteligentemente por se ligar a questões sociais, culturais, políticas e identitárias tanto como literárias.
Assim, em plena época vitoriana, os Ainsworth e Touchet são arrancados do seu idílio e atirados para a praça pública. Na ordem do dia, o caso Tichborne.
Estamos na década de 60/70, quando um há muito desaparecido herdeiro se faz anunciar: irreconhecível para os familiares, o suposto baronete conta com o apoio de muitos milhares de pessoas. Entre eles, antigos colaboradores, empregados, amigos, impostores, conhecidos de vista e inúmeros apoiantes de uma causa (na realidade, uma luta entre os poderes estabelecidos) que ninguém parece saber muito bem qual é.
Sarah, segunda mulher do escritor, está fascinada com o «demandante», o presumível baronete Tichborne, ao passo que a sua prima, Eliza Touchet, se deixa deslumbrar pela figura anquilosada de Andrew Bogle, antigo escravo jamaicano que se alia ao réu para contar a sua versão da história.
História. Desta palavra central nasce toda a narrativa de A Fraude. Todos temos a nossa história, as nossas histórias. Todos contamos as nossas histórias da forma que melhor nos convém. Para contar essas histórias, todos usamos palavras, todos estamos, em cada momento, a criar ficções.
Da mesma forma que Dickens e Ainsworth criaram mundos povoados de caricaturas, também o nosso mundo é povoado pela nossa caricatura em diferentes fases da nossa vida. Estas questões atormentam Eliza Touchet e, pela mão de Zadie Smith (ou assim se espera), também atormentarão o leitor.
Desde 1830, a vida da senhora Touchet é partilhada com a de várias outras pessoas (a do primo, das suas esposas, filhas, amigos), mas até que ponto são o eles quem dizem ser? Até que ponto se dão eles a conhecer?
Que podemos nós saber sobre as outras pessoas? Quanto do mistério de outra pessoa podia a nossa inteligência intuir?
E a própria Eliza Touchet? Quem é a senhora Touchet?
Quem era ela, afinal? Quem era a gente dela? As Senhoras de Llangollen? Mas por outro lado houvera, e continuava a haver, William. E agora este sentimento estranho por Bogle. Tinha sido bloomer dominadora com Frances, a musa feminina para William, e talvez, nalguma utopia imaginada, pudesse encontrar-se num terreno comum, de igualdade, com uma alma inteligente como Bogle, que parecia viver como ela sempre tinha desejado viver, isto é, sem ilusões. Como seria ter dentro de si um nome para todas estas variadas pessoas e ardências? Mas o seu nome era Sra. Touchet!
O caso do demandante à baronia Tichborne alimenta estas reflexões. Andrew Bogle alarga o escopo da metanarrativa.
Assinar uma petição e perder metade dos amigos; assinar a outra e perder a outra metade. Digo-te uma coisa: seja qual for a verdade da questão, não é agradável nem civilizado dividir a comunidade convivente de Londres ao meio por causa de uma agitação que acontece a milhares de milhas daqui.
Que verdades se escondem nas histórias? E que palavras usar para chegar à verdade?
Para Eliza Touchet é evidente que nem as palavras dos grandes escritores servem — não servem as palavras do primo Ainsworth, não servem as palavras de Dickens. A dada altura, as palavras do escravo Bogle parecem-lhe as mais acertadas, mas também essas não passam de pompa e circunstância.
O que é que se apodera das pessoas? A infelicidade, sempre. A felicidade, essa, está ocupada. Tem um objeto sobre o qual se concentra.(...)A infelicidade abre o vazio, que depois é necessário preencher.(...)
Há sempre muitas coisas a requerer atenção, mas quando o vazio se abre só existe o vazio.
À luz do século XXI, a Inglaterra vitoriana apresenta-se cheia de contradições, hipocrisias, idiossincrasias contra as quais nos posicionamos. Mas no centro de tudo, então como agora, permanecem estas questões. Aquilo que damos de nós, aquilo que recebemos dos outros — onde reside a verdadeira identidade? Quem sou eu? — princípio de identidade; Quem é o outro? — princípio de alteridade.
Interpretamo-nos erradamente uns aos outros. Todo o nosso enquadramento social é uma série de interpretações erradas e compromissos. A versão abreviada de um mistério tão grande que é impossível vê-lo. (...)Mas mesmo depois de vermos o outro lado do véu que separa as pessoas, como ela tinha visto como é dificil ter em mente as vidas dos outros! Tudo conspira contra isso. Até a própria vida.
O caso Tichborne tinha de tudo para alimentar a maior polémica do século: naufrágios, heranças escabrosas, plantações exóticas, escravos, mortes, um julgamento infindável, condenações bastante sérias e, por detrás dele, pessoas bem reais: Roger Tichborne ou antes Tom Castro*, Andrew Bogle, William Ainsworth, Eliza Touchet — cada um destes nomes uma miríade de histórias contadas e por contar.
Uma grande parte da vida é ilusão. Cada tentativa de fazer uma travessia, cada ambição de grande altitude que qualquer pessoa possa conceber neste mundo — tudo acaba por cair, inevitavelmente, aos Seus pés, e resulta em nada.
Recorrendo ao estilo (e estrutura) do romance vitoriano, mas fazendo ao mesmo tempo a cisão com esta época, Zadie Smith intercala capítulos, títulos de capítulo, epístola, diferentes vozes e cenários, anacronia, retrato social, romance histórico e de intervenção.
De forma muitíssimo ambiciosa, recorre ao fait-divers para recriar uma época através da qual põe os nossos dias em perspectiva. Lançando mão da diacronia e da sincronia, abre caminho para uma análise da história total (a própria pluralidade da narrativa permite uma leitura assente na história comparada; através da deslocação intercalada da diagese aos espaços colonizados, A Fraude fornece um insight da interpenetração mútua da história e um caminho de comparação direta ainda pouco explorado pela literatura ocidental).
Resulta daqui que A Fraude, de Zadie Smith, se apresente como uma obra de lenta progressão, pouquíssimo enredo e baixo impacto emocional que inaugura o percurso da autora na ficção histórica de forma inteligente e inovadora. Fico a pensar se será este o tempo certo para esta obra ou se, a julgar pela receção deste livro fora dos círculos especializados, ainda estará para vir o verdadeiro reconhecimento. Acho que a própria autora trata de responder (inadvertidamente ?) aos seus críticos, colocando na boca das suas personagens as palavras certas:
Não há aventura, não há drama, nada que estimule o sangue ou o gele. Devo dizer que não consigo compreender as recensões entusiásticas.(...)É só uma quantidade de gente a tratar das suas vidas numa aldeia — vidas desinteressantes, ainda por cima. Um tema ainda mais enfadonho do que um julgamento. Querem que fiquemos admirados por ser uma mulher? Um evidente golpe publicitário da Blackwood's, e é ver como o público cai na armadilha! É só disso que tratam os romances destas senhoras modernas? De pessoas?
* À boa maneira vitoriana, Tom Castro foi postumamente reconhecido pela família Tichborne. Sob o seu caixão foi dada permissão para colocar um cartão com a seguinte inscrição: «Sir Charles Doughty Tichborne».
October 16, 2023
Imagine having Zadie Smith’s prodigious talents, subjects as intense and intriguing as the Tichborne case, Jamaica, abolition, emerging feminism, and novelists… and deciding to write a pastiche of 19th century literary tropes. If you like breathless, staccato flitting among eight volumes of frustratingly short yet tedious chapters, insipid parlor conversations that are somehow both repetitive and obscure, dozens of characters that are sometimes hastily-sketched and other times laboriously overwrought, and a pretty loose narrative told through meandering back and forth in time… I dunno, maybe read Dickens instead.
This should have been a much better book, and I kept waiting for it to add up to something bigger and profound, but it just really fell flat for me. I get so frustrated by books like this that make me feel like I am lacking as a reader or missed some great point because I got so impatient with the language. It felt right on the precipice of something important without ever really landing for me. Bummer.
This should have been a much better book, and I kept waiting for it to add up to something bigger and profound, but it just really fell flat for me. I get so frustrated by books like this that make me feel like I am lacking as a reader or missed some great point because I got so impatient with the language. It felt right on the precipice of something important without ever really landing for me. Bummer.
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