The fraud a novel
From novelist Zadie Smith, a kaleidoscopic work of historical fiction set against the legal trial that divided Victorian England, about who deserves to tell their story-and about who deserves to be believed. 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. He knows that the rich deceive the poor. And that people are more easily manipulated than they realize. 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"-wherein a lower-class butcher from Australia claimed he was in fact the rightful heir of a sizable estate and title-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."
Available Copies by Location
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Victoria | Available |
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- ISBN: 9780593792643 (pbk.)
- Physical Description 577 pages (large print) ; 24 cm
- Edition First large print edition.
Additional Information
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---|---|---|---|
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245 | 1 | 4. | ‡aThe fraud ‡h[large print] : ‡ba novel / ‡cZadie Smith. |
250 | . | ‡aFirst large print edition. | |
260 | . | ‡a ‡b ‡c2023 | |
264 | 1. | ‡a[New York] : ‡bRandom House Large Print, ‡c[2023] | |
300 | . | ‡a577 pages (large print) ; ‡c24 cm | |
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520 | . | ‡aFrom novelist Zadie Smith, a kaleidoscopic work of historical fiction set against the legal trial that divided Victorian England, about who deserves to tell their story-and about who deserves to be believed. 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. He knows that the rich deceive the poor. And that people are more easily manipulated than they realize. 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"-wherein a lower-class butcher from Australia claimed he was in fact the rightful heir of a sizable estate and title-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." | |
600 | 1 | 0. | ‡aOrton, Arthur, ‡d1834-1898 ‡vFiction. |
600 | 1 | 0. | ‡aDoughty-Tichborne, Roger Charles, ‡d1829-1854 ‡vFiction. |
650 | 0. | ‡aInheritance and succession ‡vFiction. | |
650 | 0. | ‡aTruthfulness and falsehood ‡vFiction. | |
650 | 0. | ‡aTrials (Perjury) ‡vFiction. | |
655 | 7. | ‡aHistorical fiction. ‡2lcgft | |
655 | 7. | ‡aBiographical fiction. ‡2lcgft | |
655 | 7. | ‡aLarge print books. ‡2lcgft | |
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