Lots of interesting ideas but slightly more remote than I expected from the author.

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 the publishers in exchange for an honest review ( )

3.5 rating. I enjoyed the prose as always with Ms. Smith, but found the plot a bit tiresome. I appreciate that she was working from a real historic incident and there was little to expand upon. Loving Dickens's stories, I did enjoy the language and era. ( )

not my favorite Zadie Smith novel but still good. I found it disjointed in the beginning and had a hard time following the action. Later I thought of going back and rereading from the beginning but wanted to get through it and I'm glad I did. ( )

This is Zadie Smith's first historical novel, set in 19th century England (mainly London and Sussex. She has taken a number of real people and historical events, but has taken some liberties to construct her story. In particular, the story is mainly told in the third person from the viewpoint of Mrs Eliza Touchet. The historical figure died in 1869, a few years before the Tichborne trial which she follows attentively in the novel.

Other real people include William Harrison Ainsworth, in his day the author of 41 novels, some very successful - one, Jock Sheppard, outsold Oliver Twist but Ainsworth and his work have been forgotten. Ainsworth and Charles Dickens move in the same social circles and are serious rivals. Eliza Touchet is Ainsworth's cousin and his housekeeper, and secretly his lover - but not a great fan of his work. She occupies a difficult social position, living as a servant but wanting more than that, and when a man goes on trial for allegedly pretending to be a long lost heir returned from Australia (the real life Tichborne case of 1873) she reads all about it and watches the trial.

This is a complicated and intriguing novel, written in very short chapters which jump around in time. I was trying to read it perhaps too quickly though, and am a little bit disappointed that I'm not sure I followed or understood everything very well. So at the moment it's not my favourite Zadie Smith novel, but it is one I think I would like to reread at another time. ( )