The Tichborne court case was one which fascinated all levels of society in mid nineteenth century Britain. It concerned a claim from an heir, believed dead, who returned from Australia to take up his inheritance, despite looking nothing like the man he claimed to be. The upper echelons of society were largely outraged by the impudence of this rascal, but below that there was much popular support from those who saw it as a challenge to established attitudes and practices and it is this case which is at the centre of Zadie Smith's latest ambitious novel, steeped in fact and research.
The case is seen largely through the eyes of the household of author W. E Ainsworth (1805-82). His interest in it is cursory, he is single-mindedly churning out over-ripe historical novels (his "Jack Shepherd" actually outsold "Oliver Twist") amidst his on-going rivalries to contemporaries Dickens and Thackeray and struggles with his celebrated illustrator George Cruickshank. His cousin and main character Eliza Touchet and his young wife bond over the case. Sarah believes even the most outlandish aspects and Eliza becomes obsessed with the claimant's strongest supporter, a black elderly man named Bogle (nicknamed Black Bogle by the press) who recognised Tichborne from his past and who also captivates the public's imagination by his loyalty and trustworthiness.
However, there's a lot more going on in this novel than this. Britain is attempting to emerge from the Slave Trade with head held high. There are embargos on cotton and some in society are shunning sugar in an attempt to ease consciences. The character of Andrew Bogle takes us to Jamaica and illustrate what the British interests there really mean. Hypocrisy and fraudulent behaviour is rife everywhere.
There are going to be a lot of comparisons to Dickens and the author does get the feel, with a modern perspective. She employs a little trick Dickens uses in sidestepping the main narrative and digressing with something that will be picked up later on. When reading Dickens the reader becomes aware that they might not know what is going on at times, this is also the case here.
There's a lot of complex issues here and I think certainly the Jamaican aspects could have been expanded. There's a fascinating relationship with Eliza, Ainsworth and his first wife which I would have liked to have seen developed. It's very readable, pacy, the chapters are (too?) short and it moves around in terms of time and locations but I think I would have liked the author to have taken more time to create scenes which will fix this book in my mind. It skirts around a lot of characters, issues and events leaving the impression of breadth and scope but this is imbalanced with being really drawn into the narrative. I was very impressed but I felt I was just being kept somewhat at arm's length and this is to do with the episodic structure.
On paper this looked like it could have been one of my Books Of The Year, as it ticked so many things I really enjoy about my fiction but on completion I don't think it is and I'm not absolutely sure why.
The Fraud is published in hardback by Hamish Hamilton on 7th September 2023. Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.
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