海角大神

Zadie Smith turns her sharp eye to historical fiction in 鈥淭he Fraud,鈥� which centers on a notorious 1870s trial of an Australian butcher who claimed to be Sir Roger Tichborne. Sir Roger was heir to a family fortune in England, and he was thought to have been lost in a shipwreck years earlier. At stake in this novel, which is drawn from actual events, is not just the Tichborne family wealth, but also the matter of identity. 鈥淲ho are we?鈥� is a question that underlies much of Smith鈥檚 work, beginning with 鈥淲hite Teeth,鈥� her spectacular 2000 debut.

Smith deftly weaves rich source material, including trial transcripts, into a lively though never straightforward narrative, making it clear why she was drawn to this Victorian-era cause c茅l猫bre. One of the documents she quotes, by the defending attorney鈥檚 daughter, characterizes the mania that ensued over the case as 鈥渁 species of moral tornado鈥� that 鈥渆xcited every sort of human passion.鈥澛� 聽

Smith puts her bemused imprint on the proceedings. 鈥淭he Fraud鈥� encompasses issues of class, bias, race, and money as 鈥渁 material form of freedom,鈥� how we separate truth from falsehood, and what we can really know about other people.聽聽

In a brilliant move, 鈥淭he Fraud鈥� is told largely from the close third-person viewpoint of Eliza Touchet, an uncommonly strong, sharp-tongued observer. Widowed early after a miserable marriage, Eliza became a housekeeper and housemate for her cousin, William Harrison Ainsworth, a prolific, popular mid-19th century novelist whose friends included William Thackeray, George Cruikshank, and Charles Dickens.聽聽

Ainsworth (1805-1882) published 41 books in his lifetime 鈥� none of which remain in print. His most famous, the sensational 1839 crime novel, 鈥淛ack Sheppard,鈥� actually outsold Dickens鈥� 鈥淥liver Twist鈥� 鈥� until the murder of an aging aristocrat in 1840, thought to be a copycat crime, raised questions about the damaging influence of violent entertainment. (Claire Harman reconsiders the case in 鈥淢urder by the Book: The Crime That Shocked Dickens鈥檚 London,鈥� published in 2019.)

Eliza is a wonderfully vivid and, in many ways, modern character, certainly not your stereotypical Victorian. Bisexual, fervently abolitionist, and a 鈥渘atural cynic鈥� with strong misgivings about the source of much of England鈥檚 wealth, she is a single woman who craves independence more than anything else.聽

Smith clearly has fun fleshing out what little is known about Eliza鈥檚 relationship with her cousin. William, an uncommonly sweet and submissive man, was 鈥渃onstitutionally unable to disappoint anyone,鈥� she writes. But, she adds, 鈥淣o one had ever accused William of being backward about putting himself forward.鈥澛�

Eliza considers most of William鈥檚 fiction, set in the distant past, unreadable nonsense, including his latest 鈥淛amaican novel,鈥� set in a place he knows nothing about. She wonders why William doesn鈥檛 focus on contemporary stories, like George Eliot does. Smith has a fine time quoting and satirizing Ainsworth鈥檚 work, filled with laughable lines like 鈥溾�榋ounds!鈥� he mentally ejaculated.鈥澛�

鈥淭he Fraud鈥� jogs back and forth 鈥� sometimes confusingly 鈥� between the 1830s and the 1860s. In the early years, after the death of William鈥檚 first wife, Eliza was the de facto lady of the house, hosting dinners for William鈥檚 eminent literary colleagues. In the 1860s, she is displaced by Sarah Wells, an illiterate former maid who becomes the second Mrs. Ainsworth after bearing her boss, nearly 40 years her senior, a daughter. At first reluctantly, Eliza accompanies Sarah, who is besotted with the Tichborne case, to the trial.聽

Ever the critic, Eliza finds the proceedings overstuffed with too much irrelevant information, 鈥渓ike reading a novel by William.鈥� And, although embarrassed by the uneducated girl鈥檚 excited whoops during the spectacle, she comes to recognize the astuteness of some of Sarah鈥檚 primal reactions.聽聽

Eliza is so deeply impressed (if not entirely swayed) by the dignified, unswerving testimony for the defense by Andrew Bogle, the formerly enslaved longtime manservant of the late Baron Tichborne, that she takes him to tea. His family鈥檚 story, rife with the horrific realities of slavery in Jamaica, is embedded in the second half of 鈥淭he Fraud,鈥� spanning nearly 100 powerful pages.

This isn鈥檛 the first time Smith has found inspiration in British literature and woven a variety of auxiliary documents into her fiction. Her third novel, 鈥淥n Beauty鈥� (2005), used E.M. Forster鈥檚 Edwardian masterpiece, 鈥淗owards End,鈥� as a template for an exploration of privileged people鈥檚 responsibility to share their advantages with the less fortunate. She touches on some of these moral issues again in 鈥淭he Fraud.鈥澛�

But what makes Smith鈥檚 latest novel so compelling is the way Eliza grapples not just with the suggestibility of most people, 鈥渨ith brains like sieves through which the truth falls,鈥� but also with her own biases and limitations, such as her 鈥渢endency to believe what she most needed to be true.鈥� Her determination to be 鈥済entle and mindful of Sarah鈥檚 hurt feelings, always remembering that false beliefs are precisely the ones we tend to cling to most strongly,鈥� is one of many aspects of 鈥淭he Fraud鈥� that bears particular resonance today.