You always know a book by Zadie Smith will be well written, and I was excited to read this, her first historical novel, based in part in a true story. Her use of language is beautiful and poetic, maybe slightly flowery at times even. But you also feel the gritty atmosphere, the stench and the grimness of people's lives.

This is the wonderful story of the Tichborne Trial, and whether the claimant can really be who he says he is...

The Fraud is set across various years in the 1800s and spans England, Jamaica and Australia. There are a wealth of characters but the story is mainly driven forward by Eliza Touchet, a housekeeper and cousin to a once prolific writer and Andrew Bogle, a freed man who was enslaved on a plantation in Jamaica as a child. Through their perspectives we hear the story of the Tichborne trial - to find out if the titular Tichborne is a fraud or not.

First off this is clearly so incredibly researched as it's loosely based on a true story and has a whole host of famous figures popping in and out. Unfortunately I just found this really dull. I never wanted to pick it up, the story didn't seem to really get going and none of the characters were overly compelling. The most interesting parts to me were Andrew Bogle's but that seemed to pick up at random parts. The time-jumping was confusing and it took me a while to catch up to where we were.

I think I need historical fiction to be really immersive for me to thoroughly enjoy it and I just felt held at arms length the entire time.

Zadie Smith’s latest novel is set in the nineteenth century and revolves around the life of Mrs Eliza Touchet, both as a young woman in London’s burgeoning literary scene and later on, when she – like the rest of the nation - is caught up in the Tichborne trial, one of the longest cases in English history. Mrs Touchet is highly intelligent and the novel shows her thoughtful views on a myriad of issues as it explores sexuality, race, gender, class, poverty, power, slavery and expectations. It juxtaposes her beliefs against those held by ‘great literary minds’ of the day and does so wittily. The novel also takes us to Jamaica, reminds us of how the great wealth of Empire was amassed, and shows how England was populated far more diversely than the average Regency novel shows. It is hard reading this in 2023 not to make modern parallels as well, with a nation split – as it was in the Tichborne case – into two clear opposing views, highlighting the way the media shapes narrative and the people’s response to this. I thoroughly enjoyed The Fraud and suspect it is one of those novels with more to discover on every re-read. Highly recommended.

Zadie Smith's first historical novel takes as its subject the life of the Victorian novelist, William Harrison Ainsworth (best known for Rookwood) and one of the scandals of the age, the Tichborne case.

Smith's writing in this book is nothing short of superb. She weaves an engrossing tale that transports the reader back to the Victorian era. The characters she introduces are familiar to anyone who loves Victorian literature, including the likes of Dickens, Cruickshank, and Thackeray.

Personally, I felt lucky to have received this book for review when I did. I had just started reading Ainsworth's follow-up to Rookwood, a novel that this book rightly criticizes. Even without knowing the biographical details of the novelist's life, one can easily appreciate the story that Smith tells in this book.

Reading this book was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. It may not be as insightful as Smith's more contemporary works, such as White Teeth or Swing Time, but by the time she introduces the Tichborne case, readers will understand why this history drew her in and why she believed that it was a story worth telling.

I would like to express my gratitude to the publishers and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this book.

In which Zadie Smith takes on the Victorian novel. On many fronts: she takes on the length - this book is a sizeable 450 pages, divided period style into a number of volumes. She takes on the novelists themselves, principally the now all-but forgotten William Ainsworth, scribe of a series of historical novels, and friend to Charles Dickens, illustrator Cruikshank and many other literary figures. Finally, she takes on one of the great cause celebres of the late nineteenth century, the case of the Tichborne claimant - in which a figure presenting as a Cockney butcher claimed to be the rightful long-lost heir to one of the richest landed estates in England.

The figure that glues all this material together is Eliza Touchet - Ainsworth’s cousin by marriage and after the death of her husband, his sometime lover and housekeeper. Touchet’s thoughts guide us through two periods - the 1830’s in which we see how the Eliza and Ainsworth’s complicated extended family comes together, and the 1870’s - in which Ainsworth’s popularity, reputation and finances are all on the wane. Three themes dominate these narratives: the limits placed on Eliza’s life by virtue of her sex, Smith’s continued exploration of the psychogeography of London. Smith has tremendous fun riffing on the Victorian nature of Hackney, Willesden and Crystal Palace, and the denials of the enslavement, exploitation and oppression that the comforts of the new middle class were built on. All these come together in Smith’s rendering of the Tichborne claimant case.

Nestled inside Eliza’s story is the trials of the claimant - first a civil one to decide on the claim itself, and then a criminal trial. Much of Smith’s material here is ripped from the transcripts of the case itself and is so bizarre and colourful there’s little she needs to do. At the heart of her set of Russian doll narratives is - the word that repeatedly characters refuse to say out loud - slavery. One of the claimant's chief character witnesses is a former slave, Bogle, and the centre of this novel is his story from a childhood in Africa ended by abduction, the brutal details of slave labour on a Jamaican sugar plantation, to the humiliations and arbitrariness of service in England.

The Fraud rifles through Victorian history to super effect as Smith brings a profoundly modern re-reading of class, race and freedom to some of the sacred cows of Victorian England. It’s short sharp chapters and timeflits are initially confusing, and reading the date at the top of the chapter is required, but the final third hugely rewards investment.

I have rarely been as excited to read an advanced proof of a novel as I was to read The Fraud by Zadie Smith. She’s an amazing writer who does social commentary so brilliantly in her novels.

The Fraud is set in Victorian England and is based on the true story of the Tichborne Case. Roger Tichborne, heir to the family's title and fortunes, was presumed to have died in a shipwreck in 1854 at age 25. A reward was heavily advertised for his return, and in 1866 an Australian man claiming to be Tichborne came forward. He travelled to England and was instantly accepted by elderly Lady Tichborne as her son, although the rest of the family claimed him to be an imposter.

Though the novel follows the case, it is actually centered around Eliza Touchet, housekeeper and cousin of William Ainsworth. Ainsworth was once a successful writer (one of his novels even outsold Dickens’s Oliver Twist) however now he struggles to keep his family afloat. Eliza is critical of his stale writing and lazy imitations of real life in his stories.

As always, Zadie Smith’s writing is witty, and no matter the topic she manages to weave social commentary so easily into her story and characters. I really wanted to love this book, it has so many aspects which I love, however I got so bored reading this. I actually didn’t end up finishing it.

With a baby at home that’s now crawling around, my reading time is severely limited, and so I want to be excited to pick up the book that I’m reading. However, I wasn’t attached to any of the characters, and even 200+ pages in, I felt like the book was still yet to “get going”.

Smith clearly was well researched going into this novel and there is no doubt that her writing is clever and funny, but I unfortunately thought this book was just fine. As always with historical fiction, it’s great that this story is now being brought to modern readers, and it touches on topics that are still relevant today.

The Fraud is out on 7th September. Thanks as always to @penguinbooksireland @penguinhamishhamilton @vikingbooksuk for the ARC via @netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I think all reviewers of The Fraud will say that it is clearly very cleverly written and full of incredible research and commentary on the era. There is no doubt to Zadie Smith’s talent. But this was not for me - it felt like an endurance test to read and I wasn’t invested in any of the characters.

I was so excited to receive an ARC of this book. I have never read any other of Zadie Smith’s novel, so have norging to compare it. I appreciate that she is a much feted writer and very well regarded. All I can say is I was too bored to finish it. It just felt so long winded and I couldn’t engage with the writing style.

I’m sorry, I hate DNF on arcs, but I am too bored to continue.

Nothing ever happens in this book, and my life is too short to read something I do not enjoy.

Please don’t take me wrong; the story of the trial is well researched, but the novel is overall too long and, as other readers have said, lacks momentum.

The whole story is told to us and it is impossible to connect/empathise with any character.

Also, the temporary line is completely messed up. I really struggled to understand when a scene was set in the past or in the present.

What this Zadie Smith attempt to criticise classical English Literature? Sorry but for me is a big NO!

As a big historical fiction fan and a big fan of Zadie Smith I was sure I was going to love this but sadly it wasn’t for me. I found it very slow and a bit of a slog to get through if i’m honest, it seemed almost never ending.

The premise was interesting about the real life Tichborne trial but it took a long time to get into that.

I did like the character of Eliza Touchet though and as with all Smiths books it was beautifully written and well researched. I’m sure lots of people will love it but sadly I didn’t.

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 "tries to 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 at its core this is a book about just how tedious a middle class white man can be. And it's bold to assume anyone would want to expose themselves to that sort of tedium voluntarily

The Fraud
by Zadie Smith

Smith's first foray into historical fiction, and what better period to exercise her particular brand of "hysterical realism" than the nineteenth century when social conscious was being formed and issues around slavery, class and gender were being hotly disputed, but the structures didn't exist to provide safety nets to those not so well born or whomever fell on hard times.

Smith cleverly uses the popular 19th century volume novel structure to represent the zeitgeist, and with the exception of the 6th volume, the chapters consist of vignettes also resembling the writing style of the time, packed with wordplay, sarcasm, political observations and a touch of farce.

The main character is Mrs. Eliza Touchet, and from the get-go, it is obvious that this author's trademark sly wit is in full force. This is a character that will stay with me forever. She is the love interest of more than one of the side characters and it is her voice and reactions that propel the narrative in this complex, multi-layered story that is based on actual events, real life situations and people, including Charles Dickens, the new-to-me William Ainsworth, William Thackeray, and the participants in the Tichborne Trial, a legal cause celebre which captivated Victorian society in the 1860s and 70s.

I loved the sense of time and place that Smith captures through her structure and dialogue, I love the tone which reminds me of Oscar Wilde's comedy. I appreciate the focus on the impact of the trial on the public consciousness more than the trial itself, and while I enjoyed volume 6, the story of the Bogle family, which reads like a mini version of "Roots", it distracted me from the main story and felt mismatched in tone and pacing. Perhaps this is deliberate, a counterfoil to contemporaneous England?

I wish the ending had a bigger impact for me, my emotional reaction took a hit because I think I was expecting a grand finale, but appreciate that Smith rounds off all our characters lives with factual details.

I can see this being a hit with so many, but I can already hear the booing from the cheap seats.

Publication date: 7th September 2023
With thanks to #netgalley and #vikingbooks for the ARC

The Fraud is based on actual events, a notorious legal case in the 1860s. I had read Smith's debut novel White Teeth for the first time just recently, and loved it, and I am addicted to novels written or set in 19th C England, so I was thrilled to read The Fraud.

First, there is no doubt that this is a clever and complex novel, and no doubt some readers with love it. It packs in a lot of important topics and handles them with insight and acuity. But, to my disappointment, overall I found The Fraud rather a bore. Yes, some parts are moving and shocking, and no doubt the novel is well written, but the central story around the Tichborne case proved rather tedious.

I did very much like the character Mrs Touchet, but for long stretches she was absent, and I was bored without her.

The Fraud may be set in the 19th century but it is very much a modern novel. It is not 'telling a story' so much as a didactic reflection on or exposition of 'important themes', with clear parallels to present day events, couched in a story. I'd rather be reading George Eliot, or indeed Charles Dickens; I do like to lose myself in a good story. (Although to be fair, their books were also important themes couched in a story, so I suppose I'm quibbling...)

However, it introduced me to a novelist I had not heard of before, William Ainsworth Harrison, and I have started reading one of his novels, Old Saint Paul's, which I'm enjoying tremendously, so there's that.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. All my reviews are honest and unbiased, no matter how I receive the book.

Had I not known that Zadie Smith is a contemporary author, I would almost have believed that she was Victorian and contemporary with the writers she describes so well. Clearly, however, I did know and the first thing I thought was that she had completely changed register, because we are light years away from White Teeth for example and just to name one. The story of the writer Ainsworth (a contemporary of Dickens and at the time just as famous) as told by his cousin-in-law, the role of women and recently (at the times) freed black men the decline of a certain aristocracy and the arrival of a bourgeoisie brought about by the Industrial Revolution, are just some of the macro-topics of this novel that flows very quickly-at least for me-also because of a certain sympathy I developed from the beginning for Eliza, the book's narrator.

Se non avessi saputo che Zadie Smith é un'autrice contemporanea, avrei quasi creduto che fosse vittoriana e contemporanea degli scrittori che cosí bene descrive. Chiaramente peró lo sapevo e la prima cosa che ho pensato é che avesse cambiato completamente registro, perché siamo anni luce lontani da Denti Bianchi per esempio e giusto per dirne uno. La storia dello scrittore Ainsworth (contemporaneo di Dickens ed ai tempi altrettanto famoso) raccontata dalla cugina acquisita, il ruolo delle donne e degli uomini di colore recentemente liberati ai tempi, il declino di una certa aristocrazia e l'arrivo di una borghesia portata dalla rivoluzione industriale, sono solo alcuni dei macroargomenti di questo romanzo che scorre molto velocemente - almeno per me - anche per una certa simpatia che ho sviluppato dall'inizio per Eliza, voce narrante del libro.

I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.

The Fraud by Zadie Smith is exquisitely researched and an interesting foray into historical fiction (albeit loosely based on true events) from this lauded author. However, it’s a bit of a slog.

Told by way of 3 intermingling stories; Scottish Housekeeper Eliza and the literary family that she lives with through an earlier marriage, the intriguing trial of a man trying to prove that he an aristocrat thought lost at sea Ann a former slave. On paper this sounded like a fantastic read but in truth the structure is a little confused and there is too much plot weaved in to truly satisfy the reader. I wasn’t enamoured by the characters, save for Eliza, and struggle when there is a long list of protagonists and many go by several different names.

It is, as you would expect from Zadie Smith, beautifully written but the story falls flat and I was glad to get to the end.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC.

It’s never a good thing to be relieved to have finished reading a book. There are many different strands to this novel but the main ones are the lives of Eliza Touchet, cousin, housekeeper, and some time lover of William Harrison Ainsworth, a novelist who was a contemporary of Dickens and Thackeray amongst others, the trial of the Tichborne Claimant that consumed the public for a very long time, and the Bogle family, ex sugar plantation slaves. From a historical point of view, it is educational if your knowledge of the anti slavery movement in the UK and the conditions in which Caribbean and other slaves lived and worked is limited.

For my taste, this book is just too long winded and unfocused. The chapters are very short, 1 - 3 pages, and the timeline jumps about in a very disorientating fashion. The main character, Eliza Touchet, is a dour, frustrated Scottish widow who made me laugh initially but the humour dissipated suddenly about halfway through. I missed it as, without it, I found this quite a dull read. More could have been made of the global impact of the abolition of slavery. I found that particularly interesting as well as the dilemma of those who campaigned for it and worked to improve the lives of slaves on the other side of the ocean. When it came to helping their own ‘good’ or ‘deserving’ poor, those who had lost their livelihoods due to the disruption of cotton imports, for example, they were less enthusiastic.

I know this book will do really well as Zadie Smith is a well respected and well loved author but it just didn’t live up to my expectations.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for sending me a copy in exchange for a review.

This was my first Zadie Smith, but it certainly won't be my last. the writing style was so beautiful I found myself just flying through the pages. I will say however, that I felt the actual plot of the book was very slow and could have done with faster pacing.

Overall, if you love a good historical fiction, but also learn more about race and the history of the slave trade, Jamaica, or this intriguing case, this is the book for you.

I struggled initially to engage with Zadie Smith's first venture into historical fiction but I persevered and I'm glad I did. The Fraud is an interesting and thought-provoking read which uses a true story set in Victorian times to explore some serious themes that remain relevant today.

In "The Fraud" by Zadie Smith, the story opens its pages by introducing Mrs. Eliza Touchet, a seemingly unassuming housekeeper within the Victorian household of renowned novelist William Harrison Ainsworth. However, as the tale gracefully unfurls, it becomes evident that Eliza defies the norms of her era. She emerges as an impassioned abolitionist and a fervent advocate for women's rights, unflinchingly engaging in debates over the economic underpinnings of slavery. Eliza's connections with Ainsworth and his wives unveil a clandestine facet of her persona—a woman of fierce determination and unwavering conviction. Her pointed critiques of Charles Dickens, who reaps benefits from his ostensibly empathetic stance towards marginalized groups, interject a subtle yet incisive touch from the author herself.

Set in 1873, the novel takes readers on a journey that includes intriguing relationships and hidden perspectives. Eliza's friendship with Andrew Bogle, a former slave from Jamaica, adds depth to the narrative. Bogle's awareness of the human cost behind luxury and the manipulative tendencies of the powerful are central to the story. As Bogle finds himself in London as a pivotal witness in a notorious imposture case, the weight of his words becomes paramount.

The heart of the story revolves around the "Tichborne Trial," a case where a lower-class Australian butcher claims an aristocratic title and estate. Mrs. Touchet and the entire nation become captivated by the question: Is Sir Roger Tichborne an imposter or the real heir? The novel excels in depicting a world rife with hypocrisy and self-deception, where discerning reality becomes a complex endeavor.

Zadie Smith's writing is undoubtedly remarkable, capturing the essence of the Victorian era with precision. Her wit and sardonic humor infuse the pages with vitality, making even the more stagnant moments engaging. However, for a historical fiction enthusiast, the plot may lack the intrigue desired. The narrative occasionally feels directionless, which can be a bit disorienting for readers seeking a more captivating storyline.

Nonetheless, "The Fraud" offers moments of genuine substance. One particularly memorable scene features Eliza, worn down by the politics of the establishment, finding solace in a diverse choir's harmonious performance. It's in these moments that the narrative transcends its historical context and delves into the universality of the human experience.

In conclusion, "The Fraud" presents a multifaceted protagonist and an exploration of a captivating historical trial. Zadie Smith's writing prowess shines, even though the story's pacing may not always satisfy avid historical fiction fans. Yet, the novel's depth and the author's masterful touch ensure that there's value and thought-provoking content to be found within its pages.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really wanted to like The Fraud. The novel is well researched and well written; Eliza and Bogle are interesting characters, but I found the timeline confusing and plot dragged out.