The Fraud

Eliza brings the boy up to the library. Joseph speculates that it’s the weight of the books in the library that have created the crater in the library floor.

Eliza notices that Ainsworth hasn’t eaten his breakfast. She cleans up after him even though it’s the maid Sarah’s job. Ainsworth seems off, so Eliza checks the newspaper for notice of any friends who have died or become famous. She discovers a package with the book A New Spirit of the Age by R. H. Horne addressed to Ainsworth with an insult about Ainsworth’s work.

Eliza finds Sarah playing with Clara, Sarah’s child with William. Eliza asks Sarah not to pass on any packages to William without going through her first. Sarah mockingly calls Eliza “the lady of the house” and suggests that it’s up to William what mails he gets.

William and Eliza are cousins. She counsels him as he reflects on a topic for his new book. Eliza thinks about R. H. Horne and how he and William used to be friends.

Autumn progresses and William chooses a new setting for his novel: Jamaica. Eliza arranges a marriage certificate for William and Sarah. Sarah is an illiterate maid who is 26 years old and William is a famous novelist who is 63 years old.

In March, Eliza attends William and Sarah’s small wedding ceremony. In attendance are William’s three adult daughters from his first marriage and his brother Gilbert, who has an intellectual disability. The ceremony reminds Eliza of a happy memory a decade ago. She and William had served on the judge’s panel for a town event called The Flitch of Bacon. Two married couples had to prove that they had not had a fight in the year they’d been married to win bacon.

The family gathers at William’s house after the wedding. Eliza is disappointed in William’s daughters from his first marriage because they either didn’t marry or didn’t marry well. Emily and Franny, his two older daughters, discuss the financial situation of the family now that William is married. William has had to sell their country homes recently and is running out of money. Eliza realizes that Emily and Fanny will likely have to move in with them in Sussex.

William’s first wife Anne had asked Eliza for help when Anne and William’s daughters were babies. At age 25, William decided to move to Italy alone so he could witness beauty and find inspiration to write. Eliza had rushed to Anne’s side to help with the children, but she hadn’t been surprised that William had left. When she first met William, William was 15 years old and claimed he would be a writer.

William published his first book of stories at age 18. He sent a copy to Eliza who, at that time, was depressed and wanted to die. His book revived her, especially his inclusion of an epigraph that used a poem about true faith and martyrdom. This appealed to Eliza, who had been raised Catholic, and inspired her to keep living. Eliza was depressed because her husband James had taken their son Toby away with him when he left Eliza; Eliza had no legal rights to her son and therefore didn’t know where he was.

When Eliza’s husband ran off with their son, Eliza had no one to turn to except for William. William tracked them down, promising to return Eliza’s son. However, they all got typhoid fever before Eliza could be reunited with her son, and her son and husband died. William was able to finagle a meager sum of money for Eliza to receive from her former husband’s estate.

In 1830, Eliza left her dear city for the English countryside to help Anne with her three daughters.

Eliza still remembers April 23rd, 1830, as a happy day because that started a blissful three weeks with Anne, whom she called by her middle name Frances, and the children. Eliza had been lonely and heartbroken over the disappearance and death of her son, and this happy household revived her.

Frances was raised Baptist. Through this upbringing, Frances was taught to be an abolitionist. She inspired Eliza to also become fervently anti-slavery. William sent news that he was spending more time on the continent, so Eliza stayed on with Frances, with whom Eliza developed a romantic and sexual relationship.

After nine months of Eliza staying happily with Frances, William returned. His travels made his writing even more overdramatic. Eliza and Frances separated and both tried to avoid one another.

One day, William kissed Eliza. Eliza then engaged in sexual relations with William, to her great surprise.

Eliza lived in Chesterfield, and after her trysts with both William and Frances in 1830, anytime William went to visit his friend Crowley in Manchester, he stopped by Eliza’s place in Chesterfield. They continued their affair.

In another flashback, William’s newest idea for his next writing project is to move to a gothic house in Sussex and write about Lords and Ladies and people who speak “cant”, a form of slang. Eliza points out that William doesn’t know anything about cant. Eliza isn’t so sure about his idea, and she often gags him during sex to keep him from talking about his new novel.

William has a habit of reading the newspaper out loud to servants, which is how he and Sarah got closer. Sarah doesn’t like political news, especially news about uprisings in the Caribbean because she worries about Black men coming to England. She’s especially interested in the Tichborne Claimant case.

Sarah, Eliza, Fanny, and William discuss the Tichborne case. Sarah is passionately on Tichborne (Sir Roger)’s side. She points out that her country has different rules for poor people than for the rich, which she would know better than William. The others believe that Sir Roger is pretending to be a nobleman and is actually a fraud named Arthur Orton. They also point out the irony that Sarah, a woman who grew up poor, would feel a kinship with a man who claims not to be poor but to be of a noble family.

Sarah argues that because Lady Tichborne recognized Sir Roger as her son, that is irrefutable proof that he is who he claims to be. The others point out that no one else in the Tichborne family claims Sir Roger. They bring up that Sir Roger, on his speaking tour of England, speaks like a commoner, quite unlike a nobleman. Sarah believes that this is just part of his nature, and that he, unlike many other people who grew up wealthy, doesn’t feel the need to put on airs. Fanny argues that Roger only knows intimate details about the Tichborne family because he is friends with their former servant, a Black man named Bogle.

The Ainsworths and Eliza move to Hurstpierpoint, a small town in the countryside. Eliza misses her Catholic church and doesn’t have a church to go to in Hurstpierpoint, where there are only Anglican churches.

Another package arrives for William, but this time Eliza picks it up before William sees it. The package contains a copy of An Essay on the Genius of George Cruikshank by Thackeray. Thackeray was also once a friend of William’s.

Eliza doesn’t know who has been sending these packages of books that will trigger William. Meanwhile, William has been working on his novel about Jamaica.

William, Eliza, and his older daughters visit a nearby estate William wants to use as a setting in his novel. They are turned away, which reveals how William’s once-lustrous literary reputation has faded.

Eliza reads some of William’s new drafts. She knows he doesn’t want her editorial input, just that she familiarizes herself with his work in progress.

Hilary St. Ives is the working title of William’s new novel. Eliza has a difficult time reading it; experience and age have made William lean more into his writerly flaws. She finds the novel unrealistic and clichéd. Despite referring to the novel as his “Jamaica novel,” Eliza is disappointed to discover that the book only mentions Jamaica at the end, when the titular character Hilary discovers that her secret mother was Jamaican. The novel doesn’t at all deal with Jamaica’s contemporary changes, such as the civil unrest there. When he asks for her opinion on the new novel, she tells him it’s a success.

In July, Hurstpierpoint hosts the annual St. Lawrence’s Fair. At the fair, Eliza sees a steam-powered carousel for the first time.

William delights in the sight of Clara on the carousel. Fanny and Emily try to look happy for him; they had a very different childhood in which William largely ignored them in favor of his work and social connections. Eliza tells Clara the story of St. Lawrence, who was burned at the stake for defending Catholicism against the Romans.

William and Eliza discuss the most recent news coming out of Jamaica. Governor Eyre of Jamaica was removed from his post after the violent crackdown on the uprising but has recently been found innocent of wrongdoing.

William is against Reverend Gordon, a biracial reverend who helped inspire the uprising. William argues that white men were murdered in the uprising, which makes Reverend Gordon guilty of murder. Eliza’s point-of-view is that Governor Eyre’s reaction to the uprising was too violent: 350 Jamaicans were publicly hanged, and entire villages were destroyed.

William says it’s not necessary for them to argue about Jamaica, which is thousands of miles away from them. They discuss Charles Dickens, a former friend of William’s. Eliza doesn’t respect Charles’s political opinions because his championing of the poor and oppressed only happens in literature. She dismisses him as a novelist, which offends William.

Sarah brings up the Tichborne case again. She rejects the rumors about Sir Roger spending his time drunk with a simple explanation: All the men she knows, rich or poor, like to party.

Out on a walk with William, Eliza recognizes Mr. Chapman from their Kensal Lodge days, the days when William would host popular literary salons. Mr. Chapman is surprised to see William after so many years. Eliza feels judged by Mr. Chapman.

Eliza and William visit Gilbert at his cottage. As William reads out loud to him, Eliza thinks about her life. She feels terribly lonely and acknowledges that she was once surrounded by a rich social life. She thinks she’s going through menopause, leaving her past youth behind.

The narrative flashes back to 1832. William and Eliza go for a horse ride together. Their home life has become more stressful: Frances’s father has gone bankrupt, making their financial situation difficult. William vows to write a great novel that will resolve his family’s financial problems. Eliza and William are still having an affair; Eliza feels guilty about it, but William doesn’t.

In a flashback from 1830, William again travels to Italy for writing inspiration. Frances and Eliza go to Leicester to visit Mrs. Heyrick, an abolitionist who writes inspiring pamphlets.

At Mrs. Heyrick’s house, Eliza and Frances join a group of about 50 women who listen to a lecture on abolition by Mrs. Heyrick. Eliza tries to make a joke and Frances admonishes her. Eliza realizes that the thing she likes more about William than Frances is his sense of humor.

The narrative returns to 1870. Sarah wants to go to a rally where Sir Rogers will speak, but William insists that she can’t go alone. Eliza volunteers to go with Sarah.

Eliza and Sarah travel to Horsham. Despite Sarah’s upbringing, she doesn’t like beggars, even the child beggars. The only poor people she feels sympathy for are those with missing limbs.

Sarah and Eliza attend Sir Roger’s talk. Eliza is shocked to see so many people from lower classes in attendance. They want to raise money for Sir Roger so he can sue for repossession of what he claims was his home. Sarah and the other attendees agree that there are several institutional conspiracies working against Sir Roger.

Mr. Andrew Bogle appears on stage first. The audience cheers for the elderly Black man who has been Sir Roger’s closest ally. Then, Sir Rogers arrives on stage.

Eliza studies Sir Roger carefully. She notes, “One saw at once that here was a man who moved as the wind moved. A man with no centre, who might be nudged in any direction, depending. The watery eyes plainly revealed he was out of his depth; but then, too, that he enjoyed this crowd” (Page 113).