I was taken by the blurb for Nell Stevens’s The Original but its 400-page length kept me dithering. It was the puffs from Olivia Laing and Claire Fuller that finally decided me. Largely set in the last year of the nineteenth century, it follows Grace, an unhappy, unwelcome addition to Inderwick Hall, and the dilemma faced by her aunt whose son apparently returns from the dead, thirteen years after he was presumed lost at sea.
I had arrived, nine years old, an orphan with living parents, and found myself reviled in my uncle’s house. The shame of my situation I well understood. But I had not known until I arrived that I, like my parents, was an odd person.
Grace is sent to Inderwick Hall when her parents are confined to an asylum. Unused to being around people, she’s a socially awkward child, exacerbated by the face blindness that leaves her unable to retain likenesses. Her cousin Charles is her only ally, teaching her how to paint after spotting her interest in the portrait of their ancestor. When he abruptly leaves after a row with his father, Grace’s position becomes more miserable, her only solace thoughts of escape. While she has no creative aptitude her talent as a copyist is superb and there’s money in that. By the time a letter arrives from a man claiming to be Charles Inderwick, Grace’s aunt has lost her two other children then her husband although there’s no love lost there. While the household of hangers-on decry the new Charles as an impostor, her aunt becomes convinced. This new son seems to know things only Charles could know yet Grace remains unsure. Should he prove his case, he will inherit the estate but when her father dies, it is Grace who will become the heir.
Everything done for the second time is a copy of when it was done for the first time, and an attempt to bring back something lost.
The Original’s premise is a familiar one both in fiction and history – the case of the Tichborne claimant had Victorians all agog for several years – but Stevens brings it to life, telling the story through Grace while exploring themes of social inequality, attitudes towards sexuality and mental illness. Neatly handling the puzzle of Charles’s identity, she keeps us guessing and I enjoyed her descriptions of art and technique, explored through three paintings carefully copied by Grace. Throughout it all, she poses the question: Is a copy to be dismissed as worthless? Does the act of copying not lend value to the original, an act of homage, almost? I’m not entirely sure I’d go along with Stevens’s answer, but I liked her resolution to the Inderwick conundrum.
Scribner: London 9781398533387 400 pages Hardback (read via NetGalley)
I’m intrigued by this one. I enjoy dopplegangers/pretenders and the art forgery material also appeals.
I think you’d enjoy this one, then, and the length turned out to be not a problem at all.
I love a doorstopper so it’s all good!
All your boxes ticked then!
I’ve read all of Stevens’s previous books so I’m game for this one, though like you say, it seems awfully long.
I’m wary of chunksters but there’s no padding in this one so you should be fine.
I’m a bit wary of historical fiction but this does sound expertly done. It sounds like it could be adapted well too!
I think you’re right, either into a series (with cliffhangers) or a film.
You know this is right up my street Susan, glad to hear that the length isn’t off-putting.
I think you’ll enjoy it, Cathy. It’s quite pacy which makes up for the length.
I haven’t heard of this author before. Sounds like an atmospheric read.
It is, and nicely suspenseful.
I like that first quote, the idea that we change how we view ourselves when we find ourselves in different surroundings. And the play with copies appeals too.
Which can come as a shock as it does to Grace. It was the idea of the copy that was so interesting about this one.