The Fraud

Eliza goes for a walk to a neighborhood called Willesden, which she remembers fondly. She goes to a church and lights a candle for her departed loved ones. She lights two candles for both of Mr. Bogle’s deceased wives. She realizes that the anniversary of Frances’s death is coming up, and that Frances has been dead longer than she was alive.

In a flashback from 1838, Frances moves back in with her father and her family accuses William of marital neglect. William’s money from a successful novel is all spent, and his newest novel doesn’t recoup its publishing costs. Amid this financial and professional conflict, Frances dies. Eliza and William are not invited to her funeral. William deals with his grief by starting a new novel, Jack Sheppard.

Jack Sheppard is a massive success. It even outsells one of Dickens’s novels. This causes a rift between William and Dickens.

Back in the present, Mr. Bogle’s questioning continues. He had been living in Australia for many years when his son, a hairdresser, heard from a client that Sir Roger Tichborne was spotted in Sydney. Mr. Bogle met the man and they both recognized the other.

In a flashback from 1845, William takes over as editor of a literary magazine. In response to this, his friend William Thackeray publishes a diatribe against William in another literary magazine. Thackeray writes a letter to Eliza explaining that he wrote the essay in a fit of passion but doesn’t want to hurt William’s feelings. Eliza hosts a literary salon and Thackeray shows up. A guest brings a stereoscope in which everyone can see new images of far-away places like Ceylon. Eliza looks into the stereoscope, but she’s not excited the way the others are because she knows a photograph can’t replace the experience.

In the present, Eliza and Sarah return to London to watch the cross-examination. Sarah changes her mind about Mr. Bogle and now finds him to be no more than an opportunist. Sarah confronts Eliza about her feelings towards her. She knows that Eliza judges her, and Sarah acknowledges that it must be difficult for Eliza to give up her role in the household to Sarah. However, Sarah also points out that Eliza doesn’t know what Sarah’s past has been like. Eliza insists that she doesn’t judge Sarah for her background and points out that when her husband died, Eliza too became poor. Sarah scoffs at this because she knows what real poverty is.

Sarah brings Eliza to the harbor to articulate how the big business of London was built on the backs of people like Sarah’s grandparents. Sarah’s grandfather was arrested and deported when he was only 18 years old for stealing a bag of coffee. Her grandmother was forced into sex work to make ends meet, but even then, she had standards. Sarah advocates for her family background because, even though they were poor and from the kind of neighborhood Eliza would never step into, “I come from proud, free people, Mrs. Touchet. We don’t take the Relief for no one if the price is to be our liberty” (Page 223). Sarah brings Eliza to a dolly shop. A dolly shop is the type of shop that is two tiers below a pawnbroker, where the poorest of the poor sell the garbage they collect.

The Attorney General cross-examines Mr. Bogle. He asks Mr. Bogle if he lives with Sir Roger or gets money from him or has given him information about the Tichborne family. Mr. Bogle says that Sir Roger helps pay for Mr. Bogle’s son’s school, but that he doesn’t live with Sir Roger, nor has he told him any revealing information about the Tichborne family. Mr. Bogle admits that he gave the claimant an image of Edward Tichborne, a map of their estate, and a page from a book about the Tichbornes that belongs to Lady Doughty.

William is frustrated that he is spending money to send his wife and Eliza on trips to London to watch the court case of the Tichborne claimant. Privately, Eliza thinks of her own money she could use.

Eliza is conflicted about believing Mr. Bogle. She believes him fully, especially because his story never changes, and he would be financially rewarded by the rest of the Tichborne family if he turned against the claimant. However, Eliza also doesn’t believe the claimant, so it’s paradoxical to her that she can believe Mr. Bogle but not the claimant.

Without realizing it, Eliza and Sarah attend the final day of the court case. The claimant is absent when a soldier takes the stand and testifies to having tattooed a heart and anchor on Sir Roger’s left arm when both men were young. The claimant doesn’t have this tattoo. This is irrefutable proof to the court, which orders Arthur Orton’s arrest for perjury. A mass of the claimant’s supporters in the courtroom, including Sarah, run to Regent Street to protect the claimant.

Eliza runs to Mr. Bogle on the street on his way out of the court and asks him if she can take him to tea.

Mr. Bogle’s son asks Eliza what her intentions are. Eliza explains that she believes Mr. Bogle and wants to interview him for a publication. Mr. Bogle’s son asks that his father be compensated for the interview, as the publications about the Tichborne case sell well and yet the Bogles haven’t seen any financial benefit from the risk they’ve taken. Eliza can’t pay him but offers to buy them a hot meal. She notes with surprise that Mr. Bogle’s son doesn’t speak with the Caribbean accent she had been expecting. Mr. Bogle agrees to eat and speak with Eliza.

As they walk through the streets, people stop and stare. Many people recognize Mr. Bogle, but others stare because they think Eliza is a white woman married to a Black man. Children shout racist things at them. Eliza brings Mr. Bogle to a restaurant. She asks him to tell her the story of his life.

Mr. Bogle was born in Hope, Saint Andrew, Jamaica. He didn’t know his father, but his mother Myra told him stories of how great a man his father had been. Mr. Bogle also heard stories of his family from a Jamaican woman named Peachy. Mr. Bogle received a rudimentary education in Hope and he is happy that his son is being educated in England instead.

Mr. Bogle’s father’s name was Anaso and he was born in Africa. In his own country, Anaso was part of a powerful tribe that had enslaved other tribes, such as the Arrow tribe. One day, when Anaso was nine years old, he was misled by a man who claimed to be of his tribe and kidnapped. He was given to a Scotsman, who chained him up with other kidnapped people, including Peachy. They sailed to Bristol and then to Jamaica. This history of kidnapping and enslavement robbed Mr. Bogle of the life in his own tribe he should have known.

Mr. Bogle continues the story of his father. A Scottish plantation manager named Mr. Ballard notes Anaso’s bearing of pride even while doing the most menial tasks of manual labor. Mr. Ballard therefore renames Anaso “Nonesuch” to mock his pride and gives him the surname “Bogle,” the Scottish slang word for “scarecrow.”

Mr. Ballard takes Anaso on rounds with him, and Anaso, who is naturally intelligent, makes himself indispensable to Mr. Ballard. Mr. Ballard learns that the English enslaver of the plantation, Mr. Elletson, died. Mr. Elletson’s wife writes to Mr. Ballard, instructing him to be kind to the enslaved people because that’s what Mr. Elletson would have wanted. Mr. Ballard finds it difficult to manage the plantation—which the Elletsons really know nothing about because they live in England—without being severe with the enslaved workers.

Mr. Ballard wants to see an enslaved woman named Derenneya, who is supposedly pregnant with Mr. Ballard’s child, but the enslaved quarters in Hope are, to him, disorganized and unknowable. Anaso knows the quarters well and knows the stories and strengths of each of the homes there.

Anaso brings Mr. Ballard into the enslaved people’s village. Mr. Ballard enters Derenneya’s home, where he meets the baby. The baby looks like him but is darker-skinned than Derenneya. There is a little girl there named Little Derenneya, the first of Mr. Ballard’s children with Derenneya whom Derenneya allowed to live. Mr. Ballard orders Anaso to take Little Derenneya out of the house and closes the shutters.

Mr. Ballard receives a letter from England carried by Roger Elletson, a son the late Roger Elletson had with a Black woman. Roger is an enslaved person but will be freed, according to this letter, and therefore should not be made to do hard labor. He has been sent from England to Jamaica to learn the business of managing the plantation. Mr. Ballard finds this Roger incapable of working the plantation. Anaso volunteers to help train Roger.

As time passes, Anaso becomes accustomed to the name Nonesuch Bogle. Peachy gets her hand caught in a roller in the mill house. She’s rescued but loses her hand. Roger blames her for not being careful enough. A well-respected enslaved woman on the plantation, named Big Johanna, is known to put curses on other people.

Anaso realizes that because Roger has never known what it’s like to be enslaved on a plantation, he has internalized the belief that the enslaved people on the plantation in Hope are worthy of their lowered status. Roger has been given power and influence because of his very pale skin. He resents being on the same level as the very dark-skinned Nonesuch.

Mr. Ballard hosts Thomas Thistlewood for dinner. As Big Johanna cooks the food and Anaso serves them, Thistlewood tells horrifying stories of the brutal way he treats his enslaved people. Big Johanna whispers in a foreign language into Thistlewood’s ear.

A great storm tears up plantations in Jamaica, destroying Thistlewood’s land completely. Rumors abound that Big Johanna put a curse on Thistlewood, the same curse she put on Mr. Ballard’s children that killed them. Mr. Ballard doesn’t believe the rumors, but he believes that “nonsense has to be reined in, or else chaos rules” (Page 259). He publicly punishes Big Johanna and inadvertently kills her.

Little Johanna, Big Johanna’s daughter, takes over her mother’s duties. Little Johanna speaks the same language as her mother and is said to have the same powers. Nonesuch envies Little Johanna because “She had inherited something— she came from somewhere” (260).

After Big Johanna’s murder, an anonymous letter was written to Elletson’s widow, who fired Mr. Ballard. His replacement is no better than he was. Elletson’s widow has gone mad and so her 12-year-old daughter, Anna Eliza, will take over ownership of the plantation when she comes of age.

Roger grows to be a snake-like overseer. A young woman named Myra works on Roger’s plot and is overworked and abused by him. Myra and Anaso fall in love. They want to have a child, but Myra has a difficult time getting pregnant. Myra falls ill with a deadly infection. She survives but she loses an ear.

Anaso has children with other women, but Myra is still his partner in love and life. She grows increasingly resentful that she isn’t getting pregnant. She is suspicious of news from England about new progress on issues pertaining to slavery.

Anaso asks Little Johanna for help in getting Myra pregnant. She instructs him to get Myra a plant called pennyroyal, which Anaso puts into Myra’s drink. Myra gets pregnant and gives birth to Andrew Bogle.

Myra is thrilled to be a mother. Anaso records Andrew’s name into the plantation’s official records and, because of his influence, ensures that Andrew will grow up to become a higher-level, skilled enslaved person instead of a manual laborer.

When Andrew is six years old, Mr. Wilberforce successfully gets the British government to end the buying and selling of enslaved people. The enslaved people at Hope celebrate, but Myra doesn’t trust that this means her own freedom will come. She is impressed by the successful enslaved people’s uprising in Haiti, in which the people took matters into their own hands and won their own freedom. Myra knows better than to trust the English government.

Anaso gets sick with the same infection that made Myra lose her ear. He doesn’t survive: The infection spreads, making him lose his eyes and nose before dying in 1808.

Andrew grows up without memories of his father but inherits his father’s clerical duties, sparing him from the backbreaking manual labor of the plantation. His mother has two children with other men, but both children die. Andrew falls in love with Little Johanna even though she is much older than he is.

The owners of the plantation send their agent, a nobleman named Mr. Edward Tichborne, to Jamaica to write a report on the status of the drought that is destroying the plantation’s profit. Edward Tichborne is impressed by Andrew and brings Andrew with him when he returns to London.

Andrew is shocked by the poor people in England. He finds them diverse in race and background, and outspoken about their poverty and oppression. They often talk about revolting against their enslavers.

Andrew sees three boys hanged outside Newgate Prison. He decides not to participate in any more conversations about revolt.

From Edward Tichborne, Andrew learns about how lineage and privilege works in England. Though Edward is of a noble family, he works hard because he is the third of seven children and therefore doesn’t hold as much power or wealth as his eldest brother.

Andrew works as Edward Tichborne’s page boy. Edward tells Andrew about how Anna Eliza’s husband, a Duke, spends the family’s fortune in reckless ways.

Andrew is overwhelmed and a little frightened by the size and aesthetic of the Duke’s mansion.

Edward Tichborne meets with Anna Eliza and her husband, the Duke, to have a serious conversation about how they can save their profits in Jamaica. The Duke doesn’t believe the plantation is salvageable or profitable. In these meetings, Andrew is required to stand still and be silent. He occupies himself by looking around the room’s wallpaper and portraits. He sees a portrait of a Black boy with a bow and arrow. This image makes Andrew miss his Black community in Jamaica.

Outside the mansion, Andrew sees a tableau that inscribes the story of a white man with a Black man at his feet. Andrew understands that despite the portrait of the Black boy archer, in England the order of things is inscribed in stone.

Another servant named Jack brings Andrew to a chapel for a lecture. The speaker, a son of an enslaved person, lectures passionately about there being only two types of British people: the rich and the poor, and that there must be a universal war between the two. He advocates for a revolution like the one that has recently occurred in France.

Andrew stays with Edward in England for many months but is eventually sent back to Jamaica. His best friend from the plantation, Ellis, greets him at the harbor. Since he’s been gone, Andrew’s mother Myra died, and Little Johanna was imprisoned in Kingston Prison.

Andrew is depressed by the bad news. He becomes apathetic about life and happiness, though he continues to do his job well.

In the newspaper from England, Andrew reads about the execution of five men who revolted against their oppressors. They had concocted a plot to murder English rulers but were found out when one of their own betrayed the others. Andrew looks for Jack’s name but doesn’t find it. He recognizes the name of Wedderburn.

Andrew travels to Thistlewood’s plantation to pick up five enslaved persons to be rented. Mr. Thistlewood has been dead for decades, and Andrew wonders why two of the convicted men had the same last names as two enslavers.

Little Johanna is released from prison and returns to the plantation. In prison, she was tied to a giant treadmill and whipped while she walked on the treadmill all day. Andrew reaches out to her, but she is traumatized and changed by what happened to her.

Johanna tells Andrew of her dream. She knows, because she has seen through her powers, that “All things must turn and who stands now shall fall” (Page 297). She declares that the Earth is tired of humans.

Four years later, Edward Tichborne returns to Hope. He discovers that the plantation has become unprofitable. This is bad news for the Duke, whose debts are numerous. Edward Tichborne is frustrated by the Bahama grass that Mr. Ballard had once planted around the plantation for aesthetic purposes. The Bahama grass has spread out of control, destroyed the soil, and killed off native species.

Ellis gets Anna Eliza’s permission to legally marry another enslaved person named Dorinda. At the courthouse, Dorinda and Ellis are booed and mocked for being Black and getting married.

Edward Tichborne gets frustrated with the Duke and quits his job as his agent. He returns to England and brings Andrew with him.

In London, Edward and Andrew pick up Edward’s new wife Kathryn. They then travel to Europe for their honeymoon. Andrew is stunned by European countries, but the people there objectify him and treat him like a zoo animal.

Edward hears that a distant Doughty cousin has died and has left her fortune and her property to Edward on condition that he change his name from Tichborne to Doughty and fathers a son. Kathryn gives birth to a son, securing Edward’s new fortune, but Edward’s potential inheritance of the Tichborne wealth is threatened by the birth of his brother’s son, Roger Tichborne.