The Fraud

★★★★★★★★½☆ 8.5/10

What’s it about?

In 1873 Mrs. Eliza Touchet finds herself looking back on her life.  She has spent the last thirty years as the housekeeper to her cousin-by-marriage William Ainsworth.  William is a prominent novelist whose popularity has been going straight down hill for almost as long as she has been employed.  We see much of the 1800's through Mrs. Touchet's eyes- and it is quite a view.

What did it make me think about?

Mrs. Eliza Touchet was just a great literary character.

Should I read it?

482 pages"She had come out of curiosity.  As much as Eliza hated awful people, she also could never resist them."  I think any bookclub would have a great discussion about this novel.

A passage I marked

"Was he really good or did he only want to be seen to be good?  Does it matter?"