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A Novel
by Nell Stevens
In a grand English country house in 1899, an aspiring art forger must unravel whether the man claiming to be her long-lost cousin is an impostor.
Brought to her uncle's decaying Oxfordshire estate when she was a child, Grace has grown up on the periphery of a once-great household, an outsider in her own home. Now a self-possessed and secretive young woman, she has developed unusual predilections: for painting, particularly forgery; for deception; for other girls.
As Grace cultivates her talent as a copyist, she realizes that her uncanny ability to recreate paintings might offer her a means of escape. Secretly, she puts this skill to use as an art forger, creating fake masterpieces in candlelit corners of the estate. Saving the money she makes from her sales, she plans a new life far from the family that has never seemed to want her.
Then, a letter arrives from the South Atlantic. The writer claims to be her cousin Charles, long presumed dead at sea, who wishes to reconnect with his family. When Charles returns, Grace's aunt welcomes him with open arms; yet fractures appear in the household. Some believe he is who he says he is. Others are convinced he's an impostor. As a court date looms to determine his legitimacy—and his claim to the family fortune—Grace must decide what she believes, and what she's willing to risk.
Is Charles really her cousin? An interloper? A mirror of her own ambitions? And in a house built on illusions, what does authenticity truly mean—in art, in love, and in family?
Deftly plotted and shimmering with Nell Stevens's distinctive intelligence, style, and wit, The Original takes readers on an unforgettable adventure through a world of forgeries, family ties, and the fluctuations in fortune that can change our fate.
"Stevens' second novel—after Briefly, A Delicious Life (2022)—retains its predecessor's lyricism and insight into the nooks and crannies of human nature, but is even more propulsive...Any comparison to Sarah Waters is well earned; readers will be on tenterhooks. A slippery, captivating tale that doubles as a portrait of a complicated, indelibly queer past." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"What a bewitching book this is. A sinuous, thrilling meditation on fakes and forgers, with echoes of Daphne du Maurier and Sarah Waters and an audacity that is totally original to Nell Stevens herself." —Olivia Laing, author of The Garden Against Time
"The Original is deliciously engaging and wildly intelligent. I adored this novel about art, authenticity, and desire and am a devoted fan of Nell Stevens." —Aysegül Savas, author of The Anthropologists
"A marvelously inventive and perfectly forged novel that poses a mischievous question: What role does likeness play in love? The ghosts of Oscar Wilde and Wilkie Collins stalk these pages, whether they know it or not." —Eleanor Catton, author of Birnam Wood
"A delightful, playful puzzle of a novel, and a brilliant twist on the nineteenth century orphan-makes-good story. The Original asks whether, sometimes, faking it is the right thing to do." —Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground
"Astonishing, unputdownable, unforgettable, The Original is a tour de force. A historical novel with the immediacy of the best realist fiction. I absolutely loved it." —Joanna Rakoff, author of My Salinger Year
"Like varnish cracking to reveal a masterpiece underneath, The Original turns a tale of artistic copying into a thrilling study of class, ambition, and the ultimate confidence game: becoming oneself. Smart, sensual, and utterly mesmerizing, this is a novel of exquisite tension and craft." —Mark Prins, author of The Latinist
This information about The Original was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Nell Stevens is the author of Briefly, a Delicious Life and two memoirs, Bleaker House and The Victorian and the Romantic. She is an assistant professor of creative writing at the University of Warwick and lives in Coventry, England.
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