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A Novel
by Nell Stevens
Book Reviewed by: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.
Prologue
There was a painting my family set on fire. It burned to ashes, and then it came back.
It was a portrait of a haggard old lady—though I believe she was in fact only thirty-two years old—on her knees in a field of mud, holding a blazing torch above her head. Her face was covered in open sores. Her eyes were closed. She had the expression of someone who knew she was dying. Before her on the ground was the mangled corpse of a pheasant. The canvas was very white around the flame, dark everywhere else: the mud, the dying woman's body, the bird. I believe it was one of the ugliest paintings that ever existed.
The title of the painting was 'The Drag', which was written on a little plaque screwed to the bottom of the frame, beside the date 1747. The event depicted took place, supposedly, in the thirteenth century. The name of the artist, if it had ever been known, was long since forgotten; there was a single looping 'C' in the lower-right corner, or a shape I imagined might ...
What are you reading this week? (7/2/2025)
...e Called in Dead by John Kenney, a newer release. Lots of heart, sprinkled with sage advice. Some things really hitting home. Next, I just downloaded The Original by Nell Stevens after seeing it here on BB. I loved her novel, Briefly, A Delicious Life, about George Sand and Chopin.
-Connie_K
What are you reading this week? (6/26/025)
The Original by Nell Stevens. The language and overall craft are staggering. I want to use certain passages as writing prompts. So, what I'm saying is that I want to copy the boo...
-Ann_Beman
Events are set in motion by a man who claims to be Grace's cousin years after Charles was presumed lost at sea. Grace is not sure whether she believes this "Charles" is really her cousin, and isn't sure whether her aunt, Charles's mother, believes it either. But the question matters, urgently, because "Charles" is set to inherit the Inderwick family fortune, unless he's determined to be an imposter, in which case, Grace eventually discovers, the money will come to her as next heir...The Original suggests that however much we may be rooting for Grace in her undertakings, work and scheming can be all-consuming, making any freedom gained by it feel invalid. It shows us this true thing about money, and then it shows us something else. From a certain perspective, Stevens' novel could be seen to resolve in a predictable, too-perfect way, but from another, it performs a double trick, making both marriage and money disappear, or at least mutate into something else...continued
Full Review
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(Reviewed by Elisabeth Cook).
Aysegül Savas, author of The Anthropologists
"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. Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground
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. Eleanor Catton, author of Birnam Wood
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. Joanna Rakoff, author of My Salinger Year
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. Mark Prins, author of The Latinist
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. Olivia Laing, author of The Garden Against Time
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.
In The Original by Nell Stevens, Grace Inderwick, who lives a privileged but dreary existence with her aunt in England at the turn of the 20th century, dreams of making an independent life for herself as an art forger. In her endeavors to do so, one of the paintings she copies is Jan van Eyck's Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife (1434). She views the work at the National Gallery before beginning her project, and finds it deeply affecting.
The painting is known for its photographic precision, as well as the mystery of the story behind it. The exact details of the portrait and what it depicts, in contrast to its sharply rendered visuals, are ambiguous. Is the man, purported to be Italian merchant Giovanni Arnolfini, really ...
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