The Original
United Kingdom

The Original

by Nell Stevens

Summary

A painting is burned to ashes. Years later, it mysteriously returns. And in a crumbling English country house, nothing—and no one—is quite what they seem.

Oxfordshire, 1899. Grace Inderwick has spent most of her life as an unwanted guest in her wealthy uncle’s household. An outsider with a talent for copying paintings, she secretly turns her unusual skill into a way to earn money and imagine a life beyond the estate. But when her cousin Charles, presumed dead after disappearing at sea, suddenly returns, the family is thrown into turmoil. Some believe he is their long-lost relative; others suspect an impostor hoping to claim the family fortune.

As Grace becomes entangled in the mystery, her own secrets threaten to surface. In a world where appearances can deceive and even love involves a kind of imitation, she must decide whom to trust—and who she wants to become.

Atmospheric, witty, and full of Victorian intrigue, The Original explores the blurred boundaries between authenticity and deception, asking what makes a person truly original.

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Nell Stevens
Nell Stevens

Nell Stevens is a British writer of fiction and memoir. She is the author of the acclaimed novel Briefly, a Delicious Life (2022), narrated by the ghost of a young woman who encounters George Sand and Frédéric Chopin in nineteenth-century Mallorca. Her memoirs include Bleaker House and Mrs Gaskell & Me, the latter of which won the 2019 Somerset Maugham Award. Her writing has appeared in publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Guardian, and Granta. Stevens teaches creative writing at the University of Warwick. Her work often blends historical research with questions about identity, creativity, and the relationship between real lives and the stories we tell about them. The Original, published in 2025, further explores these interests through a Gothic mystery of art forgery, family secrets, and forbidden desire.

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Published
2025
Author
Nell Stevens