Forgery: Peter Ackroyds mysterious ways

By Kateina ern UO 237845

Introduction This paper explores the theme of forgery in the work of Peter Ackroyd. The theme will be analyzed in Ackroyds three books: The Lambs of London, Chatterton and The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein. These three books were chosen in order to show that the theme emerges on various level of the text. The structure is following: first of all I will place the theme of forgery into the context of the postmodern literature. Then I am going to present it in the Ackroyds books. All the books are being analysed in the same way: first I provide the reader with a brief description of the content of the book, then I will point out how the theme of forgery is dealt with in the book. This chapter will be followed by a conclusion.

Forgery in the postmodern era As we are going to see, forgery does not have to be always connected only with painting or written texts also a story can be forged or a personal history can become a forgery. Most importantly, forgery creates various realities, where there is no only one true story anymore; it takes the original and by bringing it to a new context, it reveals to us unknown perspectives on the original. This all refers to the end of the big stories and social construction of reality as a challenge to the objective truths. Together with contextuality, merging of fiction and reality, the theme of forgery fits into the postmodern paradigm (Sarup 1988). Ackroyd develops this theme fruitfully in his books and till the last moment does not reveal the true end sometimes actually gives up on revealing it at all and let the readers and their own interpretation and imagination to decide, what had happened in the story. Similarly in my paper, I tried interpreting Ackroyds stories and relate them to the theme of forgery, because in my point of view it represents well the postmodern character of his books.

Books The Lambs of London The Lambs are an ordinary London family until they meet William Ireland. Charles Lamb is a clerk but also an aspiring writer has a very close relationship with his sister Mary. Unlike Charles, Mary does not work and lives in a sort of an isolation in the house, with a mentally ill father and a not very friendly mother. Both Mary and Charles seek enlightenment in old and modern literature and philosophy, having William Shakespeare as their most beloved author. But William Ireland changes their lives he shares a big secret with them, an old book that used to belong to Shakespeare himself. As the excitement rises, William manages to find more and more relicts that used to belong to the big author. Finally, he even finds an unpublished play which becomes a great sensation almost immediately. Mary follows Williams discoveries with unconcealed enthusiasm and becomes more and more attached to him. The play is introduced on the scene and meets with a big success. However, as the tension rises, William gives up and reveals that he is the author of all the relicts and he is also the author of the play. Mary, whose mental health has been declining through the whole story, cannot cope with the revelation and during a mental breakdown stabs her mother to death and must be hospitalized to a mental institution.

Analysis 1 Unlike in the other books, there are only two main forgery themes objects that used to belong to Shakespeare and his unpublished play. It is not the interviewing story that amazes the reader the most; it is the cunning plan and various details that help bring the true face of forgery to life. William comes up with a bulletproof explanation of his discoveries a woman, who does not want to be named, needs to organize the property after her dead husband. The house then reveals the Shakespeares treasures and due to its never ending storages could have revealed even more, should William wish so. Also the procedure was a rather sophisticated process after all, he managed to persuade even such expert as Edmond Malone. Secondly, it is the authors typical habit to develop a fictitious story with characters that really existed in the history and possibly provide an explanation for some of their actions. Therefore here we can read about Mary and Charles Lambs, who were contemporary experts

on Shakespeare; also Mary really did stab her mother and had to be hospitalized (Mary Lamb).

The casebook of Victor Frankenstein Victor Frankenstein is a young student, who is deeply interested in the energy of life. He dedicates his life to his work. In his discoveries he goes that far away that he starts conducting experiments - first with animals, but later on with human bodies as well. Finally he really manages to create a living creature that poses an abnormal strength and some sort of own self-consciousness. However the creature seems to suffer because of its new after-life and vanishes in the dark- however not from the Victors life. Victor starts being followed and haunted by the creature he starts being aware of that, when he travels back home or visits friends: everywhere he goes, there is a dark shadow, quickly moving in water or hiding outside the house. Victor manages to escape, however the creatures fury is not without consequences and people start dying among them a young wife of Percy Shelly, Victors close friend. Victor is being driven crazy he is not sure anymore if the shadows and darkness is just a product of his tortured mind of if the monster still really follows him. Victor tries fleeing even to Percys villa, where he meets Lord Byron and also Percys new wife Mary Wollencraft. She encounters the monster only as a face in the window, but the impression influences her a lot. Victor who cannot handle his life like this anymore decides to face the creature himself. He meets the creature and after an agreement he brings the monster back to dead state. But he is ruined by the horrors and his consciousness does not let him sleep therefore he decides to reveal himself as the monsters creator. However when he approaches the laboratory in order to prove that he is the monsters creator, there is nothing and a revelation strikes us: there has never been any monster, except Victor himself. The whole book is then signed as an excerpt from a diary by Victor Frankenstein, a patient in a mental hospital.

Analysis 2 Even though the theme of forgery does not have to be that clear for the first time, there are actually several levels of forgery. First of all, the mystery of a monster as it turned out at the end, there was no monster and the whole scientific success was (though hopefully unconsciously) a fraud. However it created another monster from Victor himself, because he was probably the one murdering all those people.

Secondly, it is the book itself: the form of a fictitious diary tries to persuade the reader that Victor was a real person and the reader now holds in his/her hands a book with his private thoughts and Victors confession. Book then provides us with a complement of the story of Doctor Frankenstein, some sort of backstage information that should unrevealed the thoughts of the main character in the famous story. And finally, closely connected with the previous one, the story interconnects even with the British literal history and explains the origin of Mary Shellys story about Frankenstein: it was not a pure imagination, it was a story inspired by her own life experience, when she met a little odd Shellys friend Victor and saw a terrifying face in a window. To the authenticity of Marys appearance should also contribute presence of Lord Byron and the visit in a villa during the summer (Arditti 2008).

Chatterton The book reveals three stories to us at the same time, separated by several decades of years but interconnected by the work of Thomas Chatterton. Firstly, it is the present time when we can follow Charles Wychwood, a young writer, who has not been very successful so far and cannot really get anything published. In order to feed his family, he takes a job as a sort of a secretary and starts working for Harriet Scrope, a successful writer, who wants to compose her memoirs, but finds basically nothing to write about. She uses Charles to create her own story for her and for the audience, as she had used others authors as well before, when she had copied stories from long forgotten authors. In the meanwhile Charles finds an old painting and recognizes a long forgotten poet in it, who became famous not for his poetry skills, but for the forgery one: Thomas Chatterton forged a romance written by medieval monk and claimed that he had discovered it. After the examination of the painting he realizes that Chatterton could not die by his own hand in 1770, but faked his death because of the forgeries and lived on. Later on he manages to gain several dozens of papers that seems to be Chattertons post-death work. Secondly we can follow the story of another artist, a painter called Henry Wallis, who astonished by the ideal of dead romantic writer, wanted to depict him on his death bed. Another young writer, George Meredith, served him as a model of the dying Chatterton. And finally in the third story line, we can observe Thomas Chatterton himself that also helps us reveal the mystery of the painting from the modern times: similarly as the other Chattertons work, even the painting is a forgery, because Chattertons story really does end with his suicide.

Analysis 3 It is difficult to say, if the theme forgery was a lucky one, considering the story, or not because as it is revealed during the whole book, forgery is connected with almost every artistic work mentioned. First of all, there are several forged paintings. There is a picture of Thomas Chatterton in his middle age that persuades Charles he must have had fake his death. However, the picture proves to be a fake itself, because Chatterton committed suicide when he was 17 and never reached his middle age. There is also a picture that depicts Chatterton, drawn several dozens of years after his death, but the face in the picture was Merediths not Chattertons one. Further on there are several paintings by a famous painter that turned out to have been forged by the keeper of his art heritage without even the best experts noticing. Secondly, it is the written work. Deep in the story lies the first forged story that Chatterton presented as a mid-age romance but which was written by his own hand. Next there are Chattertons note and letters, where he admits faking his own death but those prove to be fake as well, since Chattertons death was not faked. Then there is Harriet and her forgeries copies of old stories that are not well remembered and therefore she could claim that they are her invention. And finally, it is of course the book itself, which provides us with a background of one Romantic forger and a painter and his acquaintances the characters being real people in the history with the same hi/stories (Chattertons forgery or Mrs. Meredith flight to Wallis), but the realization of the stories themselves being fiction.

Conclusion To conclude Ackroyd brings us many forms of forgery and he explores theme on various levels. First of all, he creates mysterious stories, where forged paintings and books interconnect history and presence only to haunt the owners. Even though Ackroyd provides the reader with many clues about the origin of the works, it is usually the end of the story that reveals the whole truth. (as we could see in Chatterton or The Lambs). Further on, he brings forgery into another level as well; he develops a story which only when viewed in the historical context reveals to be a forgery itself, even though it is richly supported by real characters and places (The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein). By employing the theme of forgery, he challenges many given assumptions: who is actually author of the forged work? Is it a forgery when we actually treat the work as original?

By these and many others he showed to us that it does not really matter if the work is a forgery; the way we treat and the way we view it becomes important. The only thing that could make this discussion better would be a forgery of Ackroyds book itself that would make it truly hyper-postmodern work.

Sources Ackroyd, Peter. Chatterton. New York: Grove Press, 1988. Print. Ackroyd, Peter. The Lambs of London. London: Chatto & Windus, 2004. Print. Ackroyd, Peter. The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein. London: Chatto & Windus, 2008. Print. Arditti, Michael. Review: The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein by Peter Ackroyd. The Telegraph, Sept. 2008. Web. 1 Feb. 2013. "Mary Lamb." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 27 Jan. 2013. Web. 01 Feb. 2013. O'Railly, Elizabeth. "Peter Ackroyd." Peter Ackroyd. British Council, 2012. Web. 01 Feb. 2013. Sarup, Madan. An Introductory Guide to Post-Structuralism and Post-Modernism. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1988. Print.