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Fraud
At the heart of Anita Brookner's new novel lies a double mystery: What has happened to Anna Durrant, a solitary woman of a certain age who has disappeared from her London flat? And why has it taken four months for anyone to notice?
As Brookner reconstructs Anna's life and character through the eyes of her acquaintances, she gives us a witty yet ultimately devastating study of self-annihilating virtue while exposing the social, fiscal, and moral frauds that are the underpinnings of terrifying rectitude.
As Brookner reconstructs Anna's life and character through the eyes of her acquaintances, she gives us a witty yet ultimately devastating study of self-annihilating virtue while exposing the social, fiscal, and moral frauds that are the underpinnings of terrifying rectitude.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
105 people are currently reading
1178 people want to read
About the author
Anita Brookner
60 books656 followersAnita Brookner published her first novel, A Start In Life in 1981. Her most notable novel, her fourth, Hotel du Lac won the Man Booker Prize in 1984. Her novel, The Next Big Thing was longlisted (alongside John Banville's, Shroud) in 2002 for the Man Booker Prize. She published more than 25 works of fiction, notably: Strangers (2009) shortlisted for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, Fraud (1992) and, The Rules of Engagement (2003). She was also the first female to hold a Slade Professorship of Fine Arts at Cambridge University.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 163 reviews
March 13, 2015
There is something slightly anachronistic about Anita Brookner's novels. She often writes about this world of British widows. But I don't think such a community of widows really exists today as much as it did in the 50s. Health care is better. Husbands are living longer. It's interesting, she's so careful to keep current events and real people out of the novels as a means of not dating her prose, yet this world of widows dates her books as much as anything. There are cars in her novels, but no microwaves or cell phones. There is television, but no GPS or PCs. Her characters are almost always in late midlife or elderly. And she has absolutely no qualms about taking on "grim" subjects such as aging, infirmity and death; if anything, she embraces these topics. They are her subject matter. All that considered, Brookner is a wonderful writer. Her grammar is precise. Her vocabulary possesses these wonderful throwbacks to Victorian literature: words like ineluctable and hieratic, equanimity and homage (which one finds oneself reading with the aspirated aitch, in the British manner). Her diction is relatively formal. Though she is a complete original she has models like any writer, and these include Henry James and sometimes Marcel Proust with perhaps a touch of Simenon's plotting. Generally set in London, with jaunts to Paris, the south of France and sometimes Spain, the novels are nothing if not British. For this stateside reader they provide that essential requisite that all reading matter must meet: it must reveal another, almost alien world. Brookner with her very British stories, well, one might as well be reading of life in Sumatra or Valparaíso. Fraud begins with the disappearance of Anna Durrant. Anna, a do-gooder who seems to annoy those she helps by way of an overbearing cheer, is alone in the world. She was last seen 3 months ago. Anna has grown up caring for a sickly and self-centered mother who could not let her go. Anna's life was supposed to take place conveniently after her mother's death. They love each other, of that there can be no question, but it is a strangulating love. Anna dutifully caries out her obligations. She had given up everything for her mother. The result is isolation and loneliness yet a resolute good nature that this reader saw as alternately a sign of strength and one of sheer madness. Then one day her supposedly frail mother collapses in a public place and is brought home by a man by the name of Ainsworth, who subsequently becomes the mother's lover. Anna is aghast that this almost shut-in mother is suddenly leading an athletic sex life; something she has never had herself. "He was too glossy," Brookner writes, "too plausible, and her mother too flushed, too pretty. She was aware of a disturbed scent in the air, as if her mother were warm and excited, just as she was to be aware, later, of Ainsworth's brutal stink in the bathroom and the bottles of cologne he poured over himself in order to become the lover and to dispel the natural man." The novel is for the most part a recounting of the lives of those who knew Anna in the weeks and months leading up to her disappearance. There is the "pale, goodlooking" Dr Halliday for whom women are a curse and who follows his penis into a horrible marriage. There is Mrs. Marsh, one of the elderly people Anna helps from time to time, whose views on the world around her are so stoic and blunt that we can't help but come to admire her as she continues to age and run down toward death fully aware of her decay. Vickie is the sexpot wife of Dr Halliday whom he slowly comes to hate. She and her father being walking talking Freudian case studies come to life with such vividness that the new husband is appalled. Halliday knows he should have married Anna. He knows they would have been good for each other, but follows his penis instead. This is one of Brookner's best novels. I think it is surpassed only by Latecomers, Hotel du Lac, Brief Lives, and Incidents in the Rue Laugier.
sampled
November 3, 2025God, this is a tricky one: while I am reading this book, I am enjoying Anita's incisive sharp observations of human misery, loneliness, not being fulfilled. Yet I never enjoy being in the minds of these miserable people, unless maybe in some masochistic way by feeling at least that my life is more bearable. And to be honest, I don't like this and I think I am at the crossroads of my reading journey where I just can't read about weak miserable women living, no, suffering their remaining days at this time.
Anita is a sad woman, at least it looks like that to me after reading her two novels that have a very similar plots: both daughters waste their lives on a demanding selfish parents, and then discovering themselves alone without a man, a family, nothing else matters. And it is very sad to hear this from such a distinguished thinker and professional like Anita, but that's her truth. Smart women lamenting wasting their lives raising kids and supporting their husbands and having nothing to be proud of in the end; smart women lamenting not having a family and missing out on the happiness and having no man to desire you (the woman in this book is rich, she doesn't need to be supported). I suppose the grass is always greener? I don't know, I am defeated at 20%, and I think if I am in the mood to be reading, I want something that has some happiness experienced, maybe silliness. Or maybe I am just unlucky in my choices of her books.
So all in all, she is an amazing writer, but it's like I can smell the naphthalene while I am reading her, and I am choosing to let this evidently very unhappy woman rest. I would've finished this one if I haven't already read "The Bay of Angels", but now I just don't see the point.
Anita is a sad woman, at least it looks like that to me after reading her two novels that have a very similar plots: both daughters waste their lives on a demanding selfish parents, and then discovering themselves alone without a man, a family, nothing else matters. And it is very sad to hear this from such a distinguished thinker and professional like Anita, but that's her truth. Smart women lamenting wasting their lives raising kids and supporting their husbands and having nothing to be proud of in the end; smart women lamenting not having a family and missing out on the happiness and having no man to desire you (the woman in this book is rich, she doesn't need to be supported). I suppose the grass is always greener? I don't know, I am defeated at 20%, and I think if I am in the mood to be reading, I want something that has some happiness experienced, maybe silliness. Or maybe I am just unlucky in my choices of her books.
So all in all, she is an amazing writer, but it's like I can smell the naphthalene while I am reading her, and I am choosing to let this evidently very unhappy woman rest. I would've finished this one if I haven't already read "The Bay of Angels", but now I just don't see the point.
April 17, 2023
I own around 15 unread Brookners and, every time I pick one up, I wonder why I don't prioritise her books. Fraud (1992) is the sixth book I have read by her. All have been excellent.
Fraud is another winner. I'm in awe of Anita Brookner's ability to create empathy for marginalised figures. Anna Durrant is controlled and reliable, and has devoted most of her life to looking after her mother. One day she goes missing. We then circle back and find out more about her life and those of her few acquaintances. It's brilliant. So convincing and increasingly powerful. A beautiful and ultimately uplifting novel about loneliness and missed opportunities.
Anita Brookner, what a talent.
5/5
At the heart of Anita Brookner's new novel lies a double mystery: What has happened to Anna Durrant, a solitary woman of a certain age who has disappeared from her London flat? And why has it taken four months for anyone to notice?
As Brookner reconstructs Anna's life and character through the eyes of her acquaintances, she gives us a witty yet ultimately devastating study of self-annihilating virtue while exposing the social, fiscal, and moral frauds that are the underpinnings of terrifying rectitude.
Fraud is another winner. I'm in awe of Anita Brookner's ability to create empathy for marginalised figures. Anna Durrant is controlled and reliable, and has devoted most of her life to looking after her mother. One day she goes missing. We then circle back and find out more about her life and those of her few acquaintances. It's brilliant. So convincing and increasingly powerful. A beautiful and ultimately uplifting novel about loneliness and missed opportunities.
Anita Brookner, what a talent.
5/5
At the heart of Anita Brookner's new novel lies a double mystery: What has happened to Anna Durrant, a solitary woman of a certain age who has disappeared from her London flat? And why has it taken four months for anyone to notice?
As Brookner reconstructs Anna's life and character through the eyes of her acquaintances, she gives us a witty yet ultimately devastating study of self-annihilating virtue while exposing the social, fiscal, and moral frauds that are the underpinnings of terrifying rectitude.
August 31, 2022
This is the first Anita Brookner I have ever read. The story gripped me from the first page itself. Still, I read a few reviews on Goodreads & found quite a few negative ones... which didn't match with my impressions of the first few pages. As I continued reading, I found myself completely immersed in the inner life of the various characters. I wondered whether it was because, like the characters themselves, I too was an older woman. Also, it is about genteel women of a certain section of society, educated, taught social mores and manners, taught to keep their emotions in check and not expose their true feelings, expected to do their 'duty' as the years passed.. I suppose I identified a lot with that. Also, the changes which happen to your body and mind and your behaviour too, as you age. Everything written in such exquisite, vivid, nuanced detail. This was also that rare book where till the last 2 pages I did not know where the story was going, how the author would draw the final curtain on all these lives. Just as I read a thriller or crime-fiction, headlong breathlessly following through to the ending, I did with this too. Only, I had to pause often to savour the descriptions - of the day, the season or the inner dialogue.
May 21, 2020
Rather than the despondency of Look At Me or A Friend from England, Fraud stands on my Brookner shelf with A Misalliance, Lewis Percy, and even Latecomers as a surprisingly hopeful Brookner that leaves the reader with some hope for its single and unattached main character. In many Brookners, the main characters surprises herself: in Fraud Anna Durrant surprises the reader. As always, Brookner’s prose is subtle, straightforward, and occasionally quietly humorous: ”She saw them to the door. ‘I’d be grateful if you’d let me know about her. There’s not much point in my going round to Cranley Gardens if she’s not there. I don’t know whom else to ask.’ / The elder of the two policemen, Butterworth, noticed that she had said ‘whom’ and decided that she was a reliable witness.”
4.5 Brookner stars
4.5 Brookner stars
September 8, 2022
I honestly could listen to Anna Massey read the phone book (love her!). With that being said, this book unfortunately was not that engaging. She is the sole reason I bumped up my rating to two ⭐️⭐️. 😕
December 16, 2013
I don't know why I continue to read Brookner's novels , they are always very slow moving,without much happening and never any action. They are all pretty much the same , with only one exception that I know of , the story is always about a woman that leads a very narrow and lonely life,for the most part financially secure,educated , but also desperate with the feeling that to be a whole person,they need to be in a marriage ,this seldom happens . In this novel at least the main character Anna Durrant does manage to find some inner resource to change her lonely life and live happily on her own. This is about the eighth Brookner novel I have read and will most likely read another , but I would not recommend Brookner's books to any of my friends ( because I want to keep them)
July 26, 2025
It starts with a disappearance. Middle-aged Anna Durrant seems to have vanished; the police, stumped, come to speak to Mrs Marsh, an elderly acquaintance. Read the copy on the back of the book and you’d think it’s all about what happened to Anna, but Brookner’s never been one for thrills and the ‘disappearance’ is a hook, not the story. We mostly move back in time, unspooling the quiet, detail-rich lives of Anna, her formidable mother Amy, Mrs Marsh and her family, and Dr Lawrence Halliday – the man loosely binding all the women together.
I love Brookner’s fiction, but her novels do sometimes seem like they follow a pattern, depicting middle-class, typically middle-aged women who are alone and ignored, emotionally restrained and repressed; an atmosphere of elegant suffocation. It’s a world I’m used to inhabiting when I read her books. I even find it comforting, honestly. But it can be somewhat samey (I’ve often wondered if Look At Me, excellent as it is, would’ve been my favourite if I hadn’t read it first).
So it’s surprising, interesting, and ultimately a pleasure to meet the complex figures in Fraud. There’s something expansive in how Brookner writes these people, each unhappy in their own way: Anna, lonely and unmoored after Amy’s death, afraid she’s squandered her life in devotion; Mrs Marsh, who’s done everything ‘right’ but, as she grows older, is uncomfortably aware of her own social obsolescence and mortality; Lawrence, successful but unhappily married, yearning for the long-lost simple pleasures of his working-class childhood.
Yet Anna, especially, is shown to be entirely unlike others’ perceptions of her. While others, especially Mrs Marsh, see a wasted accessory to her mother’s life, Brookner shows us more, gently suggesting Anna might have more living left to do. There’s the possibility of a late-stage emotional recalibration. Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t end in some wild reinvention, but there is movement; a quiet pivot away from passivity.
It’s not that Fraud breaks with the usual style; for a novel published in the 90s it is curiously old-fashioned – recognisably Brookner’s milieu, where tweed-clad ‘spinsters’ live in well-appointed flats in buildings called things like Albert Hall Mansions. But it is warmer and more hopeful than I expected. While Brookner’s characters usually stay where they are, despairing against convention, bound by invisible or imaginary rules of their own devising, Fraud is softer; it seems to be telling us it’s never too late for a change. (Which, if it sounds alarmingly syrupy, is anything but; Brookner's acerbic chill remains intact.)
I love Brookner’s fiction, but her novels do sometimes seem like they follow a pattern, depicting middle-class, typically middle-aged women who are alone and ignored, emotionally restrained and repressed; an atmosphere of elegant suffocation. It’s a world I’m used to inhabiting when I read her books. I even find it comforting, honestly. But it can be somewhat samey (I’ve often wondered if Look At Me, excellent as it is, would’ve been my favourite if I hadn’t read it first).
So it’s surprising, interesting, and ultimately a pleasure to meet the complex figures in Fraud. There’s something expansive in how Brookner writes these people, each unhappy in their own way: Anna, lonely and unmoored after Amy’s death, afraid she’s squandered her life in devotion; Mrs Marsh, who’s done everything ‘right’ but, as she grows older, is uncomfortably aware of her own social obsolescence and mortality; Lawrence, successful but unhappily married, yearning for the long-lost simple pleasures of his working-class childhood.
Yet Anna, especially, is shown to be entirely unlike others’ perceptions of her. While others, especially Mrs Marsh, see a wasted accessory to her mother’s life, Brookner shows us more, gently suggesting Anna might have more living left to do. There’s the possibility of a late-stage emotional recalibration. Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t end in some wild reinvention, but there is movement; a quiet pivot away from passivity.
It’s not that Fraud breaks with the usual style; for a novel published in the 90s it is curiously old-fashioned – recognisably Brookner’s milieu, where tweed-clad ‘spinsters’ live in well-appointed flats in buildings called things like Albert Hall Mansions. But it is warmer and more hopeful than I expected. While Brookner’s characters usually stay where they are, despairing against convention, bound by invisible or imaginary rules of their own devising, Fraud is softer; it seems to be telling us it’s never too late for a change. (Which, if it sounds alarmingly syrupy, is anything but; Brookner's acerbic chill remains intact.)
September 14, 2023
WE'RE BACK 🤩🤩🤩
Another great feat of psychological maximalism, metaphorical clothes and middle-aged hotness.
Another great feat of psychological maximalism, metaphorical clothes and middle-aged hotness.
October 2, 2025
At some point while reading this, it stopped being about the plot and rather my focus shifted to how well Anita Brookner dissects each of her character's lives. There was Mrs. Marsh whose thoughts told us how old age really feels like and Anna who showed us what loneliness and putting others before yourself can really do to you.
I would have loved to see the new Anna Durrant in action but well, all good things must come to an end.
I would have loved to see the new Anna Durrant in action but well, all good things must come to an end.
August 6, 2022
Ms. Brookner is up there with Anne Tyler and Elizabeth Strout in my personal Pantheon of contemporary female writers. Here she brings us into the lives of two very different women. One, a shy middle aged spinster who has spent her life in service to others. The other, a strong willed 81 year old widow who has little patience for those she finds weak in body, mind, and spirit. The book opens with the discovery that the former has gone missing for four months. We learn how the two protagonists met and formed a relationship. Ms. Brookner, a master of character development, provides an astute psychological insight into these lives. She does so in a straight forward, unsentimental manner in a voice that really connected with this reader. I enjoyed spending time with these characters and their flaws, desires, and struggles. Cheers!
November 7, 2017
I surprise even myself by giving this book 5 stars. I enjoyed it but in the same way I enjoy scratching mosquito bites. I read somewhere that Anita Brookner is considered to be "the mistress of Gloom" and I can well understand why. In books about spinsters by writers such as Pym there are consolations.. "excellent women" are part of a community and eat their solitary boiled eggs with relish. Brookner's heroines live far more solitary lives.. they don't go to church, they don't enjoy their eggs.. and even when they go to Paris it rains. I found this book really unrelenting but extremely realistic, completely stripped of any pleasant illusions about life. I am not such a pessimist as all that but I still "enjoyed" the book because it was so meticulously written.. every emotion, every thought, every character was described in such stark detail. She writes like a very harsh mirror that shows the reality.. but only reality in a certain light.. whose to say our faces and our lives are not the way they are when the light it more flattering.
June 28, 2011
Well written, psychological study of lonely people and aging. I didn't find it depressing, however. It's kind of cheering to see a middle-aged woman finally take hold of her life, after she realizes that she's been clinging to unrealistic hopes. This is the first book I've read by this author, and I intend to read more.
September 3, 2025
4.5 stars. A very engaging character based novel about Anna Durrant and the people she is acquainted with. Anna is single, in her early 50s, well off financially, and lives alone. Her mother had died within the last year. Another main character is Vera Marsh, who had been a friend of Anna’s mother. Vera is in her early 80s and has two adult children, Philippa, a widow with two adult children, and Nick, who is divorced. Philippa and Nick also live alone. Vera Marsh finds Anna tiresome and burdensome, but her knowing Anna’s mother has bound her to Anna. Anna is able t help Vera out on a couple of occasions, however Vera keeps her distance and Anna is aware that Vera does not like her.
Anna was expected to start anew with the death of her mother. Anna was free to do as she pleased, not having the attend and care for her sick mother. However, Anna never really moved on. We learn of Anna’s life before and after her mother’s death and the unease she felt with her mother’s romance with the smooth George Ainsworth. Anna had thought that Dr Lawrence Halliday, her mother’s doctor, would be a suitable partner to help him with his busy life. However he was whisked away by the sexy, attention seeking Vickie.
Here is an example of the author’s writing style:
‘Although programmed both to be good and to do good Anna felt at ease only in solitude, when no duties should be required of her. Her nurturing instincts thus in abeyance she could contemplate the future quite calmly and see it for what it was, a long succession of empty days, when no one would call her by her name and ask of her such tasks as she was usually eager to perform. With her mother gone she alternated between loss and hope’.
There are many ‘frauds’ in the novel. Anna is a person fashioned by the expectations of others. Anna public performance finds her saving face or pleasing the whims of others while her own feelings and desires remained unexpressed.
I have read many of Anita Brookner’s novels and ‘Fraud’ is one of her better books. The character development is, as always, exceptionally good. The added bonus with this novel is that it has a semblance of plot momentum! One mostly reads Brookner for the psychological insights into each of her characters. Brookner fans should find this novel a very satisfying reading experience.
This book was first published in 1992.
Anna was expected to start anew with the death of her mother. Anna was free to do as she pleased, not having the attend and care for her sick mother. However, Anna never really moved on. We learn of Anna’s life before and after her mother’s death and the unease she felt with her mother’s romance with the smooth George Ainsworth. Anna had thought that Dr Lawrence Halliday, her mother’s doctor, would be a suitable partner to help him with his busy life. However he was whisked away by the sexy, attention seeking Vickie.
Here is an example of the author’s writing style:
‘Although programmed both to be good and to do good Anna felt at ease only in solitude, when no duties should be required of her. Her nurturing instincts thus in abeyance she could contemplate the future quite calmly and see it for what it was, a long succession of empty days, when no one would call her by her name and ask of her such tasks as she was usually eager to perform. With her mother gone she alternated between loss and hope’.
There are many ‘frauds’ in the novel. Anna is a person fashioned by the expectations of others. Anna public performance finds her saving face or pleasing the whims of others while her own feelings and desires remained unexpressed.
I have read many of Anita Brookner’s novels and ‘Fraud’ is one of her better books. The character development is, as always, exceptionally good. The added bonus with this novel is that it has a semblance of plot momentum! One mostly reads Brookner for the psychological insights into each of her characters. Brookner fans should find this novel a very satisfying reading experience.
This book was first published in 1992.
October 28, 2017
This really merits a 3.5 instead of the four I gave it. It's typical Brookner but a little bit as if she had written it on auto-pilot. There are many gems and some really great characters--but beyond being a compilation of loosely connected characters, I thought that there was not enough to bind them. It was, perhaps, a bit like taking a walk though a well-heeled nursing home and listening to the opinions of some rather well-read older people.
But, oh, Brookner does know how to give us great moments and lines. I love to look up the addresses of people who live in London and Brookner has her main character move to Cranmer Gardens (near the Boltons). What a frisson I got when I read a sensational story on the internet about necrophilia in Cranmer Gardens! But it was NOT the London street but in another part of England.
But then it would not be Anita Brookner if there were real necrophilia going on? Metaphorical is good enough for Brookner.
But, oh, Brookner does know how to give us great moments and lines. I love to look up the addresses of people who live in London and Brookner has her main character move to Cranmer Gardens (near the Boltons). What a frisson I got when I read a sensational story on the internet about necrophilia in Cranmer Gardens! But it was NOT the London street but in another part of England.
But then it would not be Anita Brookner if there were real necrophilia going on? Metaphorical is good enough for Brookner.
August 14, 2021
I love the idea of Brookner's books though the weight of her characters often put an end to my attempts to read her novels. I can't put my finger on why this book was different but it was. The characters are still sad and dissatisfied with their lives but aren't consumed by sorrow. The story was interesting, not a bit of mystery, but rather a few people's perceptions of a year that ended with the main character, Anna's, disappearance.
June 19, 2016
Fraud is my first attempt to read a Ms Brookner. I stumbled upon a review on the web and I got someone to pick up a used copy from the UK. I never owned a used copy before and I am delighted to come across underlined notes and post-it of someone’s telephone number written on the odd pages of the book. Who was the previous owner, I wonder.
My initial read of this book proved to be difficult and I am very certain that I wouldn’t be able to finish it. It took me two weeks and only picked up the pace when I was lying sick with flu in bed. In a way, I was glad I fell sick.
Ms Brookner is adept in the description of human relationships. The plot is about the relationship between Anna and her mother, Mrs. Durrant. Anna and her doctor Mr Halliday, Vera Marsh and her son Nick and daughter Philippa. Anna and her best friend Marie France.
This is a story about growing up and growing old, about the decline and fall of old age. It is depressing at times to look at the gloomy, darkness behind her beautiful prose. This is one reason why the book can only be read in intervals and not at one go. The author taught me a thing about life. In the end, we are all going to end up alone. So it is wise to learn to live with solitude little by little. And learn to welcome and accept old age with full embrace.
My initial read of this book proved to be difficult and I am very certain that I wouldn’t be able to finish it. It took me two weeks and only picked up the pace when I was lying sick with flu in bed. In a way, I was glad I fell sick.
Ms Brookner is adept in the description of human relationships. The plot is about the relationship between Anna and her mother, Mrs. Durrant. Anna and her doctor Mr Halliday, Vera Marsh and her son Nick and daughter Philippa. Anna and her best friend Marie France.
This is a story about growing up and growing old, about the decline and fall of old age. It is depressing at times to look at the gloomy, darkness behind her beautiful prose. This is one reason why the book can only be read in intervals and not at one go. The author taught me a thing about life. In the end, we are all going to end up alone. So it is wise to learn to live with solitude little by little. And learn to welcome and accept old age with full embrace.
November 4, 2017
Anna Durrant has apparently disappeared, and people are suddenly concerned about what could have happened. Most of this book, however, is about the past year or so, from several points of view, and we learn not only Anna's story (although, to be honest, the disappearance remains mysterious until the very end), but also those of several others. Bear in mind this is NOT a mystery novel but a literary novel and you aren't going to find any crazy twists, violence, detectives or action; if that's what you're looking for, this won't be your cup of tea. But you will find some excellent literary writing that covers what is not a particularly happy novel without that oppressive heaviness so often found in these sorts of novels.
This was not a book I expected to rate this highly, given that I am not keen on this type of plot any more and particularly for the first chapter or so. That said, it is so exquisitely written and not drearily heavy so that I couldn't rate it less. This is my first time reading one of Brookner's novel, but I plan on reading another.
This was not a book I expected to rate this highly, given that I am not keen on this type of plot any more and particularly for the first chapter or so. That said, it is so exquisitely written and not drearily heavy so that I couldn't rate it less. This is my first time reading one of Brookner's novel, but I plan on reading another.
December 24, 2023
Poignant book about loneliness, although the ending felt very sudden
May 30, 2017
Fraud was my introduction to Brookner. I had no idea what to expect and I was pleasantly surprised. It’s Richard-Yates-misery meets Elizabeth-Taylor-wit.
The story is relatively simple – Anna Durrant, an insular woman of a ‘certain age’ (in other words, a spinster) disappears from her London flat, and it takes months for anyone to notice. The circumstances around Anna’s disappearance are reconstructed through the eyes of her acquaintances, notably Mrs Vera Marsh, the opinionated, self-centered friend of Anna’s late mother, and Dr. Halliday, the only man to have ever captured Anna’s attention. Of Anna, Vera says, “She saw no reason to upset herself on Anna’s account and yet Anna, she had to acknowledge, was an upsetting person. All that forbearance…”
There’s something delightfully old-fashioned and formal in Brookner’s prose – it’s all jolly good manners and serviceable tweeds –
“Love was an embarrassment unless crowned by a marriage.”
And while the spinster might be an easy target, Brookner delicately examines the various kinds of loneliness people face, particularly exploring the idea of feeling lonely despite being surrounded by others. She also addresses some major themes – duty, ageing, mortality, solitude – and yet it’s far less depressing than it sounds. Anna’s snarky thoughts; Dr. Halliday’s Freudian observations about his frivolous wife and her father; and Vera’s stubbornness in the face of old age, is sharp and witty.
3.5/5 I’ll be certainly reading more Brookner.
The story is relatively simple – Anna Durrant, an insular woman of a ‘certain age’ (in other words, a spinster) disappears from her London flat, and it takes months for anyone to notice. The circumstances around Anna’s disappearance are reconstructed through the eyes of her acquaintances, notably Mrs Vera Marsh, the opinionated, self-centered friend of Anna’s late mother, and Dr. Halliday, the only man to have ever captured Anna’s attention. Of Anna, Vera says, “She saw no reason to upset herself on Anna’s account and yet Anna, she had to acknowledge, was an upsetting person. All that forbearance…”
There’s something delightfully old-fashioned and formal in Brookner’s prose – it’s all jolly good manners and serviceable tweeds –
“Love was an embarrassment unless crowned by a marriage.”
And while the spinster might be an easy target, Brookner delicately examines the various kinds of loneliness people face, particularly exploring the idea of feeling lonely despite being surrounded by others. She also addresses some major themes – duty, ageing, mortality, solitude – and yet it’s far less depressing than it sounds. Anna’s snarky thoughts; Dr. Halliday’s Freudian observations about his frivolous wife and her father; and Vera’s stubbornness in the face of old age, is sharp and witty.
3.5/5 I’ll be certainly reading more Brookner.
June 27, 2015
This is my second reading of "Fraud". I originally read it when it was published back in England over 20 years ago when I was in my twenties, and although I found it enjoyable then, it resonates so much more now. I do find that regardless of the individual novel, Brookner has the ability to capture perfectly the tone of those who lead a wholly insular life. Her fiction is not for everyone. I suspect many people would find it terribly dull and plodding but I happen to love her writing. To me it is like a fine bone china tea cup that is perfectly formed and beautifully fragile.
March 7, 2021
"She wanted a witness to herself, as she existed in this place, at this time."
April 16, 2019
This was chosen to try a new author and also as a respite from the exhausting verbosity of some other titles. Seriously, not enough credit is being given to the authors who properly utilize the economy of language. This book is quite slender, much like its protagonist, a quiet and reserved middle aged woman who one day simply disappears from her quiet and reserved life. To find out where Anna Durrant vanished to, you have to read the book, but despite the premise it is in no way a thriller. In fact it is something of its opposite, a very sedate slow and meditative contemplation of a certain sort of life. Which it to say there is almost no actual occurrences within these pages, most of the narrative is driven by character writing and development. A brief conversation can be analyzed (or even micro analyzed) minutely from both sides extensively. It is definitely a work of psychological fiction in a way that it offers its readers a front and center stage into the minds of others. No small task and meticulously rendered one at that. So it is in this fashion that you’ll get to know Anna Durrant and those around her. At 50 Ms. Durrant has spent her life taking care of her mother and, now that her mother’s passed away, Anna is left to her own devices and quite financially comfortably so, but having led a thoroughly sheltered and limited life, she isn’t quite sure what to do with herself. A life spent in service of others, altering one’s own personality to suit the needs of those around her…well, it’s a sort of fraud, isn’t it. So it’s that sort of a book, leisurely paced contemplation of self discovery. A very British one at that. And a very timeless one. Not just Anna’s life (which is admittedly not a very modern one), but the general tone and the style of writing, it read like a novel from a different era. And not just because it was from the 90s, but because it can be any 90s. In fact, any time modern (for the time) technology made an appearance, it was jarring. Seems like this is a certain style of British fiction and in the right mood, it can be lovely. I wouldn’t be opposed to reading more of author’s work based on this novel, but yeah, you’ have to be in the mood for it. The psychological observations are clever and interesting, but the elegance of the language here is the absolute star of the show.
January 1, 2025
[3.5] Last read of the year, and I found me another author to admire.
'Fraud' is primarily a character study on a spinster—and this is right up my alley, as the eldest daughter in a Filipino household (I can never shut up about this fact about myself it seems.)
The premise is executed through multiple perspectives, that of a lonely old widower, an unhappy married man, a recently divorced one, and Anna Durrant, the spinster herself, among many others.
I see the value in this choice of POV, since it examines other marital categories through each character, apart from further dissecting Anna's life to the reader.
This approach, however, limits the introspections and growth of Anna (the main character, I assume.) Thus, a more accurate synopsis for Fraud: a study of people in marital categories, with a spinster as the common thread. While still intriguing, I only connected with Anna and didn't care much for the others. I also wish the story ended on a conclusive note, but it focused solely on the character study and disregarded the progression of everything else.
Overall, a read I can recommend to those interested, and even more to those who can relate to Anna.
'Fraud' is primarily a character study on a spinster—and this is right up my alley, as the eldest daughter in a Filipino household (I can never shut up about this fact about myself it seems.)
The premise is executed through multiple perspectives, that of a lonely old widower, an unhappy married man, a recently divorced one, and Anna Durrant, the spinster herself, among many others.
I see the value in this choice of POV, since it examines other marital categories through each character, apart from further dissecting Anna's life to the reader.
This approach, however, limits the introspections and growth of Anna (the main character, I assume.) Thus, a more accurate synopsis for Fraud: a study of people in marital categories, with a spinster as the common thread. While still intriguing, I only connected with Anna and didn't care much for the others. I also wish the story ended on a conclusive note, but it focused solely on the character study and disregarded the progression of everything else.
Overall, a read I can recommend to those interested, and even more to those who can relate to Anna.
December 10, 2025
3.5 stars
I’ve just started a Brookner reading project with my book club. I have bought an assortment of old novellas from charity shops and over the next year we will work through them and then chose a favourite.
Fraud was an interesting study of how others can dictate our actions and how our perceptions of others can be manipulated by appearance. Not a lot actually happens in this novel but there are a lot of ideas.
I’ve just started a Brookner reading project with my book club. I have bought an assortment of old novellas from charity shops and over the next year we will work through them and then chose a favourite.
Fraud was an interesting study of how others can dictate our actions and how our perceptions of others can be manipulated by appearance. Not a lot actually happens in this novel but there are a lot of ideas.
March 5, 2022
I am struck dumb with admiration for this wonderful writer. Her novels always make me feel I understand myself and other people so much better and the poignancy that underlies all our lives.
June 29, 2013
Today is bleak and wintery and I'm home alone, so it seemed like an appropriate setting to read an Anita Brookner novel. I first discovered Brookner years ago when I was living alone in a tiny flat. I was unemployed at the time and the days were long and empty. I could relate to her heroines who exist on the margins of society. Since then Brookner's books have held a perverse fascination for me, although I can't say I've ever actually enjoyed any of them. It's hard to enjoy reading about sad, lonely people with very limited horizons.
Fraud is no different from any of Brookner's other novels I've read. The main character, Anna Durrant, has devoted her life to caring for her ailing mother and she's at loss after her mother's death. Now in her early fifties, she's never worked or had a serious relationship and has few friends or interests. The few people she does know pity her or look on her with contempt. The book is set in the recent past, yet the characters belong in the nineteenth century. For example there is an understanding between Anna and the family doctor, Halliday, that at one time he was seriously considering her as a marriage prospect, despite the fact that they've never spoken about anything beyond her mother's illness or been on a single date!
In true Brookner style Halliday is stolen away by a flashy younger woman who uses her feminine wiles to entrap him. That's the big problem I have with Brookner's books - women are divided into superficial bimbos who get the man and intelligent, plain women who lose out. There's a real puritanical hostility towards sex, and relationships between men and women are portrayed in a very simplistic way. Halliday realises too late that he has been led astray and that he is stuck in a miserable marriage. He yearns for a solid, decent woman like Anna who reminds him of his mother.
Men don't fare much better than women in the book. They are either too weak to resist a predatory woman, or they're predators themselves, out to ensnare needy women like Anna's mother who are also undone by their desire. Ironically the central idea that comes across so strongly in this book and others by Brookner is that a woman is nothing without a man. Being a wife and mother are seen as the ultimate achievements in life, and women who fail to win a mate and reproduce are destined to be social outcasts. There's no possibility of a fulfilling career or other interests to overcome their loneliness and isolation. Her heroines wallow in their misery while doing nothing to help themselves. I wanted to shake Anna and tell her to get a job or do volunteer work if she was so desperate to be useful, instead of wasting her life on people like Mrs Marsh who clearly dislike her but are happy to use her whenever they need something. She is independently wealthy and can live wherever she wants to, but instead spends her time obsessing over insignificant people, analysing their every conversation and gesture.
Mrs Marsh is also a pathetic character who only comes to life when her adult son comes down with the flu and she finally has a man to look after. She makes no bones about the fact that she favours him above her daughter, and makes much more of an effort when he visits because he's a MAN. She supposedly worked for 20 years as a magistrate, which I think is Brookner's attempt to modernise the book by having a 'career woman' but she never mentions anything about her work, and was apparently still at home to kiss her husband goodbye every morning and greet him when he got home! When reading the obituaries she notes that occasionally she came across some of her husband's colleagues names, not her own colleagues, which I thought was telling.
It's generally accepted that Brookner's novels are based on her own experiences as a spinster who cared for her elderly parents until their deaths. She lives alone, is notoriously antisocial and has acknowledged her own feelings of loneliness. What you could never guess from reading her books is that she was the first woman to hold the Slade profesorship at Cambridge university. This very successful career in the public world finds no echo in her books which are set in very claustrophobic private worlds of repressed women. I get the impression that despite her achievements she sees herself as a failure for never marrying and this is explored through her heroines. At the end of Fraud Anna does find some backbone but there was no real build-up or character development leading to this moment so it seemed inauthentic. Brooker also gives nod towards feminism right at the end in the form of a female doctor at the surgery who doesn't confirm to her usual virgin/whore stereotypes and may even be a lesbian but it was too little too late for me.
Fraud is no different from any of Brookner's other novels I've read. The main character, Anna Durrant, has devoted her life to caring for her ailing mother and she's at loss after her mother's death. Now in her early fifties, she's never worked or had a serious relationship and has few friends or interests. The few people she does know pity her or look on her with contempt. The book is set in the recent past, yet the characters belong in the nineteenth century. For example there is an understanding between Anna and the family doctor, Halliday, that at one time he was seriously considering her as a marriage prospect, despite the fact that they've never spoken about anything beyond her mother's illness or been on a single date!
In true Brookner style Halliday is stolen away by a flashy younger woman who uses her feminine wiles to entrap him. That's the big problem I have with Brookner's books - women are divided into superficial bimbos who get the man and intelligent, plain women who lose out. There's a real puritanical hostility towards sex, and relationships between men and women are portrayed in a very simplistic way. Halliday realises too late that he has been led astray and that he is stuck in a miserable marriage. He yearns for a solid, decent woman like Anna who reminds him of his mother.
Men don't fare much better than women in the book. They are either too weak to resist a predatory woman, or they're predators themselves, out to ensnare needy women like Anna's mother who are also undone by their desire. Ironically the central idea that comes across so strongly in this book and others by Brookner is that a woman is nothing without a man. Being a wife and mother are seen as the ultimate achievements in life, and women who fail to win a mate and reproduce are destined to be social outcasts. There's no possibility of a fulfilling career or other interests to overcome their loneliness and isolation. Her heroines wallow in their misery while doing nothing to help themselves. I wanted to shake Anna and tell her to get a job or do volunteer work if she was so desperate to be useful, instead of wasting her life on people like Mrs Marsh who clearly dislike her but are happy to use her whenever they need something. She is independently wealthy and can live wherever she wants to, but instead spends her time obsessing over insignificant people, analysing their every conversation and gesture.
Mrs Marsh is also a pathetic character who only comes to life when her adult son comes down with the flu and she finally has a man to look after. She makes no bones about the fact that she favours him above her daughter, and makes much more of an effort when he visits because he's a MAN. She supposedly worked for 20 years as a magistrate, which I think is Brookner's attempt to modernise the book by having a 'career woman' but she never mentions anything about her work, and was apparently still at home to kiss her husband goodbye every morning and greet him when he got home! When reading the obituaries she notes that occasionally she came across some of her husband's colleagues names, not her own colleagues, which I thought was telling.
It's generally accepted that Brookner's novels are based on her own experiences as a spinster who cared for her elderly parents until their deaths. She lives alone, is notoriously antisocial and has acknowledged her own feelings of loneliness. What you could never guess from reading her books is that she was the first woman to hold the Slade profesorship at Cambridge university. This very successful career in the public world finds no echo in her books which are set in very claustrophobic private worlds of repressed women. I get the impression that despite her achievements she sees herself as a failure for never marrying and this is explored through her heroines. At the end of Fraud Anna does find some backbone but there was no real build-up or character development leading to this moment so it seemed inauthentic. Brooker also gives nod towards feminism right at the end in the form of a female doctor at the surgery who doesn't confirm to her usual virgin/whore stereotypes and may even be a lesbian but it was too little too late for me.
January 30, 2021
Well that was just perfect
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