Robin Pritchard

The Plagiarist Robin Pritchard

The novel opens with the mysterious death of a cyclist, a biology graduate of the fictitious UNA [University of North Anglia], and immediately cuts to a student residential block at that same university with the awakening, as if from a deep sleep, of the Fresher, Jack Goodwin. Jack, or Jude as he now seems to be called, causes immediate confusion, not only to one of his fellow new students Ferris, but also to his faithful girlfriend Ann who, a year ahead of him, has been waiting for him to join her. Not only does Jude have no memory of Ann but none of his epilepsy either. In fact Jude proves to be a complete contrast to Jack and someone with unpleasant ambitions towards the young women he meets. A new plagiarism unit has opened at the university headed by Dr. Pam Gibbs. She has a daughter at the university, Beatrice Levenson. As the work of the department begins to bite Pam has an unpleasant experience when her department finds its first genuine plagiarist in Jude. She discovers he has been plagiarising an old lover of hers, Dr John Thoms, the unknowing father of Beatrice, who disappeared on completing his PhD whilst she was taking her own finals eighteen years before. As the novel progresses we become steeped in the culture of a 2005 university and the intense relationships between the students as they experience their first freedoms to live and discover themselves away from home. The mystery deepens as the plagiarism unit copies more and more historical student material into its database and finds a bizarre repetition of the plagiarism of Dr Thoms on a three year cycle. Previous former students seem to have little memory, or suffered breakdowns, through their own time at university. Several of them have had their lives ruined. Unknown to Pam at the time, the mysterious death of the cyclist recorded at the beginning of the novel will also fit this pattern. At the same time Jude is wreaking a trail of emotional damage with his fellow female students. His epilepsy is also causing a strange consequence: when he suffers a petit mal it is as if the older, gentler Jack reappears. All the consequences are heightened when Pam begins an illicit affair with the playboy Jude and all is brought to a catastrophic consequence when she discovers he is also dating her daughter Beatrice and trying to seduce her. Throughout the novel the bizarre reappearances of Jack become stronger and more definite which raises new hopes in Ann. Jack tells her he can come back permanently if only she will help him. We begin to see the possibility - perhaps maybe - that the true plagiarism is not to do with the written word but with Dr Thoms plagiarising the lives of students. The novel ends when Jack becomes strong enough to force Jude's hand and, taking an enormous risk, he drowns himself in the hope that only one of them will survive - and it will be him.