ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates how the orphan interrogates the structure of both family and narrative and, ultimately, allows family-making to be equated with fiction-making. It argues that the male orphan adds specific qualities to these elements of the orphan plot. Novelistic rewritings include the fictional biography that Memoirs of an Unfortunate Young Nobleman, and, most canonically, a chapter in Smollett's Peregrine Pickle. The male orphan plot seems compelled to compulsively call attention to its own constructed nature, just as it must call attention to the male orphans attempt to recreate the family to construct inheritance claims. The chapter argues that the trial transcripts in the Memoirs third volume assert the Memoirs factual status by recording the trials finding that James is the legal heir to the Annesley name and estate. The empowering possibilities of fiction are further developed by the female orphan plot, as explored in the analysis of the Palmer case.
