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It provides a great day-in-the-life picture. I borrowed this book from the library because it is part of the "core curriculum" recommended by E.D. Hirsch.
My 6 year old daughter now has a very concrete basis for comparing her own life to what it might have been at another time. It's inspiring and fun. And a great teaching tool (as mentioned in the previous review.)
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Waters has singlehandedly reinvented--no, no, she transcends--lesbian fiction, a genre that up to now has consisted almost exclusively of embarrassing, dim, dismal, dumbed-down dreck. Her writing is literary, her plots are engrossing, her feel for time and place is flawless, and sheesh, she even pulls off incredibly sexy sex scenes that are beautiful, believable, move the story forward and leave the reader's heart pounding.
Fingersmith is breathtaking. Waters is an awesome talent. Goddamn. She does us lesbians proud.
"Fingersmith" at more than 500 pages long may be overwritten but it is superbly crafted and a truly compelling read. Sure, there's drama, mystery, suspense and great characterisation but it isn't the fearsome mindbender the blurbs make it out to be. After you have recovered from the jaw dropping shock that Waters has laid in store for you at the close of the first segment, the other twists and turns that ensue aren't that difficult to follow. In fact, they're fairly predictable but that's a compliment, not a criticism, because it shows Waters cares more about her story's integrity than delivering cheap shocks. By the time you get to the end of it, our heroines, Sue and Maud, must seem like two peas in a pod or spiritual twins from opposite sides of the track. While Waters has been labelled a lesbian fiction writer, she's careful to keep her touch light in order not to alienate the general reading public.
"Fingersmith" is one of the best novels this season. It deserves and is destined for the widest readership possible. Highly recommended.
The story takes you from the depths of despair to the heights of happiness & includes great tragedy, sadness & also love. But it doesn't stop there as Sarah Waters takes you through virtually every emotion possible & boy do you feel them. Too say anymore about the plot would be to destroy the immense enjoyment I experienced reading this book, for other people who are yet to read it. However I simply couldn't write this review & not say that this book also has the greatest plot twists I believe ever written. You just don't see them coming & they leave you astounded.
Sarah Waters is undoubtedly the best new author around & this book should definitely have won the 2002 Booker Prize in Britain, for which it was nominated. She has the incredible talent of describing things, places or circumstances just enough, that your mind fills in the blanks & makes you believe you are there eperiencing the story, not reading it. You can almost see the smog hanging overhead, hear the chiming of the clock or feel the chracters emotions in moments of sadness or fear.
I read this entire book (548 pages) in 5 days staying up till I almost fell asleep because you just can't put it down. I just had to know if a character was going to avoid a desperately horrible fate or was caught by one of the twists. I also agree with an earlier reviewer who said finishing this book isn't the end, it does affect you long after you've read it. Sarah Waters description is so good, that it gives you an idea of just how far families were willing to go in Victorian times to deal with their female relatives who they considered were ruined or had shamed them or had a mysteriously illness that they didn't understand, so it must be madness.
If you haven't read this book yet, get out there & read it now, for I would have given it a 10 out of 5 if possible.
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In the early 1960's, Harold Robbin's potboiler, THE CARPETBAGGERS, was a source of sexual information, and then some. In much the same way, Waters is fearless as she wades through the lesbian adventures of Victorian England. Nan King propels the reader through an emotional rollercoaster as she embarks upon a career as a music hall entertainer in drag, as well as behind the closed doors of the mansions of wealth and privilege (read: privacy), all with the intensity of new romance and broken hearts. What can I say? I was blushing through most of the book...and I did pass it on to other friends of whatever sexual orientation.
I am a big "Oliver" fan, so life in Victorian Era England holds a special interest to me. To read about the lesbian lifestyle of that era was amazing. The author brought the era and the lifestyle to life for me.
I was surprised when I found myself feeling rather unsympathetic towards the main character (Nancy) mid-way through the book. I don't remember ever finishing a book in which I felt unsympathetic towards the main character. While I felt unsympathetic towards Nancy, I still cared for her. I found that very surprising. Yes, I cared very much for Nancy.
This was a wonderful novel. I had to finish it in only two sittings. Then promptly went on-line to purchase Sarah Walters two other books.
I was surprised by some reviews that felt disappointed with the book. However, based on their reviews, I believe they were looking for something that was not there. I didn't find the hot explicit sex scenes that were indicated. That's not to say there wasn't sex, but it was primarily a book about a character and her personal growth. It is not a hot/steamy novel. Just a very good, complex and complete novel.
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The strength of this novel rests on Waters' gorgeous use of prose and her ability to take the reader deep within the psyche of her characters. We are given a glimpse into the life and mindset of a woman who will never fully realize her potential because of the constraints placed upon her by the society in which she lives. Her one attempt at breaking free of societal constraints results in a catastrophic breakdown from which she has yet to completely recover. As a result, she forms a very deep attachment to Selena Dawes with disastrous consequences.
Unfortunately, the very strengths of this novel also tend to be it's worst flaws. The over-reliance on flowery prose gives this work the appearance of being a 352 page poem that lacks the structure of a well organized novel. As well, the author's habit of going back and forth in time leaves the reader feeling more than a little confused and frustrated. Despite these flaws, Affinity is a beautifully written novel that revels in the art of language and atmosphere.
After reading Sarah Waters' wonderfully written book FINGERSMITH, I had to get a hold of her other two novels TIPPING THE VELVET and AFFINITY. As with FINGERSMITH, I came away from AFFINITY with a very satisfied feeling of having read yet another great book. AFFINITY is a complex story set in Victorian England about a young woman, Margaret Prior, who has been suffering from bouts of depression and loneliness. She has just suffered from a breakdown shortly after her father's death, and because of a suicide attempt, her mother, with the hopes of making a full recovery keeps her secluded in the house and administered with medications.
When it is suggested that Margaret visit the local woman's gaol (prison) as a form of therapy, she agrees and begins her frequent visits. She is known as a "lady visitor", one of many that come to the prisons to read and talk to the prisoners as a form of goodwill and charity. Soon she finds herself meeting and conversing with the various women that are being held in this gaol. She meets women from all walks of life and sees the horrible conditions in which they now live. And then she meets Selina Dawes. Margaret takes extra notice of this quiet sad woman. The reader immediately knows that she finds Selina special, and soon she becomes obsessed with the prisoner, and her story. It is all she can think of day and night. It becomes her life.
Selina Dawes is a medium, who is able to talk to the dead and perform acts of the paranormal. She is in prison due to the death of a friend of hers, Mrs. Brink, who allowed Selina to live with her as she helped Mrs. Brink contact the netherworld. Mrs. Brink died during one of Selina's paranormal sessions, and is being charged for assault and fraud. Learning about Selina's "crime", Margaret is in total sympathy with Selina and knows that Selina is in prison for a crime she did not commit, and soon the two become close.
The viewpoints of both women are seen through the journals of each of them respectively. Selina's journal-entries lead to the day of the supposed crime, while Margaret's journal takes us through the present story. And, as the book becomes more and more complicated, the journals begin to reveal more and more secret thoughts of these two women. The ending, as with FINGERSMITH, will totally shock the reader. Sarah Waters is the master of the double-twisted plot device, and although the story started on a slow note, the pace of the book picked up and did not let up until the very last page. Beautifully written with subtle undertones of lesbianism, this reviewer highly recommends AFFINITY.
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The story is rather simple; it is about a man called "Daredevil Dick" who is wrongly arrested for killing his rich uncle. Despite the strong belief of Mr. Peters (who is to play the detective role) that Richard is innocent, his plea is ignored.
But that is only the beginning of the gripping story, which goes between a muddy town of Slopperton and fashoionable society of Paris. The story is too improbable but thankfully always moving on, providing many dramatic and often humorous moments about the fate of Richard and those who try to rescue him, and it culminates in the their hunt for the villain who vanished his trail from the crime scene.
The book is weak as a detective novel, so do not expect something like "The Moonstone." As I said, it is more like a melodrama, and there are countless occasions of incredible coincidences. But that is one of the conventions you can find in this kind of popular novels intended for commercial purpose. It is interesting for us to see that Braddon does not still find her own voice; her style in this book is a strange concoction of Dickens and melodrama. Read the opening chapter and you instantly recognize the influence of Dickensian sentences about the rainy London in "Bleak House."
The novel itself (which was first published as "Three Times Dead" and later revised and retitled as the present one) is not as good as her works like "Lady Audley's Secret" and others, its flaws being too palpable. Still, if you like her novels or these Victorian or 19th century thriller -- like Eugene Sue's novels -- you might be interested in the book as I was.
This modern library edition has Sarah Waters' introduction (which I found not so impressive), but more remarkable thing about it is that it has also the afterword and notes by acclaimed Victorian scholar Chris Willis. The notes (32 pages) are extensive and helpful, but more helpful is her afterword, which puts Braddon in context of the history of detective fiction. Much more informative than obligatory "further reading" list.
And the book also has the reprint of Braddon's own memoir titled "My First Novel" published in 1893. This short account by her own pen does not reveal much about the book or herself, but it has several clear-cut illustrations of her house in Richmond.
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My only regret is that I read this volume before the first one in the series, The Vanished Child. Although I plan to go back and read it now, I fear Knowledge of Water gives away too many of the surprises from the first novel.