Fingersmith
by Sarah Waters
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Book Summary Information
Author: Sarah WatersEdition: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2002-01
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Book Reviews of Fingersmith
Book Review: A master novelist - not just for lesbians
Summary: 5 Stars
Sarah Waters has produced yet another Victorian adventure in creating "Fingersmith".
Any explanation of the plot would betray some of the plot points and twists. I will stay away from spoiling the fun of reading through this exceptional novel.
Sarah Waters has a talent for portraying many aspects of women in a way that brings them alive in her novels. Her characters are more than mere stereotypes. Some might describe them as "flawed." Compared to T.V. heroines, perhaps they are flawed, however, a better way to describe her central characters is to say that they are multi-dimensional and believable. Many of the characters develope from backgrounds and circumstances to which all of us can relate and appreciate.
After a few plot twists, Sarah Waters' heroine finds herself to be a talented "fingersmith". A fingersmith is a Victorian term for a "pick-pocket" or thief.
From these common beginnings, much in the way of her first heroine in Tipping the Velvet: A Novel her "everywoman" heroine in "Fingersmith" encounters one adventure after another to find herself in a plot twist of intrigue involving another woman. Although this is not as as sensual as her first novel: Tipping the Velvet, "Fingersmith" provides a rich ambience of romance and tenderness between the women.
The writing is superb, with concise but fluid descriptions of 19th. Century England, and, the personalities we've come to savor from Ms. Waters.
DO see the BBC production of this engaging novel!Fingersmith
Summary of Fingersmith
Fingersmith is the third slice of engrossing lesbian Victoriana from Sarah Waters. Although lighter and more melodramatic in tone than its predecessor, Affinity, this hypnotic suspense novel is awash with all manner of gloomy Dickensian leitmotifs: pickpockets, orphans, grim prisons, lunatic asylums, "laughing villains," and, of course, "stolen fortunes and girls made out to be mad." Divided into three parts, the tale is narrated by two orphaned girls whose lives are inextricably linked. Waters's penchant for byzantine plotting can get a bit exhausting, but even at its densest moments--and remember, this is smoggy London circa 1862--it remains mesmerizing. A damning critique of Victorian moral and sexual hypocrisy, a gripping melodrama, and a love story to boot, this book ingeniously reworks some truly classic themes. --Travis Elborough, Amazon.co.ukFrom the author of the New York Times Notable Book Tipping the Velvet and the award-winning Affinity: a spellbinding, twisting tale of a great swindle, of fortunes and hearts won and lost, set in Victorian London among a family of thieves.
Sue Trinder is an orphan, left as an infant in the care of Mrs. Sucksby, a "baby farmer," who raised her with unusual tenderness, as if Sue were her own. Mrs. Sucksby's household, with its fussy babies calmed with doses of gin, also hosts a transient family of petty thieves-fingersmiths-for whom this house in the heart of a mean London slum is home.
One day, the most beloved thief of all arrives-Gentleman, a somewhat elegant con man, who carries with him an enticing proposition for Sue: If she wins a position as the maid to Maud Lilly, a na?ve gentlewoman, and aids Gentleman in her seduction, then they will all share in Maud's vast inheritance. Once the inheritance is secured, Maud will be left to live out her days in a mental hospital. With dreams of paying back the kindness of her adopted family, Sue agrees to the plan. Once in, however, Sue begins to pity her helpless mark and care for Maud Lilly in unexpected ways. . . . But no one and nothing is as it seems in this > Dickensian novel of thrills and surprises.
The New York Times Book Review has called Sarah Waters a writer of "consummate skill" and The Seattle Times has praised her work as "gripping, astute fiction that feeds the mind and the senses." Fingersmith marks a major leap forward in this young and brilliant career.
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