Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4597 in Books
• Published on: 2003-02-03
• Binding: Paperback
• 560 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
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". Oliver Twist (which is mentioned on the opening page), The Woman in White and The Prince and the Pauper all exert an influence on it but none overawe. Like Peter Ackroyd, Waters has an uncanny gift for inventive reconstruction.

Divided into three parts, the tale is narrated by two orphaned girls whose lives are inextricably linked. It begins in a grimy thieves kitchen in Borough, South London with 17-year-old orphan Susan Trinder. She has been raised by Mrs Sucksby, a cockney Ma Baker, in a household of fingersmiths (pickpockets), coiners and burglars. One evening Richard "Gentleman" Rivers, a handsome confidence man, arrives. He has an elaborate scheme to defraud Maud Lilly, a wealthy heiress. If Sue will help him she'll get a share of the "shine". Duly installed in the Lillys' country house as Maud's maid, Sue finds that her mistress is virtually a prisoner. Maud's eccentric Uncle Christopher, an obsessive collector of erotica (loosely modelled on Henry Spenser Ashbee) controls every aspect of her life. Slowly a curious intimacy develops between the two girls and as Gentleman's plans take shape, Sue begins to have doubts. The scheme is finally hatched but as Maud commences her narrative it suddenly becomes more than a tad difficult to tell quite who has double-crossed who. Waters' 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 mesmerising. 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

TELEGRAPH
`A worthy, innovative, even subversive successor to the doorstoppers of Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins'

Docklands and City of London Recorder
"Buy it or borrow it - but do yourself a favour, and read it."

Customer Reviews

Awful tripe!
I hated this book, I resented the time I took to read it when I could havebeen reading something else, something better.
It has a massively obvious plot 'twist' that you could see coming a mile away, the setting was dreary and miserable, the plot boring and the characters were supposed to be narrating different parts of the book but neither had a distinctive voice.
To compare it to Dickens is sloppy and untrue, you actually care about what happens to his characters-Nancy, Little Dorrit, Edwin Drood anyone?-but these were just distasteful and the whole experience left a nasty taste in my mouth.
It seems Ms Waters had invented 'post-modern-Victorian -lesbian -porn' as
a genre of her own and she is welcome to it.
I have absolutely no problems with homosexual characters,such as by Patricia Highsmith etc, but I just feltt this book was smug, self satisfied and drum banging and would not have chosen to read this had it not been our bookclub choice in our local library.
And it seems all her other books are in the same vein.

So good, you need to read it twice.

This is the quasi-Dickensian story of two girls, two proud lilies, ensnared in briar thorns. Girls treated like rare books whose covers hide a multitude of neatly-catalogued sins - a pair of complementary titles, indeed. The plot is deep, dark, twisting and treacherous, like the river that runs through it.

This novel is so wonderfully-constructed it needs to be read twice to fully-appreciate it, there are so many themes and details to absorb.

Quite remarkable
This was one of the most well written, well-constructed stories I've ever read. Slow building but packing quite a punch with a complex web of a plot so neatly and intricately woven, it was amazing. I enjoyed it more than Affinity (also worth a read) and thought Waters' attention to detail regarding the characters and their surroundings was superb. The skill with which she fleshed out this story is extraordinary - this is clearly a writer with immense talent. It was wonderful - gripping, touching, just perfect.