Product Description

Set in and around the women's prison at Milbank in the 1870's , AFFINITY is an eerie and utterly compelling ghost story, a complex and intriguing literary mystery and a poignant love story with an unexpected twist in the tale. Following the death of her father, Margaret Prior has decided to pursue some 'good work' with the lady criminals of one of London's most notorious gaols. Surrounded by prisoners, murderers and common thieves, Margaret feels herself drawn to one of the prisons more unlikely inmates - the imprisoned spiritualist - Selina Dawes. Sympathetic to the plight of this innocent-seeming girl, Margaret sees herself dispensing guidance and perhaps friendship on her visits, little expecting to find herself dabbling in a twilight world of seances, shadows, unruly spirits and unseemly passions.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5606 in Books
• Published on: 2005-10-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Affinity is a tale of power and possession that Henry James himself might admire. In her first novel, Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Waters explored secrets and longing--capping off this lesbian romp with a utopian-socialist vision. Her intricate follow-up is just as sensual but infinitely darker, its moral more difficult to descry. Its stylistic and psychological rewards, however, are visible at every turn, the author's persuasive imagination matched by her gift for storytelling.

In late September 1874, Margaret Prior makes her way through the pentagons of London's Millbank Prison, a place of fearful symmetry and endless corridors. This plain woman on the verge of 30 has come to comfort those behind bars, several of whom Waters brings to instant, sad life. And our lady visitor plans to take her role seriously, having recovered from two years of nervous indolence in her family's Chelsea house. One person, however, makes her job a passion. Opening an inspection slit (or "eye" as these devices are known), Margaret hears "a perfect sigh, like a sigh in a story". Peering inward, she's confronted by the most erotic of visions--a woman turned towards the sun, caressing her cheek with a forbidden violet: "As I watched her, she put the flower to her lips, and breathed upon it, and the purple of the petals gave a quiver and seemed to glow..."

The medium Selina Dawes may indeed have the face of a Crivelli angel, but she is in prison for fraud and assault. Suffice to say that the first full encounter between these two very different women is enthralling. "You think spiritualism a kind of fancy," Selina riddles. "Doesn't it seem to you, now that you are here, that anything might be real, since Millbank is?" And soon enough Margaret receives several viable signs of the supernatural: a locket disappears from her room, flowers mysteriously appear and her dazzling friend knows everything about her. Strangest of all, Selina seems to love her.

As Margaret records her weekly forays, her own past comes into focus, notably her plans to travel to Italy with her first love (who is now her sister-in-law). But her current journal, she convinces herself, is to be very different from her last one, which "took as long to burn as human hearts, they say, do take". Meanwhile, Waters offers a narrative two-for-one, placing Margaret's diary cheek by jowl with Selina's chronicle of her pre-Millbank existence. This dispassionate, staccato record initially suggests that we can separate truth from desire. Or can we? What Waters' haunting creation leaves us with is a more painful reality--that knowledge and belief are entirely different things. --Kerry Fried, Amazon.com

Review
'Indeed, this is such a brilliant writer that her readers would believe anything she told them' A.N. WILSON, D. MAIL ** 'Spooky, spellbinding, exquisitely written ... I do believe Waters is on the way to becoming a major literary star' VAL HENNESSY ** 'A work of intense and atmospheric imagination ... Sarah Waters is ... a kind of feminist Dickens' TELEGRAPH 'Sexy, spooky, stylish, AFFINITY is a wonderful book from any perspective' G. FODEN, GUARDIAN

This is the second novel by Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Sarah Waters. Set in Victorian London, it tells the sad and dark tale of Margaret Prior as she becomes ensnared by the spiritualist Selina Dawes. The pair meet when, in an attempt to shake off the grief of her father's death and to escape the shackles of bourgeois society, Margaret decides to become a Lady Visitor at Millbank prison. She is immediately drawn to the cell of Selina, who, over the course of her visits, winds her in like a fish on a hook, with a heady mix of spiritualism and eroticism. Tokens such as a spray of orange blossom and a tress of Selina's hair begin to arrive in Margaret's bedroom, convincing her that she is indeed Selina's 'affinity' and that by allowing her to take over her body, and thereby escape, they can begin a new life together on the Continent. This is a beautifully written novel, with its evocative descriptions of smog-bound London and the Thames as it seeps into the creaking Kafkaesque edifice of Millbank. These passages are counter-balanced by Margaret's beautifully stilted prose as she recounts the misery of her stifling and repressed life as a Victorian spinster. Such is the bewitching quality of Waters's writing that we, like Margaret, are taken in and it comes as a rude shock to learn that Selinas scheme is nothing more than an elaborate hoax to facilitate her own escape. Underlying this haunting tale is an interesting social commentary on the status of women in Victorian society and a sensitive study of female sexuality. We are constantly made aware of the inferior position occupied by women of the time, and throughout there are veiled references to Margaret's lesbian tendencies as she tries to stifle memories of a previous relationship with her sister-in-law while at the same time succumbing to Selina's seductive charms. This is a finely crafted and absorbing novel which has the reader spellbound from the start by its eerie sensuality. (Kirkus UK)

This ambitious second novel, a richly detailed exploration of the mysterious affinity that appears to unite two lonely women, boldly extends the range of the British writer (Tipping the Velvet, 1999). The dominant world is London's Millbank Women's Prison, to which highborn Margaret Prior comes in 1874, as a Lady Visitor offering solace and companionship to Millbank's wretched inhabitants. This is intended as therapy, for Margaret has recently attempted suicidean act presumed to stem from the recent death of her father (a respected Renaissance scholar), but is in fact connected to a disappointment in love. At Millbank, Margaret is drawn to the vibrant figure of Selina Dawes, a spirit medium blamed for the death of a client during a sance. The developing closeness between the two women intensified by evidence that Selina is telepathically sending tokens of her affection to Margaret's homeis juxtaposed with flashback scenes that gradually disclose the truth about Selina's supposed powers (especially as embodied in the visitant she claims is her collaborator, seductive Peter Quickin a knowing nod to Henry James's The Turn of the Screw). Waters has researched her mood-drenched Victorian gothic quite impressively (down to such convincing minutiae as this injunction to search all prison visitors: Infants may be taught to pass on blades, in their very kisses). And the long denouement, in which Margaret, having risked everything, awaits the fulfillment of Selina's promise that stone walls do not a prison make (You need only want me, and I will come), grates exquisitely on the reader's nerves, right up to its brilliant climax in the revelatory image of a mud-brown gown . . . and a maids black frock . . . tangled together, like sleeping lovers. Waters has found a superb metaphor for the love that dares not speak its name, and developed it with remarkable ingenuity and power: another stunning performance by a young writer whose promise seems just about unlimited. (Kirkus Reviews)

VAL HENNESSY
'Spooky, spellbinding, exquisitely written ... I do believe Waters is on the way to becoming a major literary star'

Customer Reviews

she does it again!
what a brilliant story, i love how gripping these stories are, i was completely fooled throughout the story and even went home early from the pub to read the final chapters!don't tell my friends though!lol

can't wait to read the night watch, keep them coming sarah!

atmospheric
The setting of the story in the fog and snow of london all add to the chilling atmosphere of this novel. I found the theme of spiritualism intriguing and the whole story compelling however I have to agree with some of the other reviews - Fingersmith is better.

Poor, disappointing ending
While I enjoyed most of the experience of reading this book, the ending was horrible. To me, it made reading it a complete waste of time. It's depressing as hell too. I picked this up because I enjoyed Fingersmith but this is simply not as good.