In 2002 Sarah Waters (Sarah Waters | Hachette UK) offered us Fingersmith, a neo-Victorian novel. The setting is London, 1862. Sue Trinder, orphaned at birth, grows up among petty thieves – ‘fingersmiths’ – under the rough but loving care of Mrs Sucksby and her ‘family’. But from the moment she draws breath, Sue’s fate is linked to that of another orphan growing up in a gloomy mansion not too many miles away.
The story is recognisably indebted to The Woman in White (1860) by Wilkie Collins. In place of upright characters such as Walter Hartwright, we meet with rogues, criminals and perverts. The sensationalist techniques of storytelling are deployed with a skill equal to Collins.
Into Mrs Sucksby’s domain arrives—Gentleman, an elegant con man, who carries with him an enticing proposition for Sue: If she wins a position as the maid to Maud Lilly, a naïve 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 disposed of—passed off as mad, and made to live out the rest of her days in a lunatic asylum.
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 cares for Maud Lilly in unexpected ways. However, no one and nothing is as it seems in this Dickensian novel of thrills and reversals.
The novel is rich in detail from mid-nineteenth century London. A source for this detail is Henry Mayhew’s London Labour and the London Poor. (London Labour and the London Poor – Wikipedia) We learn, for example, about the technique of ‘dognapping’. Bitches on heat would be walked around the streets to lure prized dogs away from their owners, the dogs then being ransomed before return.
This is a thoroughly enjoyable historical thriller.
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Shortlisted for The Booker Prize and The Women’s Prize for Fiction
Fingersmith received a crop of enthusiastic plaudits:
‘Totally immersive with brilliantly drawn characters… a page-turning thriller while managing to be a tender love story’ ― Adam Kay
‘Intensely atmospheric, impeccably paced, and cunningly structured, this is that rarity in contemporary fiction: a deeply serious novel that is also a thumping great read’ — Douglas Kennedy ― Mail on Sunday
‘There are always novels that you envy people for not having read yet, for the pleasure they still have to come. Well, this is one. Long, dark, twisted and satisfying, it’s a fabulous piece of writing… An unforgettable experience’ — Julie Myerson ― Guardian
‘One of the best twists of any book, one that lifts the novel from a brilliant piece of modern Victoriana to something altogether more original and daring… Fingersmith, like so many great books, calls into question our desire to fit novels into restrictive boxes… If you like a great story, brilliantly told, you’ll love this book’ — Laura Shepherd-Robinson ― The Times
‘A chilling, ingenious erotic thriller – unputdownable’ ― Sunday Express
She distils a slice of London Victoriana, involving pickpockets, orphans and identity, into a fantastic plot and handles the story so well that you just can’t wait to get to the end ― Tracy Chevalier
‘High spirited and utterly compelling’ — Robert McCrum ― Observer
‘Serious entertainment… One of the most startling plot twists you’ll ever read’ — Nick Hornby ― The Times
A thrillerish plot, fast-moving with umpteen cunning twists, it is inhabited by richly human characters whose fortunes instantly engage the reader ― Sunday Telegraph
‘Fingersmith‘s tight and intricate plotting and full-flavour characters follow in a fine tradition of gothic storytelling, full of love, villains and intrigue’ — Jane Perry ― Observer
‘This disquietingly twisted tale will engross’ — Isobel Montgomery ― Guardian
‘Deliciously brazen… A smart and seductive enchantment’ ― Los Angeles Times
‘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’ ― Travis Elborough
‘Oliver Twist with a twist… Waters spins an absorbing tale that withholds as much as it discloses… A pulsating story’ ― New York Times Book Review
‘Superb storytelling. Fingersmith is gripping; so suspenseful and twisting is the plot that for the last 250 pages, I read at breakneck speed’ ― USA Today
‘A deftly plotted thriller… absorbing and elegant’ ― Entertainment Weekly
‘A marvelous pleasure… Waters’s noted attention to historical detail and her beautifully sensitive dialogue help to anchor the force-five plot twisters’ ― Washington Post
‘Calls to mind the feverishly gloomy haunts of Charlotte and Emily Bronte… Elaborate and satisfying’ ― Seattle Times
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560 pages in Virago
First published 2002
ISBN-13 : 978-0349018508
