Affinity [Paperback]

Sarah Waters (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: See notes (1976)
• ASIN: B000SWWS1Y
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (99 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Sarah Waters is the bestselling author of Tipping the Velvet, Affinity, Fingersmith, and The Night Watch. Winner of many literary awards, she has been shortlisted for both the Man Booker and Orange Prizes. She lives in London.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

102 of 107 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Marvelous Novel, June 1, 2000

By 

P. Ducharme (Québec, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Affinity (Hardcover)

If you have read "Tipping the Velvet", you know that Sarah Waters is a talented author. In that first novel, we discovered a lesbian author able to put up some good sex scenes. So, maybe she was a great lesbian author, maybe she was a good author of erotic books (not pornographic, by the way). But can she be more than that?

I was so anxious to know for sure, that I bought "Affinity" from Amazon.co.uk in January 2001 (Sarah Waters being a english author, I was right thinking that she would be published in U.K. before being published in U.S.A.). I was not disapointed.

Although my english is not that good, I fully appreciated this novel. "Affinity" is not an erotic novel. There is love, but not sex, and the fact that the love is between two women is not the main feature. I don't want to make a complete résumé because I think it is difficult to do so without spoiling the pleasure you'll have reading it until the end.

Let's just say that this novel is about a sad young woman who desperately need to be loved, who is desperately ready to believe in love and who thinks that she had find it while visiting a prison in London, in 1874. This is not a funny or a "feeling-good" book. But Sarah Waters knows how to make you feel, smell, taste and see the life of a woman who would have live 125 years ago.

Now I know: Sarah Waters is a great author. Don't read "Affinity" because you think that it is a sex book (it is not). Don't read it because you think Sarah Waters is a lesbian. Read it because it is a great book. The best I've read in a long time. Believe me, I'll wait for her next book.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fine Writing, Great Story, August 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Affinity (Hardcover)

Waters successfully brings the Victorian era to life in this story of an emotionally vulnerable "spinster",Margaret Prior, who attempts to overcome the losses of loved ones by taking up charitable social work with the women of Millbank prison in London. Her relationship with Selina Dawes, a spiritualist imprisoned for fraud and assault, progresses from mere fascination to blind passion, and the reader is pulled along with her in her quest for love and purpose in a world which has deprived her of the opportunity to achieve either. The cold, damp and dreary setting of London and Millbank Prison is a fitting backdrop to this story of Margaret, who much like the women to whom she ministers, is herself imprisoned and nearly destroyed by the repressive social structures of her day. The book is written mostly as excerpts from Margaret's diary. Interspersed among these are brief excerpts from the diary of Selina Dawes, the spiritualist. This technique works brilliantly, because it creates more of a challenge for the reader to distinguish between the inner reality of the characters and the objective reality of the story. It also makes the ending much more dramatic. Read it, by all means. It's a bit of a slow go at first, but the build up is necessary to the progression of the story.

38 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not an easy read....thought provoking!, April 27, 2002

By 

Barbara "Queen of her castle AND her home lib... (beautiful Charleston, SC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Affinity (Hardcover)

Wow!
What a story!
The writing is excellent. I could feel the dampness of the Victorian prison. I could visualize the dank, thick, stone walls which housed the prisoners.
Here's a story of spirits and psychic mediums.
Margaret takes on the volunteer work of a Lady Visitor of the women's prison. She is quite obsessed with the place and takes her duties seriously.
Margaret meets and is very intrgued by Selena Dawes, a woman in prison for fraud. Margaret has tender feelings in her heart for the unfair, brutal treatment of Selena and the other women imprisoned.
This is a very good book telling a very different type of story.
The ending of this story is a breath taking surprise!
I recommend reading this book, but it is not a light read. It will make you think and it's a terrific book to discuss with others.
This is an eye opener of a story.
Outstanding writing!