Customer Reviews

Fingersmith

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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