Reviews

• ちょっと高い

  书的质量很好，就是有点贵

• Quick and Good Quality

  Delivery was faster than promised and the book arrived in good condition.

• Fantastic

  I knew that Sarah Waters was a brilliant writer from reading her previous book Affinity. Sarah Waters writes believable, realistic charachers and draws you not only into the story of the characters lives but also the Victorian era. As I said I knew that she was a brilliant writer from Affinity however, where Affinity left me feeling betrayed(an emotion she no doubt intended for readers) and loath to ever read another Sarah Waters book, Fingersmith was truely a story worth reading over and over. Sarah Waters is the master of surprises and just when you think everything is clear something new happens to totally change situations. I was anxious about the future of the charachers the whole way through. Excellent! Excellent! Novel.

• slow burn but worth it plot

  The first half was a slow burn for me. I was constantly arguing with myself if I should finish the book or not, but by the time I reached the end of the first part, I was completely struck. I didn't expect the plot twist! From then, I was really engaged with the book. This is my first read from Sarah Waters and I really want to read another one from her before I could completely decide if I like her style of writing. If you have any book suggestions, please do tell me. Hopefully, something that is not a slow burn.

• “That bitch knew everything. She had been in on it from the start."

  It seems to me that the pleasure one gets from reading this novel does not arise from how well it describes what the nineteenth-century Britain was like or what Victorian-era lesbian love was like. Or it doesn’t arise either from checking how similar it is to Charles Dickens or Jane Austen. First of all, a novel should be entertaining, and this is the essential quality, without which no other quality avails. By this test, this novel has succeeded. It is true that this novel is a little confused and hard to read, but there was a great plot twist in the middle and the twist makes up for the lengthy and laborious story. The twist is so wonderful that one would think that one would sooner be a little tired by the other tedious parts in order to enjoy the excitement of it. “That bitch knew everything. She had been in on it from the start."

• 今年ここまでの一押し

  「半身」を読んで以来、サラ・ウォーターズに注目していましたが、この小説もどんでん返しに次ぐどんでん返しで早く続きが読みたくて、飲み会も断りまっすぐ帰宅して読みふけりました。 「半身」は日本語で読んだので、感じは少し違いますが、個人的には結末はこちらの方が好きです。 当時の社会の再現、２人の女性の描写は素晴らしく長さが一向気にならないどころかもっと読みたいと思わせるところがさすがの一作です。まだ読んでいないあなた。心から羨ましいです。

• ディケンズとコリンズの世界ーー数奇な運命の二人の女性

  Sue とMaud は二人の母親がかわした約束故に運命を大きく狂わせられることとなる。Chales Dickensが描いたようなロンドンの貧困と無教養の環境で育てられたSueの本当の家柄と素性が明らかになるこの小説はまさしくOliver Twist と似ている。さらに、語り手が交代しながら物語を紡いでいくのは、Wilkie Collinsの The Woman in White と共通し、また精神病院が物語の鍵となるのも似ていて、作家Sara Waters はかなりCollins の影響を受けているのではないかと思われる。Sue とMaud の絡み合った運命の糸が解きほぐされていくこの物語はスリリングな推理小説ともいえよう。 約550ページという分量に最初は躊躇したが、１人称で書かれているためか英語もそれほど難しくなく、読み始めるや物語の世界に夢中になった。

• My new favourite book

  Sue grew up among petty thieves in the underbelly of Victorian London, under the loving care of her adopted mother, a "baby farmer". One day a scoundrel known as "Gentleman" suggests a devious plan: he is currently wooing Maud Lily, a young and rather naive lady who will be very rich once she marries. Currently her uncle, for whom she works as a secretary, is keeping her on a short leash. Sue is to be Maud's personal maid and is supposed to gain her trust and convince her to elope with "Gentleman" Richard Rivers. Once that is achieved, Maud is to be declared mentally incompetent and left at a madhouse. Gentleman promises Sue a reward for her help. At first, all works as planned. But after only a few days, Sue begins to doubt. She grows fond of Maud and realises that Maud is not in love with Rivers at all, but terrfied of him. Sue herself falls in love with Maud, whom she sees as an innocent, guileless angel, a pearl. Her feelings are returned, but even though the girls consummate their relationship the night before the planned secret wedding, Sue is helpless to stop the plan, as she sees no way out, and no future. So the deed is done and the heiress marries the villain, the unhappy maid gives her away at the wedding. He spreads word of his young wife's growing mental problems and has doctors come to examine the patient. They agree with his observations about the patient's mental health and a carriage with 3 passengers arrives at the madhouse. And this is where the story takes a very unpredictable turn. The reader understands that nothing is as it has seemed so far. There are many more aspects to the plot, and not even our protagonists are aware of who is the spider connecting all the strands of this web ... I can not remember ever having cried upon reading a novel. With this book, I did. You may risk a guess at where in the book it happened. The plot gets rather complicated towards the end, and there are a few passages that seem a little longer than necessary. But it is never boring, and the two female protagonists are interesting, loveable characters with many shades. I especially enjoyed the writing style of Ms Waters, she has a wonderful way of describing things and the dialogue in the book is extremely enjoyable. Note to German readers: I recommend to try and read the English original, even though a German translation is available. I am sure the translation is well done, but I have read parts of the German version and did not enjoy it as much. Some pearls and curious turns of phrase were lost in translation :-)

• Gothic, Dickensian, a page-turning classic

  'Fingersmith' is a writhing, twisting narrative of thieves, orphans, riches and poverty, murder and deception. The narrator, Susan Trinder, speaks of her makeshift ‘family ‘of thieves who live in the Borough – a collection of narrow and labyrinthine streets that seem ideally constructed for the conducting of petty crimes and scams. In 1860s London, by the age of seventeen, Sue is an expert thief and muses on the idea of becoming a baby farmer, like her beloved Mrs Sucksby – the caregiver who took in the infant Sue when her murderess mother was hanged. Yet, their sometime visitor, the handsome con-artist Richard Rivers, arrives to thicken the plot almost immediately, by suggesting a scheme to defraud an heiress of her fortune - if only Sue will play her part in aiding the deception. This alone would seem sufficient intrigue to drive an engaging narrative. However, Waters’ talent for invention and subversion is so powerful that any first-time reader will be constantly wrong-footed by the forks and misdirections in the ever-twisting plot. This compelling novel is unrelentingly in the gothic tradition of romance, horror, family secrets, the macabre and the morbid. No-one is wholly untouched by self-interest, even those who profess to love each other. The central characters are memorable, while even the supporting cast is rendered alive and visceral. The quality of Waters’ writing is consistently both literary and highly readable. All potboiling qualities are only those of the highest order. One small criticism might be directed at the highly fortuitous meeting that occurs in the final chapter: isn’t it just too much of a happy coincidence? Perhaps, yet it also seems no less than the characters deserve. Their separation and the losses endured surely merit a chance for reunion and renewal. The high excess of the narrative finds a conclusion that offers solace and the advent of a more benign, though not unadventurous, future.

• Muy buena elección

  El libro es muy interesante y el tipo de letra ayuda muchísimo

• Dickens meets Du Maurier with a lesbian twist in this deeply atmospheric, immensely satisfying novel

  ‘She was like a twig on a rushing river. She was like milk—too pale, too pure, too simple. She was made to be spoiled... And she had made me love her, when I meant only to ruin her.’ London, 1862. Sue Trinder, a young petty thief—or fingersmith—is drawn into an elaborate scheme to dupe Maud Lilly, a lonely young lady with a substantial inheritance. But when Sue meets Maud, and is struck by her innocence and kindness, she begins to feel the first tingles of regret—although abandoning the duplicitous plan is now out of the question. However, both Sue and Maud find themselves caught up in something far greater, with dangerous consequences that neither can foresee. Deeply atmospheric and exquisitely crafted, “Fingersmith” is reminiscent of both Dickens and du Maurier at their best. It won’t be too much of a spoiler to mention that there’s a lesbian twist in this unfolding drama of reversals and revelations—but let that be a hook to pique your curiosity because this is a novel teeming with unexpected delights.

• Of course 5 stars!

  The poetry in Sarah Waters’s words! It’s like sucking the juice out of raw sugarcane, it is sweet, heady and I feel it in my bones. It’s been over a decade since I read this book. I admit I have forgotten the essence of the story. And I am glad for it for I have again relived the lives of Sue and Maud, this time from a more mature angle.

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