I’m very late to this but, Fingersmith! 😍

[FoxRedPuppy]

Just finished. I’ve had it ages, got it in a charity shop. But I hadn’t read it, I’ve had a thing with not reading and now I’m recuperating from a health thing and I’m discovering all these books!

I loved it, I was just about to go to bed, finished the end of Part one and was 😱 and had to keep reading.

Realise it was published 20 years ago!

Brilliant book.
For your further delectation, there's a very good Korean film called The Handmaiden which is based on Fingersmith. The setting is transposed to Korea under Japanese colonial rule. It's really good!

@FrostyMorn
Where can we find The Handmaiden?

I liked Fingersmith, Tipping the Velvet and Affinity, but The Paying Guests was so terrible that I wouldn't even have finished it if I hadn't been on a long train journey with only one book. I think she is just good at Victorian stuff.

I think that part of the issue is that when a significant part of a novel’s impact comes from a midway revelation of just how misinformed a narrator has been, you can never entirely get that first reading impact again.

OP, am seconding the recommendation of SW’s novel Affinity for something not dissipate in atmosphere and compulsive readability.

@MonkeyTennis34 Looks like it's available to stream from a few of the usual places, e.g. Prime, YouTube and AppleTV. (I saw it at the cinema back when it came out in 2016.)

I’ve read everything of hers, she’s awesome. She did a q&a on here once and answered my question about the last scene of the little stranger being a reveal of the mystery 🫠

Luckily for me I have such a bad memory that when I read it the second time I was surprised all over again! And it’s been a while since that reading so maybe I should give it another go so I can be surprised a third time…

Loved Fingersmith, and bizarrely I can remember the book much better than the tv adaptation, which I saw afterwards.

The Handmaid's Tale was an excellent version, and beautifully filmed, although I seem to remember the sex scenes were very graphic!

I have seen SW interviewed a couple of times and she is so warm and funny, she came across as very genuine lovely person. I am seriously thinking of re reading The Night Watch, although I remember it being fraught with spin tense sexual jealousy, but so well written.

On the Count of Monte Cristo thread we were discussing two characters who are pretty clearly in a lesbian relationship, and I was surprised that a contemporary author had never taken up this idea and done a sequel about them. SW would be superb at this I think.

Sarah Waters - she seems to have disappeared?

Read 'the nightwatch' loved it👍

I loved this, it’s one of my favourite books of all time. Her books are so well-plotted and researched but also so beautifully written.

I did enjoy the Korean film but it’s very different from the book in tone. It’s comical and bizarre in places and there is a LOT of sex in it. It’s worth seeing but you have to see it as a very different entity.

If you like Fingersmith read The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins.

She’s a brilliant, brilliant writer. Wish she’d write more!

How has The Night Watch barely been mentioned???? Bloody love that book.
Well done for eventually discovering Fingersmith, OP 🤣 now go read either Night Watch or Tipping the Velvet!

@AllotmentTime I agree, I love The Night Watch. I found it fascinating because my grandmother was an ambulance driver in a port city that was bombed during the war. I hadn't thought about how dangerous the work was before I read The Night Watch. I gave it to my Mum because I thought she might also find it interesting but she thought the characters were horrible. So if you want to read a book with nice characters maybe not for you.

I keep checking her website for news of a new book but I'm always disappointed. However, she did present a recent radio documentary about "queer" gothic so she is still around (and maybe, this is me speculating, raising her profile).

I haven't listened to it yet.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002c2pv

Thank you, interesting listen

Oooh! I’ve read so much around that burning question. Did SW say the killer is ‘revealed’ in that scene, albeit very very subtly?

She said the last line is very significant!

Came here having just finished The Little Stanger so this thread is a coincidence! It's amazing and I definitely thought the final line was the key to it. Debating whether to watch the film now... I read Fingersmith a few years ago and really enjoyed it but it didn't make the impression on me that The Little Stranger has.

I really enjoyed Tipping the Velvet.

Sarah Waters & I used to frequent the same lesbian bar & I was able to tell her how much I enjoyed Tipping the Velvet. It’s long gone now though.

She’s a genius. So is Michel
Faber.

I once read this book all through a night when H was away on tour. I couldn’t put it down The bit where it’s a gobsmacking twist I re read 4 times!!! Brilliant book as are many of hers.

That's SO cool. Since it's now long gone & we can't all stalk her, can you share the name of the place?