Sarah waters is known for her victorian lesbiain fiction. She has said of her work that she is fine with being identified as a lesbian writer. Her first novel, tipping the velvet, and she got the idea for it while she was working on her ph d Thesis.
This contemporary Victorian story is chockablock with twists and turns, backstabs and broadsides, as well as Dickensian pornfiends. It also features a steamy lesbian romance between two women desperate to escape their own circumstances. We dive into what makes Fingersmith memorable, as well as where its structure overstays its welcome.