ELEGANT, ELOQUENT, AND ERUDITE (Fingersmith - Sarah Waters)

Member Name: gailc2

Product:	Fingersmith - Sarah Waters
Date:	14/03/02 (525 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Rich in historical detail, Suspenseful, Surprises galore

Disadvantages: None for me, Some might find it lengthy (511 pages)

If I may I'd like to preface this review with a caveat or three. First of all, I'm a huge Sarah Waters fan, simply finding her to be one of the most exciting young writers working today.
Secondly, I'm new to DooYoo, and delighted to be here. As far as I can find there are no restrictions about posting a comment elsewhere after it has been posted here, which is what I'd like to do with this. When I'm truly excited about something I tend to want to tell the world, and I hope that none of my new colleages find that objectionable. Nonetheless, I'm still feeling my way and appreciate very much your guidance and time spent in reading my thoughts.
Now, here are my thoughts about one of the finest books I've read.

********

Perspicacious and powerful, English writer Sarah Water's third offering is as lavish as her bold debut, Tipping The Velvet (1999). Once again the author returns to the period and places she so perfectly limns, while filling her complexly plotted tale with dissolute characters bent on nefarious doings.
It is 19th century London, Lant Street, a dark thoroughfare home to fingersmiths (thieves), most notably Mrs. Sucksby, a double-dealing Dickensian matron, if there ever was one. She traffics in castoff babies, whom she doses with a spot of gin when they wail, and is landlady to an assortment of petty criminals. There is Mr. Ibbs who keeps his locksmith's brazier going so he can melt down pilfered coins, and Sue Trinder, a 17-year-old orphan, who receives unusually tender care from Mrs. Sucksby.
An engaging charlatan, Richard Rivers known as Gentleman, suggests a fanciful plot that will make them all wealthy. He intends to scam elderly Mr. Lilly, a collector of rare books, by marrying Lilly's niece, Maud, described as "fey, an innocent, a natural." Once the pair are wed and she has received her inheritance, Maud will be consig
ned to a madhouse, and the plotters will divide their booty.
In order to ensure the success of his plan, Gentleman seeks the assistance of Sue. He asks her to pretend to be Susan Smith and gain employment as lady's maid to Maud so that she can help convince Maud of Gentleman's love for her. Sue agrees, and after instructions on how to behave leaves the only home she has ever known for Briar which she finds to be "a muddle of yards and out-houses and porches, and more dark walls and shuttered windows and the sound of barking dogs." Her reward for being an acceptable lady's maid? She will be allowed to keep "the pieces of soap that Miss Maud leaves in her wash-stand."
As chary as she is of being in this strange place, Sue finds herself drawn to the hapless Maud. The two women become unexpectedly close.
Then, in a sudden amazing twist, we find that things are not as they seem and people are not who we believed them to be. When the events that led up to this time are recounted through another's eyes we discover secrets long hidden and the shocking truth about Mr. Lilly's collection. Maud, too, has a story to tell.
Circumstances force the two women to respond in differing ways which leads to a horrifying crime before a completely unexpected denouement.
"Fingersmith" is an epic gothic novel rich in detail and ripe with suspense. Sarah Waters is an author both cerebral and cunning; she is a virtuoso wielding a powerful pen.

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