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Books : Tipping the Velvet (Virago V)
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Tipping the Velvet (Virago V) by: Sarah Waters List Price: £7.99 Childrens Toy Shop Price: £5.59 You Save: £2.40 (30%)Prices subject to change. |
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Binding: Paperback Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914 EAN: 9781860495243 ISBN: 1860495249 Label: Virago Press Ltd Manufacturer: Virago Press Ltd Number Of Pages: 472 Publication Date: March 04, 1999 Publisher: Virago Press Ltd Studio: Virago Press Ltd Sales Rank: 2444 Related Items:
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Editorial Review: Amazon.co.uk Review: The heroine of Sarah Waters's audacious first novel knows her destiny, and seems content with it. Her place is in her father's seaside restaurant, shucking shellfish and stirring soup, singing all the while. "Although I didn't believe the story told to me by Mother--that they had found me as a baby in an oyster-shell, and a greedy customer had almost eaten me for lunch--for 18 years I never doubted my own oysterish sympathies, never looked beyond my father's kitchen for occupation, or for love." At night Nancy Astley often ventures to the nearby music hall, not that she has illusions of being more than an audience member. But the moment she spies a new male impersonator--still something of a curiosity in England circa 1888--her years of innocence come to an end and a life of transformations begins. Tipping the Velvet, all 472 pages of it, is as saucy, as tantalising, and as touching as the narrator's first encounter with the seductive but shame-ridden Miss Kitty Butler. And at first even Nancy's family is thrilled with her gender-bending pal, all but her sister, best friend, and bedmate, Alice, "her eyes shining cold and dull, with starlight and suspicion". Not to worry. Soon Nancy and Kitty are off to London, their relationship close though (alas for our heroine) sisterly. We know that bliss will come, and it does, in an exceptionally charged moment. A lesser author would have been content to stop her story there, but Waters has much more in mind for her buttonholing heroine, and for us. In brief, her Everywoman with a sexual difference goes from success onstage to heartbreak to a stint as a male prostitute (necessity truly is the mother of invention) to keeping house for a brother and sister in the Labour movement. And did I mention her long stint as a plaything in the pleasure palace of a rich Sapphist extraordinaire? Diana Lethaby is as cruel as she is carnal, and even the well- concealed Cavendish Ladies' Club isn't outré enough for her. Kitting Nancy out in full, elegant drag, she dares the front desk to turn them away. "We are here," she mocks, "for the sake of the irregular." Only after some seven years of hard twists and sensual turns does Nancy conclude that a life of sensation is not enough. Still, Tipping the Velvet is so entertaining that readers will wish her sentimental--and hedonistic--education had taken twice as long. --Kerry Fried, Amazon.com Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Lip Bitingly goodMy Sarah waters virginity was lost with "Fingersmith" (which i adored), so i naturally moved onto Tipping the Velvet. Unlike Fingersmith, there is only one character to focus on. Not that this was a bad thing however; in fact it made the book more intense. You could completly induldge in Nans thoughts, feelings, experiences and heart break. It was a deliciously smooth read which i found impossible to put down and shall re-read over an over. If you want to give your mind something to devour, then let it be Tipping the Velvet. You wont be dissapointed. Rating: - I feel I grew up with these two young womenBy Mr. W. Dover "aspiring nobody" (Duesseldorf, Germany) - See all my reviews This story just takes you right inside the lives of two young women living in Victorian England. These central characters are both experiencing so many new things in their lives, yet they gradually find that they have fundamentally different motives and desires. Either they are greedy for admiration and fame, or they are falling in love for the first time. Like Sarah Waters' more recent novel "The Night Watch", this book is tragic, but with comic moments and as such I think it a masterwork. Classical in its overarching themes of "coming out of the Garden of Eden" (and no pun intended about Coming out), or coming to terms with ... Read More: Rating:  - A good readIt's reputation as a Victorian lesbian bodice ripper having preceded it, I wasn't quite sure what to expect from Tipping the Velvet. I needn't have worried - it is an extremely well written book, which drew me into the story and kept me intrigued from the very start. The main topic of the story is lesbianism in the 1890s, and as such it is pretty graphic at many points. Therefore readers who are upset by homosexuality or descriptive sex scenes of any kind should avoid this book. However, it is very well written with a strong cast of interesting characters and plenty of twists and turns in the plot. I did feel that the story lost some of its momentum in parts 2 and 3, but it was still enjoyable and didn't drag. The ... Read More: Rating: - A Lesbo-Victorian Romp...as jokingly described by Sarah Waters herself. But oh how much more than that it is. The story is that of Nan Astley, a young and naive oyster girl who falls in love with another woman, thus changing her life forever. We're taken into a great tale of showbusiness, the secret Victorian lesbian underworld, and so much more. Sarah Waters' usual fantastic writing and imagination brings us yet another brilliant book. Filled with sex, seduction, pain, heartache, violence, and all in the beautifully described Victorian era, this is a book you will not be able to put down until you have finished every word! Rating: - FabulousI watched the TV series when it was out originally - isn't that about 6 years or so ago now? - and then read this only recently. Commendations to the directors as they used the book so well. It didn't detract from my enjoyment as the book was perfectly well written and actually helped because I could hear/see the characters in my mind. I think this is a well-known plot and doesn't need much further saying about it. The sex is, well, very explicit and very raunchy but wonderfull written. The learning Nancy goes through is heartbreaking and yet character building for her. Leaving the loving bosom of one family to finally end up in the arms of another. Beautiful! Fabulous plot, excellent narrative and a true page turner. |
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