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Book cover for Fingersmith Book Details

Fingersmith

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New York Times best-selling author of Affinity, Sarah Waters was named Author of the Year at the 2003 British Book Awards. Fingersmith was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the Booker Prize, and was chosen as book of the year 2002 by moreMoreNew York Times best-selling author of Affinity, Sarah Waters was named Author of the Year at the 2003 British Book Awards. Fingersmith was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the Booker Prize, and was chosen as book of the year 2002 by more organizations than any other novel. Orphaned as an infant, Susan Trinder was raised by Mrs. Sucksby, 'mother' to a host of pickpockets and con artists. To pay her debt, she joins legendary thief Gentleman in swindling an innocent woman out of her inheritence. But the two women form an unanticipated bond and the events that follow will surprise every listener. Less

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Community Reviews

karen

rated it it was amazing
almost 3 years ago
Recommends it for: michelle and dana

Shelves: dana-gets-three , favorites
lesbian dickens!

now that i have your attention... dana has been bugging me to write a review of this for the longest time, and now that she is on vacation and out of my path for ten minutes (seriously - the girl moved to my town just so she could stand under my window all... Read full review
Paul Bryant

rated it it was amazing
almost 3 years ago

Shelves: modernvictorian , novels
This totally wonderful novel does exactly what the title says, it fingers your myth, it steals up on your soul and breathes down its neck and a shudder of pleasure is felt to the ends of all your extremities, your brain will wobble, your hair will vibrate strongly, and yo... Read full review
Steve

rated it really liked it
about 1 year ago

Pigeons and pearls. Perceptions and palpability. I’d explain in detail, but that would spoil all the fun. Instead, as elliptically as I can, I’ll hint at their relevance with vague allusions. Sue was an orphan in Victorian London, raised among thieves. Despite the fact th... Read full review
Limonessa

rated it really liked it
about 3 years ago

Shelves: adult-fiction
I have to admit that throughout almost all of Fingersmith the main random thoughts sweeping across the desolate land of my mind were along the lines of: WTF? WHAT? WHAT DID JUST HAPPEN?

This is an intricate, ambitious, original, jaw-dropping, gut-punching, heart-wrenching... Read full review
Candise

rated it it was amazing
about 3 years ago

A friend knocked on my door one evening and I answered, looking disheveled and I think a bit frightened. She asked me what was wrong, if she had interrupted something. I said no, that I had just been reading Fingersmith and I was really stressed out because now I had to l... Read full review
Cecily

rated it liked it
over 1 year ago

Shelves: miscellaneous-fiction , historical-pre-20th-c
A tricky book to review, partly because it didn't live up to my (possibly unfairly high) hopes and partly because I'm trying to write shorter, punchier reviews, but this was almost 600 pages long. I have failed...

Great Expectations

Waters is an award-winning historical nov... Read full review
Emily May

rated it it was amazing
almost 3 years ago

Shelves: historical-fiction , 2013
This is a Victorian murder mystery with a lesbian romance. You will probably love it, but even if you don't, it's highly unlikely you will have read anything else quite like it.

Other Books by this Author

  • Tipping the Velvet
    Tipping the Velvet
    by Sarah Waters
  • The Paying Guests
    The Paying Guests
    by Sarah Waters
  • The Little Stranger
    The Little Stranger
    by Sarah Waters
  • Affinity
    Affinity
    by Sarah Waters
  • The Night Watch
    The Night Watch
    by Sarah Waters
  • Dancing with Mr. Darcy: Stories Inspired by Jane Austen and Chawton House
    Dancing with Mr. Darcy: Stories Inspi...
    by Sarah Waters
  • Wolfskins and Togas: Lesbian and Gay Historical Fiction, 1870 to the present
    Wolfskins and Togas: Lesbian and Gay ...
    by Sarah Waters
  • Nights at the Circus
    Nights at the Circus
    by Angela Carter
  • Lolly Willowes
    Lolly Willowes
    by Sylvia Townsend Warner

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Book Details

Paperback, 582 pages
Published October 1st 2002 by Riverhead Books (first published February 4th 2002
ISBN
1573229725 (ISBN13: 9781573229722)
Edition Language
English
Original Title
Fingersmith
Characters
Sue Trinder, Maud Lilly, Gentleman, Mrs. Sucksby
Literary Awards
Man Booker Prize, Stonewall Book Award, Orange Prize, Crime Writers' Association Ellis Peters Historical Award, Lambda Literary Award More…Man Booker Prize, Stonewall Book Award, Orange Prize, Crime Writers' Association Ellis Peters Historical Award, Lambda Literary Award, Kono Mystery ga Sugoi Less

About this Author

25334. uy66 Sarah Waters is a British novelist. She is best known for her first novel, Tipping the Velvet, as well the novels that followed, including Affinity, Fingersmith, and The Night Watch.

Waters attended university, earning degrees in English literature. Before writing novels Waters worked as an academic, earning a doctorate and teaching. Waters went directly from her doctoral thesis to her first...
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Quotes

We have a name for your disease. We call it a hyper-aesthetic one. You have been encouraged to over-indulge yourself in literature; and have inflamed your organs of fancy.
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It's a curious, wanting thing.
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I felt that thread that had come between us, tugging, tugging at my heart - so hard, it hurt me. A hundred times I almost rose, almost went in to her; a hundred times I thought, Go to her! Why are you waiting? Go back to her side! But every time, I thought of what would happen if I did. I knew that I couldn't lie beside her, without wanting to touch her. I couldn't have felt her breath upon my mouth, without wanting to kiss her. And I couldn't have kissed her, without wanting to save her.
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