Fingersmith

Sarah Waters

Oct 2002 · Sold by Penguin

About this eBook

“Oliver Twist with a twist…Waters spins an absorbing tale that withholds as much as it discloses. A pulsating story.”—The New York Times Book Review  

The Handmaiden, a film adaptation of Fingersmith, directed by Park Chan-wook and starring Kim Tae-Ri, is now available.

Sue Trinder is an orphan, left as an infant in the care of Mrs. Sucksby, a "baby farmer," who raised her with unusual tenderness, as if Sue were her own. Mrs. Sucksby’s household, with its fussy babies calmed with doses of gin, also hosts a transient family of petty thieves—fingersmiths—for whom this house in the heart of a mean London slum is home.

One day, the most beloved thief of all arrives—Gentleman, an elegant con man, who carries with him an enticing proposition for Sue: If she wins a position as the maid to Maud Lilly, a naïve gentlewoman, and aids Gentleman in her seduction, then they will all share in Maud’s vast inheritance. Once the inheritance is secured, Maud will be disposed of—passed off as mad, and made to live out the rest of her days in a lunatic asylum.

With dreams of paying back the kindness of her adopted family, Sue agrees to the plan. Once in, however, Sue begins to pity her helpless mark and care for Maud Lilly in unexpected ways...But no one and nothing is as it seems in this Dickensian novel of thrills and reversals.

Ratings and reviews

I have a lot of concepts and terms that I found difficult to understand (probably because I'm don't have that much knowledge inthe past life) there but something between those words tickles my heart which enables me to understand them wholeheartedly. The romance is amazing and the plot twist will literally bang you're head. This book is the novel that I would die for, it's different from other and just phenomenal that once you start you could not put the book down, and I like it. I am not certain if that makes any sense from another viewpoint but that certainly is what I'm feeling. Also watch the movie adaptations which is The Handmaiden and it's soooooooo good.🥰

All in all, fantastic story. The twist at the end of part one had me shocked for days, and made complete sense in hindsight. Though, while I loved the story, there were a few minor things that made the experience a bit less than it could have been. The pacing was my personal biggest issue with it. Many of the scenes seemed to drag on, as characters continue only to repeat themselves over and over. Another issue I had, and this is far more minor a thing, is that the author didn't tend to take to time to properly build tension between romantic leads. The only scene we get with any sexual tension is the one where the leads finally do something about their feelings, but that is short lived. The author takes a creative approach by describing a majority of the scene through details noticed the following morning, but is completely undercut by everything else going on with Sue.

What IS it with lesbian stories wanting to HURT me with their horrible twists? First the ending of Gideon the Ninth; then the end of The Traitor Baru Cormorant; now the end of Part 1 of Fingersmith. In all three, I wasn't able to continues the story normally- I had to skip ahead, read everything out of order, reassuring myself that things would turn out ok. But then I went back and read it normally, and sure enough, the story is fantastic. I almost had to take a star off for the twist that punched me in the gut so hard, after letting me hope for happier things. But TTBC's twist made me physically nauseous; I guess after that, I can tolerate almost anything and still give 5 stars. Fingersmith immersed me like few other stories can. I'm usually too ADHD for writing that spends as much time building atmosphere as Sarah's, but she just does it so WELL. Never have I read a romance so good at installing a sense of creeping dread- so slow, so powerful, yet not driving me away.

About the author

Sarah Waters is the New York Times–bestselling author of The Paying Guests, The Little Stranger,The Night Watch, Fingersmith, Affinity, and Tipping the Velvet. She has three times been short-listed for the Man Booker Prize, has twice been a finalist for the Orange Prize, and was named one of Granta’s best young British novelists, among other distinctions. Waters lives in London.