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³¢³Üòõ's Reviews > Fingersmith
Fingersmith
by
by
³¢³Üòõ's review
bookshelves: recommendations, 2021-readings, female-writers, e-4, historical-fiction, lgbt-queer, thriller-crime-mystery, british-literature
May 28, 2021
bookshelves: recommendations, 2021-readings, female-writers, e-4, historical-fiction, lgbt-queer, thriller-crime-mystery, british-literature
Sue, an orphan, was raised by concealers in London: the main crossroads where all the little thugs from the corner meet; they also raise abandoned children that they later sell to infertile couples or other houses for whom unattached young girls are a good godsend. But Sue quietly reaches seventeen without her adoptive parents ever intending to get rid of her.
Her opportunity to embark on the world of crime comes finally: A gentleman, an elegant crook, has spotted a wealthy heiress lost in a small country village, who will touch the inheritance once married. The plan is simple: Sue will hire as a companion to the young girl, help the Gentleman seduce the damsel to the point of sneaking her to church to marry her and deflower her, and then put the guardian in front of the done. The plan goes off without a hitch, although Sue gradually begins to have some feelings for the little white goose that she has to pluck.
And then everything changes: instead of being part of a simple intrigue, Sue finds herself at the end of a viper's nest, where the cruelest machinations occur from all sides, each being the dupe of another.
Waters has a natural talent for immersing us in the atmosphere of Victorian England. I found the same pleasure in reading this novel. The drama is numerous and is harsh on the protagonists—an author to discover without hesitation if it has not yet been done.
Her opportunity to embark on the world of crime comes finally: A gentleman, an elegant crook, has spotted a wealthy heiress lost in a small country village, who will touch the inheritance once married. The plan is simple: Sue will hire as a companion to the young girl, help the Gentleman seduce the damsel to the point of sneaking her to church to marry her and deflower her, and then put the guardian in front of the done. The plan goes off without a hitch, although Sue gradually begins to have some feelings for the little white goose that she has to pluck.
And then everything changes: instead of being part of a simple intrigue, Sue finds herself at the end of a viper's nest, where the cruelest machinations occur from all sides, each being the dupe of another.
Waters has a natural talent for immersing us in the atmosphere of Victorian England. I found the same pleasure in reading this novel. The drama is numerous and is harsh on the protagonists—an author to discover without hesitation if it has not yet been done.
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Reading Progress
January 26, 2021
– Shelved
January 26, 2021
– Shelved as:
to-read
January 26, 2021
– Shelved as:
recommendations
May 23, 2021
–
Started Reading
May 23, 2021
–
5.84%
"I sound like a child. I was a child! Perhaps Mrs Sucksby was thinking that, too. For she said nothing, only sat, still gazing at me, with her hand at her soft lip. She smiled, but her face seemed troubled. I could almost have said, she was afraid.
Perhaps she was.
Or perhaps I only think that now, when I know what dark and fearful things were to follow."
page
32
Perhaps she was.
Or perhaps I only think that now, when I know what dark and fearful things were to follow."
May 23, 2021
–
11.31%
"Even a thief has her weak points. The shadows still danced about. The pastry sheets stayed cold. The great clock sounded half-past ten - eleven - half-past eleven - twelve. I lay and shivered and longed with all my heart for Mrs Sucksby, Lant Street, home."
page
62
May 24, 2021
–
16.24%
"What could I tell her? For all I knew, it might have been an ordinary thing, for a mistress and her maid to double up like girls.
It was ordinary at first, with Maud and me. Her dreams never bothered her. We slept, quite like sisters. Quite like sisters, indeed. I always wanted a sister.
Then Gentleman came."
page
89
It was ordinary at first, with Maud and me. Her dreams never bothered her. We slept, quite like sisters. Quite like sisters, indeed. I always wanted a sister.
Then Gentleman came."
May 24, 2021
–
21.72%
"It was the hand he had kissed. She must have felt his lips there still, for I saw her turn from him and hold it to her bosom and stroke her fingers over her palm."
page
119
May 24, 2021
–
26.46%
"So, I did nothing. I did nothing the next night, too, and the night after that; and soon, there were no more nights: the time, that had always gone so slow, ran suddenly fast, the end of April came. And by then, it was too late to change anything."
page
145
May 24, 2021
–
31.93%
"You thought her a pigeon. Pigeon, my arse. That bitch knew everything. She had been in on it from the start."
page
175
May 25, 2021
–
37.23%
"I am seventeen when Richard Rivers comes to Briar with a plot and a promise and the story of a gullible girl who can be fooled into helping me do it."
page
204
May 25, 2021
–
41.97%
"This is not my bed, and the hour for bed has sounded and passed, and there are none of the things - my mother's portrait, my box, my maid - about me that I like to have close while I lie sleeping. But tonight, all things are out of their order; all my patterns have been disturbed. My liberty beckons: gaugeless, fearful, inevitable as death."
page
230
May 25, 2021
–
46.72%
"And it is as I am standing, feeling the blood rush awkwardly into my cheek, that a girl comes to my door with a letter from Richard. I have forgotten to expect it. I have forgotten to think of our plan, our flight, our marriage, the looming asylum gate. I have forgotten to think of him. I must think of him now, however. I take the letter and, trembling, break its seal."
page
256
May 25, 2021
–
52.01%
"And so you see it is love - not scorn, not malice; only love - that makes me harm her, in the end."
page
285
May 26, 2021
–
56.93%
"She keeps her eyes on mine, but speaks to Richard. Her voice is thick with the tears of age, or of emotion.
'Good boy,' she says."
page
312
'Good boy,' she says."
May 26, 2021
–
62.96%
"I give myself up to darkness; and wish I may never again be required to lift my head to the light."
page
345
May 26, 2021
–
71.53%
"The words drop away. In reaching, she has moved her head: the light from the street-lamp, and from the sliver of tarnished moon, falls full upon her, and all at once I see her face - the brown of her own eye, and her own pale cheek - and her lip, that is plump and must, I understand suddenly, must once have been plumper ... She wets her mouth. 'Dear girl,' she says. 'My own, my own dear girl -'"
page
392
May 27, 2021
–
78.1%
"I supposed she guessed I had been trying to escape. I went back to my bed. She stood at the door with the other nurse and said something to her in a murmur. The other nurse wrinkled her nose. Then they looked me over in the same cool, nasty way that I had seen other nurses look at me before."
page
428
May 27, 2021
–
85.22%
"(...) The chimneys grew taller, the roads and rivers wider, the threads of smoke more thick, the farther off the country spread; until at last, at the farthest point of all, they made a smudge, a stain, a darkness (...) a darkness that was broken, here and there, where the sun caught panes of glass and the golden tips of domes and steeples, with glittering points of light."
page
467
May 28, 2021
–
92.7%
"But Mrs Sucksby rose from Gentleman's side. Her taffeta dress was soaked in his blood, the brooch of diamonds at her bosom turned to a brooch of rubies. Her hands were crimson, from fingertrip to wrist. She looked like the picture of a murderess from one of the penny papers."
page
508
May 28, 2021
–
100.0%
"She took up the lamp. The room had got darker; the rain still beat against the glass. But she led me to the fire and made me sit and sat beside me. Her silk skirts rose in a rush, then sank. She put the lamp upon the floor, spread the paper flat, and began to show me the words she had written, one by one."
page
548
May 28, 2021
– Shelved as:
2021-readings
May 28, 2021
–
Finished Reading
July 1, 2021
– Shelved as:
female-writers
December 24, 2021
– Shelved as:
e-4
November 30, 2024
– Shelved as:
historical-fiction
November 30, 2024
– Shelved as:
lgbt-queer
November 30, 2024
– Shelved as:
thriller-crime-mystery
November 30, 2024
– Shelved as:
british-literature
Comments Showing 1-10 of 10 (10 new)
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message 1:
by
Hanneke
(new)
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rated it 5 stars
Jan 26, 2021 11:58AM
Yes, such an enjoyable novel, Luis!
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Hanneke wrote: "Yes, such an enjoyable novel, Luis!"thank you.
Este ainda não li, mas tens toda a razão: ela é perita em criar a atmosfera certa nos seus livros.
Paula wrote: "Este ainda não li, mas tens toda a razão: ela é perita em criar a atmosfera certa nos seus livros."Exactamente. Li outro dela O Indesejado e gostei mais. O facto de ser uma novela apoiada na obra de Charles Dickens aumenta ainda mais o seu pecúlio. Obrigado pelo comentário.
The Korean movie, "The Handmaiden", is a beautiful take on this book. I stay away from movie adaptations but this one, since it takes place in an entirely different cultural background- colonial Korean during Japanese occupation- is more of a retelling than anything else and it is truly a work of art.
Nocturnalux wrote: "The Korean movie, "The Handmaiden", is a beautiful take on this book. I stay away from movie adaptations but this one, since it takes place in an entirely different cultural background- colonial Ko..."Thank you for the movie recommendation, 'Lux!
Nocturnalux wrote: "The Korean movie, "The Handmaiden", is a beautiful take on this book. I stay away from movie adaptations but this one, since it takes place in an entirely different cultural background- colonial Ko..."How do you write the name of the movie? I can't find it.
³¢³Üòõ wrote: "Nocturnalux wrote: "The Korean movie, "The Handmaiden", is a beautiful take on this book. I stay away from movie adaptations but this one, since it takes place in an entirely different cultural bac...""The Handmaiden". In Korean it'd be [아가씨] (read as "Agassi).
I second "The Handmaiden" recommendation. It's only loosely inspired by this book, but one of the best films of 2016 without any doubt. Park Chan-wook, nothing less is expected.
