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Fingersmith Paperback – Oct. 1 2002

by Sarah Waters (Author)

4.2 7,541 ratings

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“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.

Print length

608 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Riverhead Books
Publication date

Oct. 1 2002
Dimensions

13.13 x 3.2 x 20.32 cm
ISBN-10

1573229725
ISBN-13

978-1573229722
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Review

“Deliciously brazen…a smart and seductive enchantment.”
—Los Angeles Times

“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

“Astonishing narrative twists.”
—Newsday

“Superb storytelling. Fingersmith is gripping; so suspenseful and twisting is the plot that for the last 250 pages, I read at breakneck speed.”
—USA Today

“A deftly plotted thriller…absorbing and elegant.”
—Entertainment Weekly

“A marvelous pleasure…Waters’s noted attention to historical detail and her beautifully sensitive dialogue help to anchor the force-five plot twisters.”
—The Washington Post

“Calls to mind the feverishly gloomy haunts of Charlotte and Emily Brontë…Elaborate and satisfying.”
—The Seattle Times

“A sweeping read.”
—The Boston Globe

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.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

My name, in those days, was Susan Trinder. People called me Sue. I know the year I was born in, but for many years I did not know the date, and took my birthday at Christmas. I believe I am an orphan. My mother I know is dead. But I never saw her, she was nothing to me. I was Mrs Sucksby’s child, if I was anyone’s; and for father I had Mr Ibbs, who kept the locksmith’s shop, at Lant Street, in the Borough, near to the Thames.

This is the first time I remember thinking about the world and my place in it.

There was a girl named Flora, who paid Mrs Sucksby a penny to take me begging at a play. People used to like to take me begging then, for the sake of my bright hair; and Flora being also very fair, she would pass me off as her sister. The theatre she took me to, on the night I am thinking of now, was the Surrey, St George’s Circus. The play was Oliver Twist. I remember it as very terrible. I remember the tilt of the gallery, and the drop to the pit. I remember a drunken woman catching at the ribbons of my dress. I remember the flares, that made the stage very lurid; and the roaring of the actors, the shrieking of the crowd. They had one of the characters in a red wig and whiskers: I was certain he was a monkey in a coat, he capered so. Worse still was the snarling, pink-eyed dog; worst of all was that dog’s master—Bill Sykes, the fancy-man. When he struck the poor girl Nancy with his club, the people all down our row got up. There was a boot thrown at the stage. A woman beside me cried out,

‘Oh, you beast! You villain! And her worth forty of a bully like you!’

I don’t know if it was the people getting up—which made the gallery seem to heave about; or the shrieking woman; or the sight of Nancy, lying perfectly pale and still at Bill Sykes’s feet; but I became gripped by an awful terror. I thought we should all be killed. I began to scream, and Flora could not quiet me. And when the woman who had called out put her arms to me and smiled, I screamed out louder. Then Flora began to weep—she was only twelve or thirteen, I suppose. She took me home, and Mrs Sucksby slapped her.

‘What was you thinking of, taking her to such a thing?’ she said. ‘You was to sit with her upon the steps. I don’t hire my infants out to have them brought back like this, turned blue with screaming. What was you playing at?’

She took me upon her lap, and I wept again. ‘There now, my lamb,’ she said. Flora stood before her, saying nothing, pulling a strand of hair across her scarlet cheek. Mrs Sucksby was a devil with her dander up. She looked at Flora and tapped her slippered foot upon the rug, all the time rocking in her chair—that was a great creaking wooden chair, that no-one sat in save her—and beating her thick, hard hand upon my shaking back. Then,

‘I know your little rig,’ she said quietly. She knew everybody’s rig. ‘What you get? A couple of wipers, was it? A couple of wipers, and a lady’s purse?’

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Riverhead Books; Reprint edition (Oct. 1 2002)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 608 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1573229725
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1573229722
Item weight ‏ : ‎ 476 g
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.13 x 3.2 x 20.32 cm

Customer Reviews:
4.2 7,541 ratings

About the author

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Sarah Waters

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Sarah Waters is the bestselling author of Tipping the Velvet, Affinity, Fingersmith, and The Night Watch. Winner of many literary awards, she has been shortlisted for both the Man Booker and Orange Prizes. She lives in London.

Photo by Annie_C_2 [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

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Surprises abound and with some excellent writing the reader desperately turns pages eager to know what happens next.

Reviewed in Canada on August 28, 2013

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Susan is born to thieves in a rooming house in the slums of Victorian London. Mrs. Sucksby, her surrogate mother, sells unwanted babies for adoption. Mr. Inkling, the senior male in the house, purchases stolen items and then alters their appearance for resale. Young John and his girlfriend, Dainty perform small chores around the house and Susan is a pickpocket. Then, “Gentleman” comes along with a proposal. He’s made the acquaintance of Mr. Lilly, a rich gentleman with a penchant for pornographic materials. With Maud, his niece, Mr. Lilly plans to catalogue his extensive library, a project that’s taken years. Gentleman has taken a liking for Maud and he, for her. His plan is to marry Maud and, so take her large inheritance, but for this to happen, he needs the help of Susan. Surprises abound and with some excellent writing the reader desperately turns pages eager to know what happens next.

Captivating voice and very cool structure

Reviewed in Canada on April 3, 2022

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A young girl born and living with thieves and ne'er do wells is put forward to turn her own scheme for the family. She is to pretend to be a rich woman’s personal maid, while convincing the lady to fall for and run away with a gentlemen who has planned the scheme all along to have her for her money.

To say there is more to it than just that is a grievous understatement, though. The voice in this is absolutely exquisite. It’s lyrical and shifting, reminiscent of gothic tales, Unafraid of including colloquialisms from Victorian times that roll off the tongue and feel intuitive in the language ecosystem of the novel.

Even better is the plotting. Like any good trick, there’s multiple layers occurring in any given seen, but you’re privy to only a small context until you get to each new part, alternating the point-of-view. It’s twisty and probably modelled after a magic trick. The Prestige comes to mind, but I’m not sure it is as precise as that.

My only complaint with it is that the narrative tension os deflated in the final part, in a way that makes the end almost interminable at times. It could have easily been truncated, preserving every relevant plot beat. I think it tries to shift the tension elsewhere, realizing it’s all but resolved, but it didn’t work for me. The voice makes it worth finishing regardless and the ending, when it does come, feels relatively satisfying. It feels like it wants to wrap up every small, innocuous thing, when a much more focused ending would have driven the “point” home much better.

3.5 rounded up. At points, a 5.

Reviewed in Canada on November 2, 2020

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Can’t put this book down. Moving, disturbing & very queer.

Brilliant, Sarah Waters!!!

Interesting plot with some surprising twists focusing on criminal class in Victorian London

Reviewed in Canada on June 15, 2019

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I tried to purchase the book several years ago but was told it was out of print. It was just reissued last week, so was anxious to now have the opportunity to read it. After starting the book I learned that it had been made into a BBC mini-series, but was no longer streaming here. There is no doubt that the writer’s skill to write of believable settings, dialogue and criminal activity in 19th century London draws one into the story.

I found this a difficult book to rate. I wished some of the Victorian underworld slang had been translated, as found myself guessing from context. Part 1 sets up a devious and complex plot to defraud. In this section, terms were going through my head like derivative, a pastiche and parody of several old Crime novels of the Victorian era, overwritten, too much unnecessary elaboration. This was a long novel (592 Pages). I have read longer books in the last couple of years, but this one seemed much longer than any of those. I would have enjoyed it more if it had been condensed in length. In Part 1 we meet two very different young female protagonists who seemed like caricatures; Susan, a good-hearted thief who is involved in a criminal scheme and Lilly who seems so naive, overprotected and innocent.

Near the close of Part 1, there is a huge reveal which raised the plot and characterizations way up to another level. I was completely unaware and unprepared for this and is best the reader to go into the book completely unspoiled. I won’t give a full synopsis of the plot to avoid some unexpected twists.

The story begins in a house of Fingersmiths (pickpockets and burglars). It is run by a tough, but a motherly woman who also has a small baby farm. The plot to defraud a wealthy heiress, Lilly, begins there. An ever-scheming conman, called ‘Gentleman’, recruits teenaged Fingersmith, Susan. She is to influence Lilly to marry him in order for him to obtain her inheritance. He has plans to make Lilly vanish after the wedding and have all her money. Susan is to work as a housemaid to Lilly, whom he describes as innocent and weak minded. Susan goes along the plan in hopes that part of her proceeds will go to help her beloved house mother.

Soon we get betrayals, double-crosses, and what might be called triple-crosses, a lesbian love story with complications, tragedy, not much happiness, thievery, daring escapes, secrets and lies, violence, and a huge collection of pornography.

Part 2 starts out as a recap of Part 1 but told from a different perspective. This added little to what we already learned and I thought it repetitive and boring. The story now plays out in a crumbling, dark mansion where Lilly works as secretary for her very unpleasant uncle. There are some tense, suspenseful passages. We also get some further revelations about the two girls’ origins and backgrounds, and who instigated the plot and why.

Part 3 deals with the horrors of one of the young women being unjustly locked up and her brilliant escape. Most of the characters end up back at the Fingersmith House. There is conflict and murder. The story ends with retribution for some and redemption for others.

One person found this helpful

Life in early England, both in London and the countryside

Reviewed in Canada on July 30, 2019

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The story, with its twists and turns was amazing. My only dislike was the details at times which contributed to the length.

Timothy Gouldson

Reviewed in Canada on May 14, 2021

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The dual narrative makes this faux-Victorian novel a tad hebetudinous. Nevertheless, good character development, suspenseful, captivating.

Amazon Customer

Reviewed in Canada on June 29, 2019

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Good read got it sooner then expected

Reviewed in Canada on July 25, 2015

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Like a modern Dickens, Excellent

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Josh Mauthe

Not as pulpy as you might expect, but all the richer because of that that

Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2021

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Sarah Waters’s Fingersmith is one of those books that’s hard to talk about beyond the broadest strokes, because so much of the book revolves around secrets and twists that are best preserved and experienced as they unfold. (Even if, like me, you were exposed to the story through Chan-Wook Park’s masterful The Handmaiden, there are surprises galore, given that the movie and the novel diverge entirely not long after the end of the first act.) And yet, here’s what I can tell you: everything starts with a scam, as Sue Trinder, a young girl raised by a group of sam artists and fences in Victorian London, finds herself drafted into a plan to steal a fortune from an unmarried young woman named Maud Lilly. Once she’s married, you see, the fortune can be taken, but she needs to be courted first, and her current maid, well, she’s the prudish type. But if the woman’s maid were to be a plant – say, Sue Trinder – well, what couldn’t a suitor get away with?

Such is the setup for Fingersmith, a tale that escalates from there to tell the tales of both Sue and Maud and their inextricably linked lives; while the women may be drawn together by a scam, what happens along the way might be more of an undeniable attraction and love – but when you’re lying through your teeth every second of the day, how can you tell the mark that you might be in love with them (and that’s not even dealing with the worry of how same-sex attraction would be viewed at the time)?

That’s only the beginnings of the complications of Fingersmith, which veers into psychiatric treatments for hysteria, objectification of women, mother-daughter relationships, and much, much more, allowing Waters to comment widely on the role of women both in the Victorian era and now, all while spinning a compelling and twisty tale. Moreover, in paralleling the lives of Maud and Sue, Waters allows herself to explore issues of social class and wealth, all while never neglecting the female-driven narrative that she’s created and the way that almost every woman in the tale (with one notable exception, but even she finds herself in a role not of her own making) is being used and manipulated by the men around her.

If all of this sounds grim, well, it can be, a little. While The Handmaiden eschewed realism for a gloriously stylish lesbian revenge tale, Fingersmith stays truer to “reality,” and allows her characters to push against the boundaries that have been erected for them with as much success as you might expect from the time period. The result can be a little oppressive at times (and it doesn’t help that the book feels a little too long as you approach the final act, with everything feeling like it takes just a little too much time and too many words), but it also allows Waters to tell a genuinely humane story, where even the main architect of everything has a truly understandable motive and a decent side you might not expect.

Fingersmith isn’t quite as pulpy as the basic premise might suggest; it’s too historically-grounded, too honest, too interested in exploring the reality of its repressed characters to cut loose in a lurid tale. But that restraint gives the novel all the more power, as we scenes through multiple perspectives and constantly understand the imperfect information with which everyone is operating, the tragic assumptions that destroy lives, and the dangers of a world where you’re viewed not as a person, but as an object – and a world in which you have to hide who you are and who you love in the name of safety. It’s a rich, satisfying read, with a pair of characters and a tale for the ages.

29 people found this helpful

Ambar Sahil Chatterjee

Dickens meets Du Maurier with a lesbian twist in this deeply atmospheric, immensely satisfying novel

Reviewed in India on June 8, 2023

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‘She was like a twig on a rushing river. She was like milk—too pale, too pure, too simple. She was made to be spoiled... And she had made me love her, when I meant only to ruin her.’

London, 1862. Sue Trinder, a young petty thief—or fingersmith—is drawn into an elaborate scheme to dupe Maud Lilly, a lonely young lady with a substantial inheritance. But when Sue meets Maud, and is struck by her innocence and kindness, she begins to feel the first tingles of regret—although abandoning the duplicitous plan is now out of the question. However, both Sue and Maud find themselves caught up in something far greater, with dangerous consequences that neither can foresee.

Deeply atmospheric and exquisitely crafted, “Fingersmith” is reminiscent of both Dickens and du Maurier at their best. It won’t be too much of a spoiler to mention that there’s a
lesbian twist in this unfolding drama of reversals and revelations—but let that be a hook to pique your curiosity because this is a novel teeming with unexpected delights.

Corinne04

A masterpiece

Reviewed in France on January 26, 2022

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I absolutely loved this book. Sarah Waters is a master story teller and this book has so many twists that you will want to read it non stop. The description of life in London at that time is so vivid and telling. I can't recommend it enough.

Maísa Vilanova

Fingersmith

Reviewed in Brazil on June 25, 2020

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Uma história universal, envolvente e bem escrita. Tanto que já ganhou duas brilhantes adaptações: Fingersmith e A criada.

2 people found this helpful

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Christian

Muy buena elección

Reviewed in Mexico on September 2, 2019

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El libro es muy interesante y el tipo de letra ayuda muchísimo

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