Rating: 
Summary: Takes me back to "Oliver!"
Review: This book was fascinating. I read the other reviews prior to buying the book. It wasn't what I was expecting, it was so much more.I am a big "Oliver" fan, so life in Victorian Era England holds a special interest to me. To read about the lesbian lifestyle of that era was amazing. The author brought the era and the lifestyle to life for me. I was surprised when I found myself feeling rather unsympathetic towards the main character (Nancy) mid-way through the book. I don't remember ever finishing a book in which I felt unsympathetic towards the main character. While I felt unsympathetic towards Nancy, I still cared for her. I found that very surprising. Yes, I cared very much for Nancy. This was a wonderful novel. I had to finish it in only two sittings. Then promptly went on-line to purchase Sarah Walters two other books. I was surprised by some reviews that felt disappointed with the book. However, based on their reviews, I believe they were looking for something that was not there. I didn't find the hot explicit sex scenes that were indicated. That's not to say there wasn't sex, but it was primarily a book about a character and her personal growth. It is not a hot/steamy novel. Just a very good, complex and complete novel.
Rating:
Summary: Unique And Delightful - A Must-Read!
Review: I was skeptical when I picked up "Tipping The Velvet" at a local bookstore. I do not like labels, and Sarah Waters's first novel had been touted by the press, and readers alike, as a "lesbian novel," whatever that means. However, the book's synopsis on the back cover, drew me in and I took a chance and bought it. I am so glad that I did. What a delight! This is a historical novel, set in a Victorian England that few have glimpsed. And "Tipping The Velvet" allows us to view it all, center stage. It is a story peopled with characters that are fleshed out so believably, it is almost like reading with 3-D glasses. The characters, especially Nancy Astley, come right off the page and have the capacity to touch your heart and make you care...deeply. Nancy is born and raised in an English seaside resort where her parents own an oyster restaurant, and Nancy can shuck with the best of them. She seems perfectly content with her lot in life, loves her family and imagines that someday she will marry one of the neighborhood boys and have a family of her own. During the summer months, when business is booming, Nancy frequents a nearby town's music hall for entertainment. Thus Passion enters her life with a capital "P." Nancy sees a male impersonator perform for the first time on an evening excursion to the hall. Not just any male impersonator...but the ever so seductive Miss Kitty Butler. Nance is entranced and obsessed with Kitty. She schemes to meet the object of her devotion and becomes first, Kitty's friend, then her employee/girl Friday. Her once normal life is turned topsy-turvy, filled with passionate fantasies. Her family is delighted with Kitty "the celebrity" friend, and accepts her completely. However, Alice, Nancy's sister, and until recently her best friend, is hostile and suspicious of the relationship between her sister and the performer. With the changing seasons, business falls off and Kitty is on the move. She takes Nancy with her to a newer and bigger gig in London, where our heroine loses her innocence, in more ways than one. Adventure, disillusionment and major heartbreak loom on the horizon for our Nancy - until she finds herself reaching rock bottom. If you don't know what "rock bottom," sometimes called "the pits," is in Victorian England, you may want to reread Dickens. It takes seven years for Nancy to climb out of the pit she fell into, (or was she pushed?), and fashion a life for herself. Her attempts to earn a living wage are outrageous, fascinating and ingenious. The folks she meets along the way are absolute originals. The take on London's local color, sexual and socialist politics, and social and sexual mores are delicious. Sarah Waters is an extraordinary writer and teller of tales. This is so much more than a book about a woman's sexuality...although sexuality is an important aspect of the novel. Ms. Waters writes about the fight for selfhood and independence in a world where these terms mean little, especially for a female. I just couldn't put this one down and look forward to reading more work by Ms. Waters. I give this my most highly recommended seal of approval!!!
Rating:
Summary: I laughed out loud and even cried a little!
Review: As a 17 year old girl, and a lesbian at that, I have been on a quest to find the best in film and in fiction. Luckily enough, I was able to watch Tipping the Velvet on the BBC when it aired for the States. It was very good and British (it didn't push as many buttons as one could wish.) After seeing this, I had to read the novel! But the book was not what I had expected it to be, as all book-to-movie things go. Yes, it had sex and maybe lewd at times, but the ending, I'd say, was all worth it. I'm a romantic at heart and it just hit it. Hell, I cry during every intimate sex scene in a lesbian film i.e. When Night Is Falling or Fire (all of Fire made me cry come to think of it.) I feel, if your just looking to read a long lesbian fiction novel that ends happily then this is your find. But really, if your just wanting to nit pick, if you will, at the language or knowingly guess what will come next, read it anyway! Nancy is a character who you will laugh and cry with, and at times even want to hit because she seems so childish. It took me a week to read, but I'm always busy and the moments that were left without the textured paper against my thumbs and first fingers were excruciating and left me feeling anxious and rather gloomy. So, don't put it down as I had, even if it's two in the morning and you're on your second cup of coffee trying to find out if Nan will... (fill with anything.)
A Great Read!
Rating:
Summary: What a book!
Review: This is the first and only book I have ever read that is like this. I was at first truly appalled by the nature and wordings in the book. However, I was able to see the main character for what she was in a society where in those days that type of lifestyle was hidden (and still is in some societies) in closed doors. Awesome book. I enjoyed the entire book and was surprised a numerous of times with the character.
Rating: 
Summary: Tipsy Velvet
Review: I finally read Tipping The Velvet and was crushingly disappointed. It was a stuffed ottoman of a novel, all shell pink velvet and oyster satin ribbons, festooned with swags and bullion fringe, stuffed plump with clichés. I found the characters shallow, silly, and unsympathetic, the emotional overwrought and un-involving, and the plot was an amalgam of every other Must-Read Lesbian Novel I've ever given in and read. I simply don't understand why this novel was so popular, unless it was the leather dildo, which honestly made me absolutely screeeeeeam with laughter. Dear lord, how many of those porny little period books have I read? It was like The Oyster over and over and over again. In the interests of justice, it was well written, and very pretty. It was Evocative!(tm) Filled to the brim with the Sights! The Smells! The Sounds! of Turn of the Century England(tm). Oh, very. The author even managed to make wading through rivulets of blood in the meatpacking district Evocative!(tm). Sigh, again. I guess I was just expecting something more. I've actually had quite a bit of luck with the Must-Read Lesbian Novel genre: Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistle-Stop Cafe, Rubyfruit Jungle were all very, very good. And Nicola Griffith writes amazing genre novels, prose so clean you could eat off of it, as well as character, plot, and all that other yummy stuff, but is practically unknown. I don't know: I'm just cranky. I'll read Affinity, maybe see what all the fuss is about. I mean it wasn't a bad novel, not at all. I just expected it to be better than it was.
Rating:
Summary: Not as great or Dickensian as the reviews claim.
Review: After the glowing reviews I had to read this book. But I have read 138 pages, and am not overly thrilled with it. Yes, it has a homosexual theme, so must the author Sarah Waters use the word "gay" on every other page? I know she means "gay" in the olde tyme happy Victorian sense, but it's really heavy handed. And "fag" for cigarette? Yes, it's British, but seems so obvious, like she looked for a glossary of Victorian argot. And of course naming the protagonist Nan King (as in drag king, get it?). I don't really feel the Victorian-ness. It seems like a modern author who just did a little research. Not Dickensian in many ways. Waiting for the "good" parts. Ta.
Rating:
Summary: Truly an excellent author!
Review: Wonderfully told story, the teasing passion of first love is felt again as if one were experiencing it all over again, lesbian or straight. Historic details abound, but blend delicately into the tale. Sarah Waters surprised and delighted, and I am ordering her other two books right after I write this!
Rating:
Summary: The Best Book You'll Ever Read
Review: Sarah Waters is one of the most powerful writers I have ever experianced. She really paints the picture before and once you pick it up you'll never want to put it down. It is an amazing story of love, obsession, and truly finding yourself. It will leave you spellbound and speechless.
Rating:
Summary: More Emotional than Historical
Review: After reading Sarah Waters' brilliant "Fingersmith," I was a little disappointed by "Tipping the Velvet." The characters are fascinating and well-written, however I enjoyed the added historical interest in "Fingersmith." Despite my minor misgivings, "Tipping the Velvet" is an intriguing and absorbing story that will mesmerize the reader from the beginnning. Don't plan on having any spare moments once you have started this book. A word of caution; this novel is explicit in some areas. If you are uncomfortable with lesbian fiction-do not read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Tipping the Velvet means...
Review: "Tipping the Velvet" is Victorian slang for female oral sex. Great book, beautifully written with vivid detail and emotion. Authors gives surprising insight into notoriously conservative era.
|
