In my last review, I talked about how Amitav Ghosh is an author I’ve fallen in love with and how I will read all his books. Sarah Waters is another type of writer. I started off liking the first book I read – The Little Stranger. Then I read The Night Watch and was a bit ho-hum about it. Then I read Fingersmith, which I loved. This is not an author I immediately fell in love with. This is an author who’s slowly working her way under my skin.
The best part is the sudden availability of her books both in book shops and in the library near where I live. This wasn’t the case even a couple of years back. I wonder if Indian readers have started to get more liberal, or maybe the book shops don’t even know what they are stocking. Whatever the reason, her books are suddenly available for me to buy and read, and I’ve been going crazy book shopping.
Tipping the Velvet: Summary
This delicious, steamy debut novel chronicles the adventures of Nan King, who begins life as an oyster girl in the provincial seaside town of Whitstable and whose fortunes are forever changed when she falls in love with a cross-dressing music-hall singer named Miss Kitty Butler.
When Kitty is called up to London for an engagement on “Grease Paint Avenue,” Nan follows as her dresser and secret lover and, soon after, dons trousers herself and joins the act. In time, Kitty breaks her heart, and Nan assumes the guise of butch roue to commence her own thrilling and varied sexual education – a sort of Moll Flanders in drag – finally finding friendship and true love in the most unexpected places.
~ Synopsis from goodreads
Tipping the Velvet: My Review
Tipping the Velvet is epic gay historical fiction. It first attracted my attention when the book blurb described it as a Sapphic Moll Flanders. Now, I haven’t read the original Moll Flanders (a classic and steamy novel by Daniel Defoe that chronicles the sexy exploits of one Moll Flanders). The original book is heterosexual for the most part, I assume. However, Tipping the Velvet is proudly lesbian.
Nancy realizes her sexual orientation when she first spots Kitty on stage. Soon she becomes obsessed with her and willingly leaves her loving family to follow Kitty around and be her dresser, and soon her partner.
This is how she describes her feelings about Kitty. Very touching, I thought, and very sweetly innocent.
“When I see her,” I said, “it’s like – I don’t know what it’s like. It’s like I never saw anything at all before. It’s like I am filling up, like a wine-glass when it’s filled with wine. I watch the acts before her and they are like nothing – they’re like dust. Then she walks on the stage and – she is so pretty; and her suit is so nice; and her voice is so sweet… She makes me want to smile and weep, at once. She makes me sore, here.”
Madly in love and completely deluded, Nancy doesn’t realize that Kitty is not as committed to the relationship as she is.
So far in, this book was pretty tame. After getting a brutal eye-opener, Nancy goes on the streets, and then her adventures start. But once Nancy leaves Kitty, she comes into her sexuality wise. She has casual sex with men (pretending to be a male prostitute), becomes a kept woman of a wealthy high-society lady, and eventually falls in love with the sensible Florence (Florence and Nancy in the image below from the BBC mini-series).
So what did I think about the book?
I enjoyed it. Tipping the Velvet is very different from the book I usually read. I guess that’s why I like Sarah Waters. She writes about a way of life that I know nothing about and have no experience with. So, it’s fascinating to get an insight into this lifestyle.
Where I had problems with the book
There was too much emphasis on sex itself and less on character development. The main character Fanny doesn’t seem to grow up at all. At times, she is thoroughly unlikeable (like when she abandons her family or when she deliberates seduces the maid and ends up getting both of them thrown out of the house).
Throughout the book, she thinks about only sex and love. Even when she’s thrown into the streets, I found it odd that she finally finds her calling (and a certain satisfaction) becoming a prostitute.
There is a brief moment where she tries to rationalize her actions by saying she is taking revenge on her ex-lover Kitty. But it’s beyond my understanding how her prostitution in any way is a form of revenge.
Her stint as a kept woman in the house of the wealthy widow Diana is shockingly and unapologetically erotic. If you are even a little prudish, these sections will be difficult. I had a little trouble with it. It wasn’t just the eroticism, but also how Nancy was kept bonded by her lover (unable to do anything without Diana’s permission).
The last time I had such an icky feeling was when I read 50 Shades of Grey. Yes, they are entirely different books, but the sex scenes make me feel the same way – they were a little too dirty for me.
Thankfully, soon Diana boots Nancy out of her house, and the story moves towards giving Nancy some character development and boosting other aspects of her character apart from her sexuality.
In my opinion, her redemption is the best part of the story. I loved how slowly and painfully she learned to acknowledge and develop other aspects of her character.
The finale in the book was a bit tame and didn’t redeem the weak middle portion of the book. Still, keeping in mind that it is Waters’ debut work, it is very original and unlike anything I ever read.
In conclusion
This is well-written “Victorian porn.” I don’t know how else to describe it. I loved the peek into a side of Victorian London I have never heard about populated by mashers, toms, renters, Mary-Annes, tarts (translation: male impersonators, lesbians, prostitutes, ???) and their patrons and keepers.
There are some creaky and troubling parts in the book, but overall a fun romp.
Have you read this book? What did you think about it?
I haven’t gotten to this one yet, but I really liked Sarah Waters’s other books that I’ve read, “The Little Stranger” and (especially) “Fingersmith”.
Fingersmith and The Little Stranger are my favorite books. Tipping the Velvet is good too, but not as good as those.
I have read this but it’s been yeeeeears, so I don’t remember the sexy stuff that well. I’ve been meaning to revisit it for ages — Sarah Waters’s books are marvelous, and I’d love to do a complete reread of her work. (Except I still haven’t read Affinity. I can never get into it!)
I have yet to try Affinity. I heard it’s a bit spooky, and that sounds like fun!