Tipping the Velvet (Virago V): Amazon.de: Sarah Waters: Englische Bücher

Amazon.co.uk

The heroine of Sarah Waters's audacious first novel knows her destiny, and seems content with it. Her place is in her father's seaside restaurant, shucking shellfish and stirring soup, singing all the while. "Although I didn't believe the story told to me by Mother--that they had found me as a baby in an oyster-shell, and a greedy customer had almost eaten me for lunch--for 18 years I never doubted my own oysterish sympathies, never looked beyond my father's kitchen for occupation, or for love." At night Nancy Astley often ventures to the nearby music hall, not that she has illusions of being more than an audience member. But the moment she spies a new male impersonator--still something of a curiosity in England circa 1888--her years of innocence come to an end and a life of transformations begins.

Tipping the Velvet, all 472 pages of it, is as saucy, as tantalising, and as touching as the narrator's first encounter with the seductive but shame-ridden Miss Kitty Butler. And at first even Nancy's family is thrilled with her gender-bending pal, all but her sister, best friend, and bedmate, Alice, "her eyes shining cold and dull, with starlight and suspicion". Not to worry. Soon Nancy and Kitty are off to London, their relationship close though (alas for our heroine) sisterly. We know that bliss will come, and it does, in an exceptionally charged moment. A lesser author would have been content to stop her story there, but Waters has much more in mind for her buttonholing heroine, and for us. In brief, her Everywoman with a sexual difference goes from success onstage to heartbreak to a stint as a male prostitute (necessity truly is the mother of invention) to keeping house for a brother and sister in the Labour movement. And did I mention her long stint as a plaything in the pleasure palace of a rich Sapphist extraordinaire? Diana Lethaby is as cruel as she is carnal, and even the well- concealed Cavendish Ladies' Club isn't outré enough for her. Kitting Nancy out in full, elegant drag, she dares the front desk to turn them away. "We are here," she mocks, "for the sake of the irregular."

Only after some seven years of hard twists and sensual turns does Nancy conclude that a life of sensation is not enough. Still, Tipping the Velvet is so entertaining that readers will wish her sentimental--and hedonistic--education had taken twice as long. --Kerry Fried, Amazon.com

Amazon.com

The heroine of Sarah Waters's audacious first novel knows her destiny, and seems content with it. Her place is in her father's seaside restaurant, shucking shellfish and stirring soup, singing all the while. "Although I didn't long believe the story told to me by Mother--that they had found me as a baby in an oyster-shell, and a greedy customer had almost eaten me for lunch--for eighteen years I never doubted my own oysterish sympathies, never looked far beyond my father's kitchen for occupation, or for love." At night Nancy Astley often ventures to the nearby music hall, not that she has illusions of being more than an audience member. But the moment she spies a new male impersonator--still something of a curiosity in England circa 1888--her years of innocence come to an end and a life of transformations begins.

Tipping the Velvet, all 472 pages of it, is as saucy, as tantalizing, and as touching as the narrator's first encounter with the seductive but shame-ridden Miss Kitty Butler. And at first even Nancy's family is thrilled with her gender-bending pal, all but her sister, best friend, and bedmate, Alice, "her eyes shining cold and dull, with starlight and suspicion." Not to worry. Soon Nancy and Kitty are off to London, their relationship close though (alas for our heroine) sisterly. We know that bliss will come, and it does, in an exceptionally charged moment. A lesser author would have been content to stop her story there, but Waters has much more in mind for her buttonholing heroine, and for us. In brief, her Everywoman with a sexual difference goes from success onstage to heartbreak to a stint as a male prostitute (necessity truly is the mother of invention) to keeping house for a brother and sister in the Labour movement. And did I mention her long stint as a plaything in the pleasure palace of a rich Sapphist extraordinaire? Diana Lethaby is as cruel as she is carnal, and even the well-concealed Cavendish Ladies' Club isn't outré enough for her. Kitting Nancy out in full, elegant drag, she dares the front desk to turn them away. "We are here," she mocks, "for the sake of the irregular."

Alle Produktbeschreibungen

Kundenrezensionen

2 Sterne

4.3 von 5 Sternen

Kundenrezension verfassen

Die hilfreichsten Kundenrezensionen

5 von 5 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich

Incredible and sensual 29. Juli 2000

Von Mystery Fan

Format:Gebundene Ausgabe

I loved this book. I have no better way to put it. I have made everyone at my local bookstore read it and I have recommended it to everyone I know who loves to read. This is one of the most moving and sensual things I have read in a long time. It made me care about the characters, even though they weren't always perfect. I don't care about that. It is nice to see real characters with human feelings and problems and not just cardboard cutouts who fit molds of good guy vs. bad guy. I felt for Nan many times and sometimes I wanted to shake her, that is what makes a good book for me. I cared. The love scenes were quite magnificent and the whole book is written like a love scene. You can smell Whitstable and taste the oysters and you can feel Nan's excitement when she first touches Kitty. That amazes me. As I said, I've recommended this to many and talked about it to everyone who will listen. It is definitely worth the price and the read, although I wouldn't try to devour it in one night or two. Read it slowly and enjoy it, savor it, it makes it that much better.

Kommentar |

War diese Rezension f�r Sie hilfreich?

Nein

4 von 4 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich

Well-written but underdeveloped 29. Juli 2000

Von Ein Kunde

Format:Taschenbuch

I enjoyed the author's sparkling prose and ability to set a scene. Her vivid portraits of people and places were excellent, and her depiction of another era certainly absorbed me. As several people have noted, the character of Nan King is quite lacking. I found her to be selfish, spoiled, and shallow--I didn't care what happened to her after a certain point in the book. I did not believe in her final love, which is a shame since the book started out so promisingly. I'd rather read about a person who endures hardship with their awareness of other humans intact. Nan did not redeem herself in the end.

2 von 2 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich

suspenseful 26. Juli 2006

Von Me

Format:Taschenbuch|Von Amazon best�tigter Kauf

I enjoyed reading that book because it has a lot of suspense. One thing that I have to criticise, however, were the long, extensive, boring descriptions of heterosexual situations and male organs in between (regarding the renting). The book in general does have its lengths in between. And there also still remains some superficiality to the characters. Another thing that disturbed me is that the "coming out" - problem wasn't really picked out as a central theme, although this was one - if not the main - reason for Kitty to break up with Nancy and be together with Walter. Too superficial.
Sometimes I really pitied Nancy alot, especially the breaking up - scene moved me close to tears. But altogether the characters did not have alot of personality and remain a little apparitional, in my opinion.
Nevertheless, this book is a good read. If you like a suspenseful, sometimes moving, clichéd novel with not too much intellectual demand and with a happy ending, then this book might be the right thing for you.