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Tipping the Velvet (Virago V) | 
| Author: Sarah Waters
Publisher: Virago Press Ltd
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy New: £3.76
You Save: £4.23 (53%)
New (27) Used (20) Collectible (2) from £1.27
Avg. Customer Rating:  40 reviews
Sales Rank: 46216
Media: Paperback
Edition: New edition
Pages: 472
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5 x 1.3
ISBN: 1860495249
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9781860495243
ASIN: 1860495249
Publication Date: March 4, 1999
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
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 outre 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
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| Customer Reviews: Read 35 more reviews...
 A revelation November 10, 2008
To be honest, I was dreading reading this novel. I hated the television adaptation and the only reason I did read it is because a friend let me a pile of fiction, it was the last one and I didn't have anything else to read. However, from the moment I began reading I was extremely impressed by Water's confidence writing style and reliable historical research. She is one of the best historical fiction writers I have ever read and I can't rate her highly enough. I believe Sarah Waters deserves to be mainstream. Highly recommended.
Lip Bitingly good August 31, 2008
My Sarah waters virginity was lost with "Fingersmith" (which i adored), so i naturally moved onto Tipping the Velvet. Unlike Fingersmith, there is only one character to focus on. Not that this was a bad thing however; in fact it made the book more intense. You could completly induldge in Nans thoughts, feelings, experiences and heart break. It was a deliciously smooth read which i found impossible to put down and shall re-read over an over. If you want to give your mind something to devour, then let it be Tipping the Velvet. You wont be dissapointed.
I feel I grew up with these two young women January 15, 2008
By Mr. W. Dover "aspiring nobody" (Duesseldorf, Germany) - See all my reviews
This story just takes you right inside the lives of two young women living in Victorian England. These central characters are both experiencing so many new things in their lives, yet they gradually find that they have fundamentally different motives and desires. Either they are greedy for admiration and fame, or they are falling in love for the first time.
Like Sarah Waters' more recent novel "The Night Watch", this book is tragic, but with comic moments and as such I think it a masterwork. Classical in its overarching themes of "coming out of the Garden of Eden" (and no pun intended about Coming out), or coming to terms with the world, it sweeps you along with the journey of the characters. Everything the women experience affects the reader in a way that cannot be described. As a male reader, not aware of any particular preconceptions, I watched & loved the TV series, then had to read the book (albeit several years later though).
A element common to great works of fiction, surely, is that the reader shares the emotions of the central protagonists, for better or worse, along the course of the story. And that's exactly what I found whilst reading this tale. Regardless of sex, or sexual persuasion "Tipping the Velvet" pulls you in and doesn't let go. "Unputtdownable" is a term much overused these days. Whatever your opinion on that, I recommend that if you enjoy historical fiction or not; if you identify with idealistic yet reckless (to use one of Waters' favourite words) heroines or not; if you can't abide people who use others according to their own whims and fancies, or if you find that irrelevant; if you want to escape into another time and place as if you never knew any other life; in short, if you are fond of books that enthrall and entrance, then this is the one for you.
I cannot emphasise enough how deeply this book moved me. It makes you want to go and dance on the stage, like the women do. A wonderful, fulfilling and uplifting story. Ultimately life-enhancing.
 A good read October 7, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
It's reputation as a Victorian lesbian bodice ripper having preceded it, I wasn't quite sure what to expect from Tipping the Velvet. I needn't have worried - it is an extremely well written book, which drew me into the story and kept me intrigued from the very start.
The main topic of the story is lesbianism in the 1890s, and as such it is pretty graphic at many points. Therefore readers who are upset by homosexuality or descriptive sex scenes of any kind should avoid this book. However, it is very well written with a strong cast of interesting characters and plenty of twists and turns in the plot.
I did feel that the story lost some of its momentum in parts 2 and 3, but it was still enjoyable and didn't drag. The ending worked well, and I was left feeling pleased I'd given the book a chance. I would recommend this to any reader over 16, as long as they aren't worried by the sex scenes.
A Lesbo-Victorian Romp September 10, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
...as jokingly described by Sarah Waters herself. But oh how much more than that it is. The story is that of Nan Astley, a young and naive oyster girl who falls in love with another woman, thus changing her life forever. We're taken into a great tale of showbusiness, the secret Victorian lesbian underworld, and so much more.
Sarah Waters' usual fantastic writing and imagination brings us yet another brilliant book.
Filled with sex, seduction, pain, heartache, violence, and all in the beautifully described Victorian era, this is a book you will not be able to put down until you have finished every word!
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