Tipping the Velvet

by Waters, Sarah
ISBN: 9781573227889
5 (2)
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Used - Trade Paperback - 9781573227889

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Overview

"Erotic and absorbing...Written with startling power."--The New York Times Book Review

Nan King, an oyster girl, is captivated by the music hall phenomenon Kitty Butler, a male impersonator extraordinaire treading the boards in Canterbury. Through a friend at the box office, Nan manages to visit all her shows and finally meet her heroine. Soon after, she becomes Kitty's dresser and the two head for the bright lights of Leicester Square where they begin a glittering career as music-hall stars in an all-singing and dancing double act. At the same time, behind closed doors, they admit their attraction to each other and their affair begins.

  • Format: TradePaperback
  • Author: Waters, Sarah
  • ISBN: 9781573227889
  • Condition: Used
  • Dimensions: 8.03 x 1.08
  • Number Of Pages: 472
  • Publication Year: 2000

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  • Dicken's with dark twists and wicked turns

    Olivia M. - 1 year 3 months ago

    Sarah Waters writes rich and riveting historical fiction with a touch of horror. Tipping the Velvet takes place in the 1890s Victorian England. Waters writing has been compared to Charles Dickens and like Dickens her plots are intricate and rife with injustice and inequalities. Waters displays the darker side of human nature with all of the hard edges intact. She weaves her stories with classism, sexism and gender issues adeptly and seamlessly entwining the details of terrible and strange passions and dark erotica into a brilliant tapestry of a darn good story. You will not be able to put it down! In Tipping the Velvet, prepare to be transported from a family oyster bar in Whitstable, Kent to the playhouses of London as well as to the seedy back streets and dark alley ways where the damned and the desperate play. If you like Tipping the Velvet, read all of Sarah Waters books but be careful! Reading Waters alone at night can make the dark of the night darker and the chill of the evening as cold as ice.

    HPB Staff Review

  • Gay, trans*, and utterly painful, finally with a happy ending

    Dakota S. - 4 years 10 months ago

    It's difficult to comprehend how one book can inspire so many different emotions, but that is what Sarah Waters was able to accomplish with this heartbreaking tale. Set in England in the 1890s, we meet Nancy, a plain, hardworking girl who shucks oysters in her family's restaurant. It is in her small town of Kent that she meets the unforgettable male impersonator, Kitty Butler. Nancy is inexplicably taken with her and the two are soon swept up in a powerful, yet secretive romance. However, don't let this seemingly picaresque opening fool you; this book is horrendously painful in the best way possible. As the book continues, you will get to follow Nancy/Nan/Nance/Neville through her highest moments on the West End, to her darkest days as a male presenting prostitute. Throughout it all, Waters is able to perfectly articulate the struggles of gender identity and sexuality, particularly in the unlikely setting of the Victorian era. There isn't much else to say, except you should be emotionally prepared before taking this book on. It isn't for the light of heart, but it is one of the best books I've ever read and an incredibly important novel for the LGBT+ community as a whole.

    HPB Staff Review