ImoReads… ‘Fingersmith’ (2002) by Sarah Waters

“And I couldn’t have kissed her, without wanting to save her.”

Matt Thorne from the Independent on Sunday calls Sarah Waters ‘one of the best storytellers alive today’ and after reading Fingersmith I can see why. Never have I been hit with so many incredible twists and turns in the same novel, making the story not at all what it seems at the start. 

Waters’ story is set in 1860s Victorian England, opening with part 1 as told from the perspective of our ‘fingersmith’ (a talented thief or pickpocket) Susan Trinder. Sue is an orphan who has been raised in a ‘Fagin-like den of thieves’ in the Borough, London by her adoptive mother Mrs Sucksby. An associate of Mrs Sucksby, Richard ‘Gentleman’ Rivers (who is by no means a gentleman), hatches a plan to seduce a wealthy heiress named Maud Lilly, but he needs Sue to pose as her maid and gain her trust in order to persuade her to elope with Gentleman. He then plans to have the vulnerable Maud committed to a mental asylum and make off with her fortune. Persuaded by Mrs Sucksby and a share in Maud’s fortune, Sue agrees. 

Upon Sue’s arrival at Briar, the imposing country house where Maud and her reclusive uncle reside, the reader will quickly realise that Maud is not a normal young woman. Summoned at specific times throughout the day to read aloud to her uncle and help him with his mysterious book indexing project, Maud’s entire existence is precisely structured with no room for deviation. Her behaviours and manners are bizarre and disquieting as a result of her extremely sheltered and restrictive upbringing.

Our first unexpected turn comes when Sue and Maud’s unlikely friendship turns into feelings of mutual physical attraction, which are brought to a head when Sue volunteers to ‘show’ the innocent Maud what may be expected of her on her wedding night to Gentleman. From here on out we begin to feel Sue’s agonising guilt about her continued involvement with the plot as she persists in persuading Maud to marry Gentleman despite her own feelings. I could feel myself getting more and more nervous along with Sue as the day of committing Maud to the mental asylum drew closer. 

THIS was the moment when I had to take a breath and go over what I had just read – Maud and Gentleman sit coldly while the doctors drag a horrified Sue out of the carriage and into the asylum, closing the chapter with Sue’s chilling words, ‘That bitch knew everything. She had been in on it from the start.’

I mean ???

Waters is truly the queen of unexpected plot twists and suspense. From this point forward, the truth is slowly unravelled, first from Maud’s perspective in part 2 and back to Sue in part 3, allowing the reader to piece together how the lives of these two girls have been linked by an ominous fate since birth. But, we only discover things when Waters allows us to. Her mastery of language is such that it is impossible to guess what’s coming next, but as soon as you discover it, you wonder how you could’ve missed it. 

What comes next is the unearthing of Maud’s sordid existence at the hands of her uncle’s erotic book fetish, and her discovery that she is the next victim of Gentleman’s deception. We have Sue’s daring escape from the asylum after months of hell and her fraught journey back to London to discover the truth.

As a reader, I felt myself becoming very agitated about the multiple ‘truths’ flying around and was anxious that Sue and Maud reunite so the actual (and again, shocking!) reality of the situation could be exposed.

And of course, these two young women were in love – despite obvious barriers of the time such as the perceived impropriety of same-sex relationships, especially between women, and the class divide between them – so I could not help but wonder what would become of their relationship.

I won’t reveal the biggest shocker of all about the intertwined destinies of the girls or whether they endure as a pair – this is for you to find out; Fingersmithis truly a fast-paced, surprising and vibrant novel that is impossible not to be drawn into.

Happy reading,

Imo x