Lyall, Sarah (9 September 2014). "Weaving a Tale of Love and Death in London". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 14 May 2021. Women are bred to do more of the same - that is their function. It is only ladies like me that throw the system out, make it stagger..." a b Allardice, Lisa (1 June 2006). "Uncharted Waters". The Guardian. UK . Retrieved 24 February 2007.

Most people won't find the protagonist likable, but that's not a flaw in the characterization: Margaret Prior is neurotic, depressed, impressionable, obsessive, and vulnerable, but that's what drives the plot; if she weren't all those things, there would be no story. I always find it a rather brave move on an author's part when they choose to write from the perspective of a character that most readers won't be able to identify with, but would probably even look at with some measure of contempt. This reminded of an Arthur Conan Doyle story, "The Copper Beeches" but also more significantly of a Rudyard Kipling story, possibly "the sending of dana da" or something similar to it - the punchline to that story is very similar to this one here follows a spoiler nobody ever sees the servants . Sarah Waters is a favourite author of mine, with Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith being my particular loves. Waters strikes me as a unique writer, and her stories have delicious little twists that evidently make me very happy.Royal Society of Literature All Fellows". Royal Society of Literature. Archived from the original on 5 March 2010 . Retrieved 10 August 2010. Priscilla "Pris" Prior, Margaret's younger sister who is due to be married at the start of the novel.

a b c d Lo, Malinda (6 April 2006). "Interview with Sarah Waters". AfterEllen.com. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011 . Retrieved 17 November 2011. a b c d e Waters, Sarah. "Biography". sarahwaters.com. Archived from the original on 17 February 2007 . Retrieved 24 February 2007.urn:lcp:affinity00wate:epub:c673310d-5c9f-46c1-80f7-34c8b4fe465b Extramarc The Indiana University Catalog Foldoutcount 0 Identifier affinity00wate Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t1gj0kh53 Isbn 9781573221566 To pigeon-hole this book in any single genre is really difficult, as it would sit equally well as either a historical mystery/thriller, or a gay/lesbian novel, without being offensive in either. Best-selling author Sarah Waters, proving lesbian sex sells". www.out.com. 3 September 2014 . Retrieved 14 May 2021. Miss Madeleine Silvester, the girl in the sitting with Selina who is witnessed as being hysterical by Mrs. Brink shortly before her death. urn:oclc:799667236 Republisher_date 20120321083628 Republisher_operator [email protected] Scandate 20120320182102 Scanner scribe17.shenzhen.archive.org Scanningcenter shenzhen Source

Let's talk about feelings instead. This sense of emptiness and despair I am left with is so overwhelming right now, that it leads me to believe I might have liked Affinity even more than Fingersmith. I would go as far as to say what I feel now is pretty close to what I felt after finishing The Blind Assassin. The Victorian prison system was abysmal for inmates. The idea of spending years with the notion of no news of the outside, four visits from family a year, questionable food quality, poor healthcare in poor living conditions, religious reading only, nothing to write with, and your entire focus should be rethinking your life choices and how to be better. It made me wonder if this actually worked as a crime deterrent. There is a repeat inmate in the book so I'm not sure how well it works. An upper-class woman recovering from a suicide attempt, Margaret Prior has begun visiting the women’s ward of Millbank prison, Victorian London’s grimmest jail, as part of her rehabilitative charity work. Amongst Millbank’s murderers and common thieves, Margaret finds herself increasingly fascinated by on apparently innocent inmate, the enigmatic spiritualist Selina Dawes. Selina was imprisoned after a séance she was conducting went horribly awry, leaving an elderly matron dead and a young woman deeply disturbed. Although initially skeptical of Selina’s gifts, Margaret is soon drawn into a twilight world of ghosts and shadows, unruly spirits and unseemly passions, until she is at last driven to concoct a desperate plot to secure Selina’s freedom, and her own.

See a Problem?

What about Caroline? Readers have had their suspicions. “I know. But I honestly didn’t intend her to seem like a lesbian. I don’t think of her as butch. She’s hearty. She’s not glamorous. The 1940s wasn’t a good time for women to be a bit different.” Affinity is told from both Selina's and Margaret's perspectives. The reader feels as fascinated by Selina as Margaret is. Yet, she still remains an enigma, a mystery throughout the book. The story unfolds slowly, with each chapter pulling you in completely. This shouldn’t be a surprise if you’re familiar with Sarah Waters’ writing. She often includes the theme of sexual identity and exploration in her novels. I read The Paying Guests in 2017, and found it more suspenseful and faster paced. Affinity is a slower and more ponderous story, perhaps because of the epistolary style.