Book review: Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters.

What can I say about Sarah Waters' debut novel? Lust, desire and deceit... These are three words that conjure up in my mind when I think of Tipping the Velvet. From 1998, Tipping the Velvet follows the many lives of Nancy Astley. She goes through a variety of different personas and jobs, suffering heartache along the way. When she suffers heartache, it seems to truly damage her. However, she then seems to find something else, even if it is not as good as her previous way of life. What I loved especially about this novel is the ending. Everyone and everything seems to culminate together at the event that happens.

Another moment I loved was when Nancy and Florence are in the pub and people recognise her. This was a lovely reminder that of her time in the theatres and highlighted that people thought she was good in the theatres, not just Kitty. This is also where the meaning of 'Tipping the Velvet' is explained. I for one thing had no idea what it meant. Once I reached that moment in the novel, the novel became a lot clearer to me. Even if it is not the most important thing to know, learning something new is one reason I love reading.

The other thing with this novel is I loved getting to understand Victorian society more. I did originally think the novel would have been about how a woman struggles in Victorian society. Now Nancy does struggle throughout the novel, but that of course was not the only focus. Her many lovers provided us with a range of women loving women (WLW). Because of all of this, the novel has made me question how people people there were in the Victorian era with secrets like this. I am intrigued as I continually was throughout the novel. With the way Nancy's life was going, I kept wanting to know what would happen next. It was a good novel indeed! I am going to give Tipping the Velvet an 8/10.


Until next time,


Thomas (they/them).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bookshop visit 11: Lions Charity Bookshop, Hailsham, East Sussex.

Hi! Sorry for the delay in the blog post, the internet keeps playing up for me so I could not post yesterday when I planned to. For my blog post I am off on another bookshop visit. This time I found myself in the East Sussex of Hailsham where down Market Street in Hailsham. It is near North Street and High Street which is good for people visiting by bus or catching a train and then a bus to Hailsham as it has no train station itself. When you enter the bookshop it can come across as quite small. Despite this, I see the bookshop as small and mighty. You never know what you are going to get and that is what I like in a bookshop. Normally, it is fiction that I go for though they have some other stuff as well. I will say that if you want something specific then you cannot guarantee to get, though that often goes with a lot of second-hand bookshops. I must point as well that paperback books are priced at £1.20 which to me is a steal! Can you imagine wanting to get some Margaret Atwood books...
Read more

Bookshop visit 3: Oxfam Bookshop, Coventry, West Midlands.

Image
Welcome back to my blog everyone. It is that time of the month where I give you the ins and outs to another bookshop that I have recently been to. This time, it is the Oxfam Bookshop in Coventry city centre. When I was on my travels, I found myself in Coventry. Now having lived and studied in the West Midlands, I knew about this bookshop. Funnily enough this was not my first visit here. Just as I remembered, they have a nice range of books and music despite being on the slightly smaller side. I noticed they still had a little collection of Doctor Who stuff! I am a big Doctor Who fan. Anyway, as I went nosing around, there was one book that caught my eye. It was this book: Sculpted: Poetry of the North West  (2013) edited by Lindsey Holland and Angela Topping. There is an introduction by David Morley who I have read before as a poet, teacher and editor. The important thing here though is that I picked up a poetry book and April (in case you were unaware) is National Poetry Month! I ...
Read more

Fictional book review: Trumpet (1998) by Jackie Kay.

Image
 Hello again, sorry for being quiet here but I have not been doing good lately and have had to shut myself away. But fear not, I am back! I thought I would take you through some of my favourite books and whatnot regarding the LGBTQIA+ society. That includes LGBTQIA+ authors, themes such as lesbianism or queerness. I might also hunt down some LGBTQIA+ bookshops! To kickstart this run of the LGBTQIA+ theme, I have delved deep into my bookshelves to fetch out a novel of pure grief, greed and truth. For the first review of mine, I have picked Jackie Kay's melodic novel Trumpet . The reason I picked this novel is because this is different to most in the fact that Joss Moody, who the whole novel is about, is dead. Kay has written the book as if Joss is the protagonist even though he is dead. But that's just it... He is  dead and we don't  hear from/see his ghost. From Joss's wife, to his doctor, to even the vile reporter Sophie Stones, they all speak about him, relive what ha...
Read more