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"Gothic tale, psychological study, puzzle narrative...This is gripping, astute fiction that feeds the mind and senses."--The Seattle Times 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. As in her noteworthy deput, Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Waters brilliantly evokes the sights and smells of a moody and beguiling nineteenth-century London, and proves herself yet again a storyteller, in the words of the New York Times Book Review, of "startling power."… (more)
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Disclosure: I checked this book out from my local library but I'm thinking about buying my own copy as I enjoyed this one so much. Thanks to Andi for hosting this readalong and finally giving me the push to give this author a try!
I don't want to say much more about the plot for fear of giving something away. But let me say that I loved this book. It takes place in Victorian London, it has a Dickensian prison and wardens. It has psychics and mediums. Margaret is a lonely character. She does not want to marry or have children. She is haunted by her love for Helen and desperately sad over the loss of her intellectual father, the only one who understood her.
Margaret's story alternates with that of Selina's and we see how she ended up in prison.
Though I was not a fan of Waters' The Little Stranger which everyone else raved about, I thought Affinity was incredibly well-written, with fleshed out characters and a brilliant plot. Her descriptions of Millbank Prison, the matrons in charge of the women prisoners, and the prisoners themselves are very well researched, as are stories of the spiritualist community.
This book is a must, must read! It is very atmospheric and Gothic-like. In case I didn't mention it, I loved it.
my rating 5/5
Margaret is only interested in listening to the women speak of their experiences and describe their crimes rather than giving pious sermons to the women, as other lady visitors tend to do, and she is taken by the matrons around the jail to see how it is run, which allows the reader to get a comprehensive view of how things stood for women prisoners in 1874. It is rather obvious that Waters did thorough research for the novel and the details are many and quite striking. She writes beautifully and sets the mood perfectly so that one is carried along fascinating scenery in expectation of events to come. To some readers these scenes might seem too prolonged, but I found the details fascinating and as I listened to the audio version beautifully narrated by Juanita McMahon, was all too happy to be carried along the story at a deliberately observant pace.
When Margaret first sees Selina Dawes alone in her cell with her pale face turned to the sun, her attention is arrested. Selina is holding a violet, which she can't possibly have obtained from within the prison, so that its very presence there seems almost miraculous. Selina herself has a delicate and mysterious beauty, and soon Margaret visits her regularly and learns she is a spirit medium who is continually in contact with ghosts. Selina claims the ghosts bring her gifts, such as that violet Margaret saw her with. Furthermore, she says they can spirit her out of the jail anytime they wish to, but that they have a purpose for having sent her there, and soon it emerges that the purpose is for Margaret and Selina to have come together, for they are each other's Affinity.
But this is no simple lesbian romance story. And if one is patient enough and can enjoy the journey, the novel becomes a suspenseful ride which is impossible to put down in the second half and promises a big reveal in the end.
The eerry plot - with shades of a ghost story - is not the type of book that would usually appeal to me. For that reason, Affinity didn't absorb me in the way Waters's great novel, Fingersmith did. But is is a tribute to the quality of Waters' writing that I read the book quickly, and with real interest. I'd highly recommend it to anyome with a taste for eerry historical tales.
Waters' chief subject matter in all her novels is the lived experience of women, and what it means to be a woman. This novel is more like this than most - it barely even has any male characters at all. It examines the Victorian attitude to womanhood from almost every angle - from the timid and socially trapped young woman (already branded a spinster for being unmarried at 30), the attractive and therefore successful elder sister, the overbearing mother, the "fallen" women in the prison and the starchy matrons that keep them there, even the gaggle of women that attend Selina's black circles - all of these lives are laid bare for our examination, and feel real and complete, however fleeting a glimpse we get of them. One of the few male characters in the story makes a disparaging comment about how all women novelists can only write stories of the heart, a charge that may well have been laid at Waters' door, as her novels are brimming over with feeling, but in the fiendish plotting and an ending that left me reeling, there is evidence of a great deal of "head" as well. Truly, one of the best writers currently working, in my humble opinion.
Margaret Prior was an unmarried lady who was
Learning more about Selina’s plight, Margaret became more interested in spiritualism, and Waters masterfully wove Victorians’ obsession with ghosts and mediums into the story, allowing the reader to learn more about this aspect of Victorian culture. Eventually, Margaret’s interest in Selina became more deep and attached – to the point that Margaret agreed to aid Selina’s prison escape.
Margaret and Selina proved to be characters that were sympathetic and unforgettable. Margaret was emotionally fragile, unsure about her sexual orientation in a sexually repressed society – the perfect candidate to assist Selina. The young medium was depicted as someone lost; her innocence slightly suspect, but a character you hoped the best for (she reminded me of Margaret Atwood’s Grace in Alias Grace). Together, their relationship was emotionally charged and great to read.
I selected Affinity to read as my first book of October because of its ghostly elements. I was pleasantly surprised that I got much more than a ghost story. Affinity was a great psychological thriller and historical fiction novel. If you love these genres, then make sure to put this book on your TBR list.
During one of her rounds, she notices a solitary inmate, sitting in a semi-dark cell and clandestinely admiring a small flower within her hand. She learns from one of the prison matron's that the woman is Selina Dawes, currently being held due to a séance gone wrong. Intrigued, Margaret takes it upon her self to learn more about Miss Dawes and begins spending more time with her. As the days and weeks pass, Margaret discovers that she is more than simply intrigued by Selina and her world of ghosts and spirits, and as her infatuation grows, so does her plan to find some way to free Selina from Millbank.
The story is told through the pages of Margaret's diary so in a grand way, that affected my desire for Margaret to be happy. Reading her thoughts about her family, how her view of the world changed after her suicide attempt, her delight at the new-found experiences with Selina -- it makes the connection with Margaret that much easier and in turn tricks you into believing and feeling just as she does.
What makes "Affinity" work for me is what I would consider the twist near the end. I know that I should have seen it coming, but the story of Margaret and her interest in Selina and her connection with the spirit world had me so wrapped up that I found myself mentally nudging Margaret forward to pursue the relationship, always seeing the happy ending, just as Margaret did. But that twist....
It's a wonderful novel, filled with characters so well crafted you can almost sense yourself walking around Millbank with them. And the story drags you in and keeps you in its clutches until the very end, like a good story should.
I'll say this for Sarah Waters: she is damned good at evoking whichever time period she turns her hand to. This book feels exactly like a book set in 1870's London should feel. The characters'
Unfortunately, the rest of it doesn't quite live up to the set dressings. All the blurbs emphasize the tension, the subtlety, the clever twists and turns. And maybe this book is tense, subtle, and cleverly twisted if you don't know the story.... but COME ON, people! This's one of the classics! This story's been told a thousand times! I know it pretty damned well. I'd wager you do, too. I mean, yes, there's a lesbian twist, and that's a nice thing to see, but the bones are the same.
That's not to say that the story can never, ever work. It has been told a thousand times, after all, and some of those tellings are pretty durned compelling. I've thought about it a lot since I finished AFFINITY, and I've decided that it's a matter of trust. The author has to make you trust the story. She has to make you believe in the characters. And, in doing so, she needs to convince you that this is not the same story. This couldn't be the same story, because it if is... well, it's not, so we're not going to go down that road. You have to forget all about that. You have to trust the story.
Did I trust AFFINITY? Not for a bloody moment.
I think I might have, though, if I'd been able to feel for Margaret. There were a couple of times where Waters punched me in the gut, but for the most part I just couldn't connect with her. I wanted to. I tried my hardest. I told myself that I found her scholarly leanings, her repressed sexuality and her romantic failures heartwrenching, but I never really did. And, worst of all, I can't really tell you why that was the case. Characterization is a slippery slope. There is nothing wrong with Waters' portrayal of Margaret--in fact, it's quite remarkable, on a technical level--and yet she did very little for me.
So that's that. I'll leave it there, because I'm sure I've said too much already. This isn't a bad book, but it could have been much, much better. If you're a hardcore Waters fan, you probably want to check this out, regardless of my poor opinion; others, you'd do better to read FINGERSMITH or TIPPING THE VELVET instead. They've got a lot more going for them.
(A slightly different version of this review originally appeared on my blog, Stella Matutina).
Margaret Prior is recovering from a suicide attempt. After the death of her father she arranges to attend a local prison a few days a week to visit the prisoners - to talk and comfort them. On her rounds she meets Selina Dawes, and the
This book is a hard one for me to describe. This is the first time I have ever read anything by Sarah Waters, and having read the synopsis for the book I was quite excited to read it. I love Gothic novels and this one, with the hint of supernatural just sounded fantastic. Alas I came away feeling somewhat disappointed.
The novel is certainly a dreary one, and I often felt a little boring, crawling through pages of depressing monologue. I often found I had to put it down and read something a bit more entertaining and then return to it. On that notion I was planning to give this book only two stars, it was a little long winded for me.
But then when I finally finished the book (for it took me a while) I had the strange feeling that I’d just finishing something incredible. It deals a lot with social conventions of the time on subjects such as suicide and lesbianism, both punishable extremely severely, and the idea that because Margaret is a lady, her suicide attempt is swept under the rug. It has much to say about the double standards between different classes in the Victorian period. It also deals a lot with the prison system and how prisoners were treated in that time, there are some intense, almost frightening chapters in which prisoners are taken to solitary confinement, and the way they are horrifically treated.
The thing that stood out most for me was the mystery element. That I really enjoyed. The whole plot keeps you guessing, can Selina really contact spirits, or is a conjurer of cheap tricks? The whole story is a very sad and dismal love story. I also rather liked the switching of point of view for each chapter. Half the chapters follow Margaret as she goes to the prison, deals with her sisters marriage and her invasive mother, and the other half tell the story of Selina before she was imprisoned. I preferred Selina’s chapters myself as I found them more interesting, leaving little clues to the possibility of her being a medium or not.
Affinity is a very subtle and moving novel. It is filled with dense, bleak imagery that really does conjure up a very intense atmosphere of despair. This book may not be for everyone, but if you’re looking for something outside of the box, this one might be just what you’re looking for.
Affinity has several things going for it: it's beautifully written, with passages of the protaganist, Margarent's, elegant, lush, fevered prose alternating with short sections of the prisoner Selina's short matter-of-fact writings. It truly brings the world of Millbank prison to life; it's hard to come away from a description of it and not feel enclosed and cold yourself. Waters has a truly exacting eye for detail; the Victorian world comes to vivid life. It's also a crash course in spiritualism; without ever belaboring points or dragging the reader through tedious academic detail, you manage to learn a good bit about mediumship and the tricks of the trade as well as about the popular perception of mediumship in the 1870s. Waters has clearly done her background work.
And yet . . . it's hard to feel any true sympathy for Margaret. She has one clear insight into the differences of class that I can think of; otherwise, she seems blind to the fact that all the women in prison are lower class and obliged to kowtow to her (though the wardens often snidely point out that there are "ladies" there, too). Her prose can turn somewhat purple at times; whether this is intended to reflect her overagitated state of mind or is simply Waters getting carried away, I do not know, but it does wear thin and bog the novel down sometimes. And, as other reviewers have noted, the "mystery" to the novel is a little bit obvious; the big reveal isn't all that much of a surprise, which is disappointing. A few of the characters run to the stereotype: the obnoxious little sister, the overbearing mother. I would have liked to have heard more about Pa, would have liked to have more about him fleshed out, especially as he is so integral to Margaret's life. It's as if most of the work in characterization went into making Selina mysterious and hard to pin down, and the other characters were made a little less rich for it.
Still, the novel is an interesting snapshot of the repressive Victorian era: repressive in its sexual mores, repressive in its family structures, repressive in its morality, repressive in its beliefs, &c. It is morbidly fascinating to watch one woman's mind degenerate and bloom in other ways as she expands the limits of what she finds acceptable. It's like watching a flower blossom while knowing all the while that it must die.
Margaret Prior, in an effort to recover from a mental and emotional breakdown resulting in a suicide attempt over the death of her father, has become a Lady Visitor to the women’s ward of Millbank
Such is the context of this remarkable book. Waters spins out the story of the attraction between the two women to a totally unexpected end that blows the reader right of the water, so to speak. Structured as excerpts from both women’s diaries—Selina’s 2 years earlier than Margret’s entries—it is an excellent method for building the tension in the plot, giving nothing away until the very end. In addition, Waters has the fun of using the Victorian obsession with spiritualism as a focus of the plot.
Utterly integral to the plot as well are the conditions in women’s prisons of the time. Waters has clearly done her research; the effects on the women themselves are told through the story and are very dramatic as a result. What makes it even more horrifying to me is that in some ways, nothing has changed: there are still the sadists in today’s prisons, and those who truly wish to do well, to rehabilitate the women according to whatever moral standards prevail at the time.
Waters has a sure touch with her characters. Margaret’s fragility and vulnerability come through clearly, and Selina is an enigma. All the minor characters in the book whether Selina’s family, the matrons in the prison or the women prisoners themselves all have distinct voices. It is a remarkable tour de force that Waters can keep them all separate—and totally believable, especially Selina.
This is an outstanding read, another winner from Sarah Waters. Highly recommended.
The book, aside from
Overall, I did enjoy the book, albeit not nearly as much as Fingersmith.
Margaret Prior is a single woman of twenty nine who, following the death of her father, begins visiting London's Millbank Prison as a Lady Visitor. Lady Visitors were
The book is told in the form of diary entries - Margaret's longer sections being interspersed with Selina's shorter ones. Margaret's diary entries are very bleak and miserable, as she is trying to cope not only with the loss of her father, but also with her feelings for both Selina and her sister-in-law Helen, the expectations of her domineering mother, and the sense of being 'left behind' that she experiences when her younger sister gets married and leaves home. Selina's sections of the story are very vague and confusing and I didn't fully understand them until I went back and read them again after reaching the end of the book.
I enjoyed learning about life in a Victorian prison, as it's not something I've read about in so much detail before. Waters does a wonderful job of conveying the oppressive atmosphere of Millbank, with its labyrinthine corridors and gloomy wards.
I haven't read all of Sarah Waters' books yet so I can't really say where Affinity stands in comparison to her others, but I thought it was an excellent book - dark, suspenseful, moving and with some passages that were genuinely spooky.
This one started out pretty slow for me. Fingersmith and The Little Stranger were both more enthralling at the start, but I hung in there and the pay off was worth it. The beauty of Waters’ writing is the way it sneaks up on you and completely envelops you. Just when you think you have a pretty good idea how things are going to unfold, you get blindsided, but in a good way! I actually thought I knew exactly how it was going to end and I was a bit disappointed with what I thought was coming. Luckily for me I was completely wrong.
Calling this a mystery or ghost story would be ignoring the depth of the book. It is a gothic tale, but it also covers so many different topics: the vast divides in the Victorian class system, depression, sexuality, the nineteenth century obsession with spiritualism and so much more! While crafting this story, Waters lulls you into a false sense of security. You focus on the obvious things, the horrific scenes from the jail, Margaret’s struggle with her feelings for others, all of which are fascinating. But the whole time you’re looking right, a complex tale is being built off to your left and result is intense.
BOTTOM LINE: Waters has an incredible gift for crafting stories. Even if the story starts out slow, the end makes it all worthwhile. If you’re a fan of gothic stories this one is a safe bet.
The first half of the book I felt went a bit slow. There's a lot of set-up and description contained in the
Although I figured out the ending halfway through the book, I kept reading in hopes that it wasn't what I thought it was. The story is still suspenseful even if you've figured out what was going on.
This was recommended to me by someone who always spoils endings for me, but I'm glad that he did not spoil this one.
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