Affinity“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." |
Contents
3 August 1873 | 1 |
Part One | 5 |
24 September 1874 | 7 |
2 September 1872 | 31 |
30 September 1874 | 32 |
30 September 1872 | 53 |
2 October 1874 | 56 |
12 October 1872 | 72 |
10 November 1874 | 202 |
14 November 1874 | 205 |
10 March 1873 | 218 |
21 November 1874 | 220 |
23 November 1874 | 224 |
2 April 1873 | 231 |
28 November 1874 | 234 |
2 December 1874 | 242 |
15 October 1874 | 75 |
3 November 1872 | 92 |
17 October 1874 | 96 |
25 November 1872 | 104 |
21 October 1874 | 105 |
26 November 1872 | 118 |
Part Two | 123 |
23 October 1874 | 125 |
28 October 1874 | 157 |
17 December 1872 | 171 |
2 November 1874 | 176 |
25 January 1873 | 191 |
Part Three | 197 |
5 November 1874 | 199 |
26 May 1873 | 260 |
11 December 1874 | 263 |
30 May 1873 | 281 |
Part Four | 283 |
21 December 1874 | 285 |
24 December 1874 | 291 |
14 June 1873 | 301 |
15 January 1875 | 302 |
Part Five | 319 |
21 January 1875 | 321 |
1 August 1873 | |
Acknowledgements | |
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Common terms and phrases
afraid answered asked Brink called cell cheek Cheyne Walk close course curtsey dark Dawes's door Ellis eyes face feel felt fingers Fingersmith friends frightened Fulham gaol gate gaze girl glad glass gone gown grew grow hair head hear heard Helen hour Jane Jarvis Jelf keep kind kiss knew lady laudanum laughed looked maid Margaret matron Millbank Millbank Prison Miss Brewer Miss Craven Miss Dawes Miss Haxby Miss Isherwood Miss Prior Miss Ridley Mother mouth moved never night no-one nodded once Pa's pale passed perhaps Peter Quick Priscilla prison queer remember Ruth SARAH WATERS seemed Selina Dawes Shillitoe shook Silvester smiled spirit spiritualist spoke Stephen stepped stood suppose sure talk tell thing thought Tipping the Velvet to-day told took turned Vigers voice walked walls wards watched weeping whisper window woman women