Review: Tipping the Velvet

Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

You know those books you love so much your words run away with you? This is one of them. Normally for a book I love this much I would write a review made of nothing but reaction gifs, but I just...can't. It took me so long to read this because I got sick and then busy with Christmas preparations.

This is my second reading after a very long time. My copy is very well loved by this point--taped at torn creases, bottoms of the pages stained with coffee, doodles in the margins (I promise I was still enthralled), and now as I read it a second time, I find myself highlighting my favorite passages—and trust me, there are many.

'You smell..' she began, slowly and wondering, 'like--'
'Like a herring!' I said bitterly. My cheeks were hot now and very red; there were tears almost, in my eyes. I think she saw my confusion and was sorry for it.
'Not at all like a herring,' she said gently. 'But perhaps, maybe, like a mermaid...' and she kissed my fingers..."



We follow the story of Nancy Astley, a Whistable oyster girl who falls in love with “smasher” named Kitty Butler (otherwise known as a crossdresser—tails and top hat and all) that she sees one night at a music hall. Though she has a beau, Freddy (played by Benedict Cumberbatch in the adaptation—HOW COULD YOU EVER LEAVE HIM FOR A WOMAN, I HAVE NO CLUE.) she has deep feelings that she can't understand, and of course, being the 1890s, her sister, Alice, who's supposedly her best friend, is prejudice when Nancy confides in her. Eventually Nancy leaves Whsitable and her oysters behind to follow Kitty to London to be her dresser. Without giving anything away, twists and turns ensue and Nancy passes through three different women during her adventures—Kitty, then being a toy for a masochistic group of lesbians run by the winner of Bitch of the Year award 1893, among many others, then finally to a sweet gentle woman named Florence who has a tragic past love story. The ending made me happy and just... It's so WELL WRITTEN!!! I was so so so immersed. It's laced not only with descriptive prose, but with actual music hall lyrics too.

“As I was a-walking down a London street
A pretty little oyster girl I chanced for to meet
I lifted up her basket and boldly I did seek
Just to see if she had any oysters..”
-(listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-BIY... )

After my first reading, I watched the BBC adaptation, and my adoration was sealed. But I had other books to read. So now when I've had the chance to read it again after almost 2-3 years, ugh reader I'm dizzy! Imagine a Charles Dickens novel set in music halls and the backstages of the 1890s (among also a seedy hedonistic lesbian underground, the back alleys of London, the Socalist parties of the 1890s..), mix that with girl on girl action...

Water's prose matches perfectly with the time period, descriptive and lush but unlike most of the Victorian's...unbelievably risque, nearing erotica. But it's not lazy erotica. It's a very decadent, atmospheric read. Just a big piece of red velvet cake, like the curtains on stage, or the curtains in other areas..You just get pulled right in and it's amazing. It's filled with sex and music halls and struggles and passion..

"I could not take my hands from her, but she seized my wrists and kissed my fingers and gave a kind of nervous laugh, and a whisper 'You will kiss the life out of me!'

The only thing that would've made it better would be to have pages of photographs of actual music hall performers, especially smashers, of this era. I also think it would be neat to hear what some of these songs actually sounded like.

A lush, sexy, 5 course meal of a book. I recommend it highly---to read again and again. A definite favourite. Brava, Ms.Waters! Brava!



View all my reviews