Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters is the story of Nancy Astley, and the trials and tribulations she must face on the journey to self discovery and finding (not to mention holding on to) love as a young lesbian living in Victorian-era England. We follow her through a string of life experiences both good and bad, as well as a string of lovers both good and bad. Life at that time couldn’t have been terribly easy to begin with, but being a “masher” (Victorian slang for a male impersonator), a “tom” (a boyish-dressing lesbian), and at one point a “renter” (prostitute), Nan didn’t have much chance to have anything easy.

I have no earthly idea why I hadn’t read this book until now. I’ve been aware of its existence for many years. I knew it was hugely popular, and I knew that it had spawned a television mini-series (which I’ve also never seen – sad face). I just never got around to it – kind of like Anna Karenina which I only recently read – but unlike Karenina, which was a long, drawn out snooze-fest about a twit and her twitty life, I really liked Tipping the Velvet. It is not perfect, certainly, but for Waters’ first novel, it’s pretty damned great. She says in the afterword that it is “…baggy and overwritten. It lays the Victorianisms a bit thick. And Nancy, the narrator, who’s meant to be looking back at her younger self from somewhere in middle age, has, rather hilariously, none of the wisdom of age, but is still very much the self-regarding twenty-something whose adventures she describes…” I do tend to agree with her summary of the novel’s issues, as well as that Nancy “…needs nothing so much as a good kick up the arse,” but I think that the novel’s positives far outweigh the negatives. I also think that the inclusion of Victorian slang was actually pretty fun – I feel like I learned a lot of Victorian slang but also a lot of regular names of items that we no longer use today which was pretty neat.

Nan was a pretty well-written character – yes she was petulant at times, and stupid, and selfish, but beneath all that she was also still highly sympathetic. I liked her, and I wanted her to finally find some happiness with someone who wanted to be happy with her. I wanted her to forget about stupid Kitty forever, and live in her ‘now.‘ This story was an admirably strong debut, and I plan to read more of Waters’ work because of it.

4 out of 5 arbitrary items of rating. I enjoyed every bit of it. As I mentioned, there was a bit of roughness there, but again, for a first novel, surprisingly little. I do recommend.

Have you read Tipping the Velvet or any of Waters’ other novels? What did you think?