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Tipping The Velvet

Virago 50th Anniversary Edition
Series: Virago V S.
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( 77,143 ratings, 4,916 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters is set in Victorian England and follows the journey of Nancy Astley, an oyster girl who becomes mesmerised by the music hall singer Kitty Butler. As Nancy falls in love and explores her identity, she experiences a whirlwind journey through love, heartbreak, and self-discovery, set against a richly atmospheric backdrop of 19th-century London.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you're intrigued by a lush and evocative Victorian era setting, marked by its exploration of love and identity. It appeals to those interested in a deeply immersive narrative that combines romance, adventure, and the exploration of complex emotions against the backdrop of a vividly depicted 19th-century cultural scene.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

Part of Virago's Five Gold Reads: five reissues of significant titles representing fifty years of feminist publishing. Representing the 1990s, Sarah Waters's wonderfully lush, sensuous and bawdy debut novel set in the music halls of the late 19th century

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description
'Intelligent, witty and stylish' Independent 'Everyone's appetites will be satisfied' Elle Magazine 'Waters is an author to cherish' Guardian

Celebrating five decades of the feminist publisher, each of the Five Gold Reads represents an iconic moment in Virago's history, from the 1970s to today.

Piercing the shadows of the naked stage was a single shaft of rosy limelight, and in the centre of this was a girl: the most marvellous girl - I knew it at once! - that I had ever seen . . .

Sarah Waters's debut, a delicious reimagining of late-Victorian life, chronicles the adventures of Nan King, who begins life as an oyster girl in the provincial seaside town of Whitstable. Her fortunes are forever changed when she falls in love with a cross-dressing music-hall singer named Miss Kitty Butler.

When Kitty's career takes a glittering turn, Nan accompanies her to London as her dresser and secret lover, and, soon after, dons trousers herself to join the act. But this is only the beginning of Nan's adventures, in a novel that follows her through heartbreak, recovery and steamy sexual education, and sees her finally finding friendship and true love in the most unexpected places.

'It's a rare pleasure to discover a writer as assured as Waters' Sunday Times 'A first-class storyteller' Evening Standard 'Sarah Waters, quite simply, is one of our greatest writers' Sunday Express 'Waters' persistent picking apart of class is fascinating' Observer

Series: Virago V S.

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  • Tipping The Velvet
    'Intelligent, witty and stylish' Independent 'Everyone's appetites will be satisfied' Elle Magazine 'Waters is an author to cherish' Guardian Celebrating five decades of the feminist publisher, each of the Five Gold Reads represents an iconic moment in Virago's history, from the 1970s to today. Piercing the shadows of the naked stage was a single shaft of rosy limelight, and in...
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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Sarah Waters’ novel is celebrated for its intelligent and stylish reimagining of a lost lesbian history, filled with vivid sensual details and period slang. Reviewers praise her confident writing, blending precise, sensuous descriptions with irony and wit, resulting in a lively and highly readable debut. The book is noted for being a compelling, erotic, and absorbing read, offering a richly entertaining portrayal of 1890s London.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780349017426

Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 15 June 2023

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Virago Press Ltd

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 36.0mm

Width: 124.0mm

Height: 196.0mm

Weight: 380g

Pages: 480

About the Author

Sarah Waters, who was born in Wales, has been described as 'one of the best storytellers alive today' (Matt Thorne, Independent), and there can be no doubt that readers and critics alike have been gripped by her extraordinary imagination. Sarah Waters' first novel, Tipping the Velvet, won a Betty Trask Award, and was shortlisted for the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. Her next novel, Affinity, won the Somerset Maugham Award and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award while Fingersmith and The Night Watch were both shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Orange Prize. The former also won the CWA Ellis Peters Dagger Award for Historical Crime Fiction and the South Bank Show Award for Literature. The Little Stranger was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2009 and The Paying Guests was shortlisted for the Baileys Prize in 2015. Tipping the Velvet, Affinity, Fingersmith and The Night Watch have all been adapted for television, The Little Stranger was adapted as a film by Lenny Abrahamson, and Fingersmith inspired Park Chan-wook's film, The Handmaiden. Sarah Waters has been named Author of the Year five times: by the British Book Awards, The Booksellers' Association, Waterstone's Booksellers, Glamour Magazine Awards and the Stonewall Awards. In 2019 she was awarded an OBE for services to literature.

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    From the oyster huts of Whitstable to the music halls of Victorian London, Tipping the Velvet is the glorious first novel from this much-loved author. 'Piercing the shadows of the naked stage was a single shaft of rosy limelight, and in the centre of this was a girl: the most marvellous girl - I knew it at once! - that...
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