Affinity

In her novel Affinity, Sarah Waters takes us to Victorian England. Exploring a dual system of oppression, the prison system and the social condition of women, Waters weaves a master multi-layered tale. Imprisoned for a seance gone terribly wrong, Selina Dawes sits festering in horrific conditions in a women's prison. Margaret Prior, recovering from a suicide attempt, tends to the women and their needs as charity. These two women's lives collide, changing both forever. Affinity is a tale of forbidden arts, forbidden love, and forbidden social rights. The story unfolds in dense, complex layers, leaving the reader questioning motivations, actions, and the reality of the supernatural. The prose is elegant, drawing us into a tangled web of ghosts, fear, and ever-increasing tension. Hints of madness creep around the edges in classic Gothic tradition and the uncertainty builds to a feverish pitch.

If You Like: Henry James, Edgar Allan Poe

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This book was quite the departure from what I normally read. It was very dark, both literally and figuratively. The setting, Victorian England and Millbank Prison, was perfect for this sort of novel--Waters brought me to a place I have never been taken by an author. Millbank Prison was a fascinating place; the layout, the prisoners, the matrons, and the atrocities all left me breathless... intrigued in a completely voyeuristic way, as I certainly would not have wanted to be a participant on any level.

I wasn't a huge fan of Margaret Prior's, one of the main characters from whose perspective most of the novel is written. I certainly felt badly for her, but she never seemed to get out of her own way. She just sort of lied down and took everything people (and life) threw at her. She was weak. I think, though, that was Waters's point: she clearly highlights the idea of weak, oppressed women in Victorian England what with the ladies' swooning and frequent illnesses. This was an interesting look into the private lives of women during this time, although my studies in graduate school seem to point to people not having been nearly as oppressed as they are in Affinity. Then again, this oppression certainly makes for an interesting historical/sociological study in fiction (and I think this trend in critical theory is more recent than the publication of this novel).

On the other hand, I thought I really liked Selina Dawes, the Spiritualist prisoner at Millbank Prison to whom Margaret is attracted. She was meek, but she was not a weak character like Margaret. I greatly enjoyed her short journal entries interspersed throughout the novel... more so than I enjoyed Margaret's perspective.

I've just finished reading the novel, and I'm not going to lie, the ending has me more than a little ticked off. I'm so mad at the twist! Admittedly, I'm angry in the best way possible, and it made for great writing and saved what was, overall, a fairly slow-moving plot. I'm angry at Selina; I'm angry at Margaret... I don't want to say too much because I don't want to spoil this well-executed twist. Good job, Ms. Waters; your ending certainly has me sitting uncomfortably in your novel and it leaves me reeling still. A mark of a truly remarkable writer.

From the beginning, AFFINITY creates a mood of watchful caution: nothing is as it seems. Unclear whether asked to suspend belief and enter the world of the spiritual, the reader awaits the author's direction. If such a plane exists, is it real or fraudulent?
It is 1874 in London, at Millbrook Prison, where we meet Margaret Prior, a lady "Visitor" come to offer solace to the female inmates. Miss Prior has been ill, recuperating slowly since the death of her father, determined now to turn her energies on the less fortunate. Millbrook Prison is a huge ediface of gothic proportions, towers and tunnels and geometric patterns leading to the stark chill of individual cells. The greater part of each day is spent in isolation, the inmates given hand-work that they might earn their keep.
Almost thirty, Margaret Prior is on the threshold of spinsterhood, studious and well-intentioned. Her sister, Priscilla, is about to be wed. Then Margaret will be alone with their mother, as brother Stephen has married Margaret's former dear friend, Helen. These two women are closer in temperament and sympathy than the family ever suspects; Margaret must discipline herself at family gatherings, lest she gaze too often at Helen, or with naked longing. In her heart, she grieves deeply for this loss.
Miss Prior is interested in the lives of the women prisoners, their crimes, their hopes. She visits frequently and many become familiar, and each time she stops last at the cell of Selina Dawes, a spirit medium, jailed for fraud and assault. Selina seems a gentle, if lonely soul. Miss Prior is her solitary visitor, besides the spirits that whisper encouragement every evening when the lights are extinguished.
This is Victorian England at its apex, when women of Miss Prior's class are considered innocent and in need of comfort and protection. When Margaret forms an attachment to Selina, as of course she must, she keeps her thoughts to herself, speaking only through the pages of her diary. Margaret starts to entertain the idea that Selina may truly consort with the spirits, opening her mind to such possibilities, even as she receives her nightly sleeping draught, dreaming of Selina. The obsession appears to be mutual. Selina calls Margaret "Aurora", says she is her "affinity", two halves of one whole.
On January 20th, Miss Prior visits Selina a final time as they have chosen this night for Selina's escape. With assistance by her "spirits", Selina promises to come for "Aurora" before the light of dawn. For her part, Margaret has made secret preparations: passports, travel arrangements, clothing, adequate funds.Whether the escape occurs, how it happens, and the consequences create the tension that brings AFFINITY to life on each page. Ms. Waters virtually beguiles the reader, leading slowly through a twisting maze, as she leads us to the ending of her masterful tale.

A story with gothic atmosphere, AFFINITY is set in 1875 London. The narrator, Miss Margaret Prior, is an upper class woman on the verge of turning 30, and when we become acquainted with her, she is making her first visit to Millbank Prison. She is to be the Lady Visitor-someone who comes to visit and motivate the pathetic denizens locked up for everything from petty crimes and prostitution to murder. Very quickly she becomes compulsively interested in a young woman, Selina Dawes, a spiritualist and medium in jail for harming a young girl and for involvement in the death of her benefactress.
Miss Prior's elaborate descriptions of Millbank, the incarcerated women, and her daily life at home soon reveal that she, too, is locked in her own private prison from which she has no way to escape. She's already had one "nervous" episode nearly resulting in her death. This followed the betrayal of a woman with whom she was smitten and the death of her dearly beloved father. She is a woman locked in a world with social mores that do not allow her to be herself-nor even to know who her real Self is. Only Selina has managed to introduce a little magic into her life.
With each passing week, the story builds in intensity as Miss Prior visits the dismal Millbank and attempts to see Selina Dawes as often as possible. Though she fights it, little by little, she surrenders to her feelings for the other woman. Will Selina manage to escape and will Miss Prior assist? Is the young woman truly innocent and wrongly convicted? We get clues from periodic diary entries made by Selina, but the mystery of the spiritualist's past is not revealed until the end.
AFFINITY has a feel much like the gothic novels of old, and the style and tone made me wonder if Waters could possibly be the spiritual daughter of Emily Brontë and Mary Shelley. The story's impact quietly creeps up on the reader until the surprising denouement, which, though it seems to come out of the blue, I realized I should have seen coming. I found myself thinking of this novel and Miss Prior's horrendous predicament for weeks. AFFINITY leaves a mark.
~Lori L. Lake, Reviewer for Midwest Book Review, [ ], and The Independent Gay Writer.

Arguably, Sarah Waters is one of the most prolific contemporary authors of Victorian fiction. She has a gift of creating realistic and three-dimensional female protagonists immersed in a Victorian London setting that comes alive. In AFFINITY Margaret, a young spinster, is battling many personal demons. Her beloved father recently passed away, her secret lover chose her brother over her, and her overbearing mother is treating her like a child. Margaret's world takes a turn when she volunteers as a Lady Visitor for Millbank, a London gaol set along the banks of the Thames. As she immerses herself into the lives of the female prisoners Margaret becomes enchanted with one particular prisoner named Selena who is incarcerated for fraud and assault during one of her spiritualist sittings. The relationship between Margaret and Selena develops into deep friendship and love containing aspects of spiritualism that threatens the well being of both women.
Similar to FINGERSMITH, Sarah Waters provides enough plot twists and turns to keep the reader's attention along with an unanticipated ending. It was truly difficult for me to put this book down as I simply had to know what was going to happen next. Thinner than her two other novels, AFFINITY still packs a punch by providing an enduring plot with insightful characters. Despite my enjoyment, my main complaint centers on Waters' consistent use (or lack thereof) of quotation marks and punctuation. This aspect often interrupted my flow of reading and soon became a distraction. In addition, the narration often jumped from first to third person and it was somewhat too jolting for my comfort in many sections of the book. Despite these technical qualms I recommend AFFINITY to those who enjoyed her other books (FINGERSMITH and TIPPING THE VELVET) and by fans of Victorian fiction in general.

"Affinity," by Sarah Waters, is a dark Victorian novel that takes an interesting look at the Spiritualist movement and the Victorian prison system. The protagonist, Margaret Prior, ventures to Millbank Prison to council the prisoners and make them be fine, respectable women like herself. Inside the prison, Prior meets Selina Dawes, a spirit medium with the face of an angel. Prior and Dawes strike an unusual and sensual friendship which threatens to unroot Prior's whole world.

"Affinity" was definitely not what I expected. That is not to say I did not thoroughly enjoy it. I am a huge fan of the Victorian novel, so I was very pleased with this fan, although I admit it took me quite some time to actually bring myself to read this novel. Affinity sat on my bookshelf for almost a year and I just could not pick it up and read it. The time obviously came though.

The look at the Victorian Gaol system and the Spiritualist movement was quite interesting. Also of interest were the lesbian undertones in this novel. The novel is very female-centric with all of the emphasis on female relationships. Margaret is very obviously a lesbian. She was in love with her best friend, Helen, who was apparently in love with her at some point, but forsakes Margaret for Margaret's brother, Stephen. Margaret and Seline develop a lesbianic attachment to each other that goes beyond simple, female friendship. The way in which Waters conveys this relationship to the reader is rather ingenious. Waters is an author I will definitely be keeping my eye on.

Sarah Waters brings to life this intricate story of a friendship that builds between two women of very different backgrounds.
Margaret Prior is a young women from an upper class family who is recovering from deep depression and an attempt at suicide. On the advice of her doctor she decides to become a "Lady Visitor" at the prison. Her duties as such are to inspire the imprisoned women to aspire to a more virtuous life than the ones that got them incarcerated. Through conversation, example and encouragement it is believed that "Lady Visitors" will transform lives the unfortunate women's lives.
Selina Dawes is a prisoner. She is a self professed medium with an uncanny abilty. One of her seances goes horribly wrong, landing her in prison.
Margaret and Selina's lives collide, leading to a deep emotional bond. The question becomes who or what is the driving force that compels Margaret to go to any means to maintain contact with Selina.
The world of spiritualism and seance weaves its way throughout this amazing tale and the perception of reality becomes stretched beyond its normal bounds.
Sarah Waters breathes pure life into a story of betrayal, hope and trust, where the lines of truth and fantasy blur. She is without doubt a gifted writer.

Margaret Prior is a very proper young Englishwoman. She is a Lady Visitor at Millbank prison; meant to show the wayward ladies how to behave themselves in an upright, appropriate fashion. One prisoner intrigues her more than the others, and this is where our story takes flight.

Sarah Waters has a masterful grasp of Victorian London - the deadly smog, the dismal prison system, and the severely limited opportunities for women. The world of spiritualists and their craft is also explored in some detail. Waters writes in a style that pulled me in and refused to let me go until the final page was turned, at which point the story still wouldn't release me. I've spent a great deal of time since finishing the book, thinking about its twists and turns and how I might have reacted to some of the situations in which Miss Prior found herself. I was thoroughly surprised by the ending (a rare feat nowadays) and I cared a great deal about the main characters.

If this is an indication of Sarah Waters' writing style, I'm very excited to read her other novels. An author with this sort of gift for storytelling comes along but rarely, and should be celebrated.

Affinity is more polished than Waters' previous award-winner "Tipping the Velvet". While Tipping the Velvet was an epic of love and position lost and gained over a lifetime, Affinity focuses on a short period of time and two main characters. The scope of this novel is as tight as a short story, with no trailing pieces left unresolved. There is definitely a Gothic touch, with the dark brooding prison, the yellowish London fogs, and the black mourning clothes that the heroine must wear. This book could be described as a mix of the mysteries of Sherlock Holmes with a Dickensian critique of Victorian society.
The story is about a Lady Visitor, Margaret, who begins visiting the women of Millbank prison because charity work should help get her mind off her dear father's death. There she meets Selina Dawes, a spiritualist who is jailed for an assault that occurred during one of her seances. There are many mystical things that happen in this book, and the reader is left to puzzle out whether to believe in the spirits or look for a logical explanation. Margaret herself is a skeptic, not sure whether to believe in Selina's tales of spirit friends.
The ending comes as quite a surprise, and like the Sixth Sense or Fight Club, will have you paging backwards to look for the clues you missed.

"Affinity" is a well written, darkly intense novel about an extremely complex woman, Margaret Prior, and her singular love affair. It is also a tale of psychological suspense - a literary mystery with an ending that certainly caught me off guard. Author Sarah Waters paints a vivid picture of upper middle class life in Victorian London, as well as the period's grim women's penal system. She also writes with passion and sensitivity about "the "love that dare not speak its name." The novel delves into Victorian spiritualism as well, and is actually a gothic ghost story of sorts.

Ms. Prior is a not-so-young woman rapidly approaching spinsterhood. In 1874 London an unmarried female nearing the age of 30 is considered a spinster with the definite connotation of "old maid." To be truthful, until about 40 years ago the same could have been said about an American women of the same age! However, a single American woman of the 1950's and 60's would have had infinitely more personal freedom than her cloistered, over-protected Victorian sister. Margaret is recuperating from a nervous collapse which resulted in her attempted suicide by overdosing on laudanum. Her family, with their typical Victorian morality, accustomed to repressing and denying unsuitable feelings and actions, thinks that Margaret's illness is the result of the sudden death of her beloved father. His demise has caused her pain, but not as much as her broken heart over a fickle lover. Her former love is now her sister-in-law, Helen, who married Margaret's brother, (of all people). Ashamed of the lesbian affair Helen impulsively decided to conform and lead the socially accepted life of a married woman. To do otherwise would have meant being totally ostracized by her peers. Her constant proximity as a new family member has made Margaret desperate to get out of the house and away from everything that reminds her of her loneliness, loss and betrayal.

Thus, Margaret is induced to visit the women at the local prison on a regular basis as a form of therapy - to involve herself in the wider world. She becomes a "Lady Visitor" at one of London's grimmest prisons, Millbank, where "murderers, poisoners and common thieves" spend seemingly endless days and nights alongside convicted debtors and beggars. It is a harsh and terribly sad existence which offers no hope to the inmates. Millbrook Prison epitomizes the Gothic edifice, with numerous towers, labyrinthine tunnels, endless corridors laid out in geometric patterns leading to dank, dark cells where most prisoners spend each day in isolation. Long after I finished the book I was left with the image of the huge building looming over the Victorian landscape, offering meager shelter to those who dwelled within its claustrophobic confines. Ms. Waters creates an atmosphere that is downright creepy.

Selina Dawes is an inmate at Millbank. A well-known spiritualist and medium in the increasingly popular subculture of the pseudo-sciences, she has been imprisoned for assault and fraud after a séance she was conducting went horribly wrong. It resulted in the death of her benefactor and an adolescent girl's nervous breakdown. Ms. Dawes, a seemingly gentle young woman, is filled with despair at her situation and honestly blames all that has gone awry on a ghost. Margaret finds herself drawn to the apparently innocent and enigmatic inmate, although she is initially quite skeptical of her story. Through a series of mysterious occurrences Margaret finds herself believing more and more in the shadowy world of the supernatural. As the secret relationship between the two women develops in intensity, Selina tells Margaret that she is her "affinity"- that together they are two halves of one whole. There must be a way for them to be together.

From her three-dimensional characters, the clear depiction of bourgeois Victorian life to the Dickensian misery in London gaols and the thriving spiritualist movement of the period, Sarah Waters has created a compelling, powerful novel. I really cared about the intelligent, sensitive Margaret. Her isolation and stress at repressing her most intense feelings are palpable, as is her longing to love and be loved. Margaret's narrative, through journal entries initially undertaken to record her progress as a Lady Visitor, is juxtaposed with Selina's pre-prison story. An excellent read! Absolutely unputdownable!

JANA

Spiritualism as a preoccupation of the Victorian's is in itself an intriguing subject but, cast in Sarah Water's lucid prose and from the perspective of the way fraudulent mediums often exploited upper-crust ladies this is a particularly interesting book. Such ladies were quite often easy prey in so far as they were sometimes eager to give credence to any medium who promised to deliver them from the comfortable life which was nevertheless suffocating in its expectation that they adhere to the tight social norms of their station.

The portrait of Margaret Prior, visiting the gruesome rawness of the inmates' life at Millbank Prison , herself already a fragile and deep depressive, is very sobering. The father she adored, having died, Prior has to struggle for a purpose outside a life which was a protected one.

A book mercifully devoid of any sensationalism.

Tonight I will sleep fitfully, haunted more by a young spiritualist than by her spirits. Artfully crafted, using imagery that springs to mind so vividly one would think it a memory, Sarah Waters has fashioned yet another masterpiece.

The year is 1874. Selina Dawes, a mysterious and powerful young spirit-medium is imprisoned in a monstrous and daunting women's gaol, Millbank. Jailed after a botched spirit-communication lead to the death of her patron, Selina is visited by no one but her spirit friends until a local mistress comes to visit the prisoners.

The visitor, Margaret Prior, is a young lady of London, highly educated and brought up as assistant to her late father, an arts professor. Despairing his absence from her life, Margaret travels about in something of haze--looking for something she knows not what. When she encounters Dawes, Margaret is simultaneously scared witless by the girl and entranced by her power. The women's relationship builds with Margaret learning more about Dawes from newspapers and first hand accounts, than from her fleeting and bewildering encounters with Selina.

Interspersed with short journal entries from Selina's days as a burgeoning spirit-medium conducting séances, the story follows Margaret's research as she seeks to uncover the mystery of Selina's past, her powers, and why she is so affected by her. Although the reader is not privy to Selina's current thoughts, her journal entries, coupled with her unexplainable powers and knowledge of the spirit realm make her enticing and irresistible. In stark and painful contrast to her exciting prison visits, Margaret's everyday life unfortunately is constantly rearing its ugly head. Her sister is getting married and the preparations fill her days with a dreary stupor.

Although Affinity could hardly be called frightening, it is nevertheless haunting. Descriptions of landscapes, buildings, rooms, etc. feel so intensely ominous that they end up being far scarier than accounts of the spirit encounters. Affinity's characters can be trusted to illicit your empathy, pity, sorrow, hatred, wonder, love and lust (and in my cast jealousy). Being at once a tale of impropriety and youthful indiscretion between girls, and a bildungsroman of Margaret's spiritual and sexual development, one cannot but feel compassion toward its struggling young lovers.

Sarah Waters is proving herself a force to be reckoned with in the field of lesbian literature with this rather ambitious second novel. Set in Victorian era England, Affinity tells the story of Margaret Prior, a lonely spinster who has chosen to visit the women's ward at Millbank prison where she becomes fascinated with Selena Dawes, a medium convicted of murdering her client.
The strength of this novel rests on Waters' gorgeous use of prose and her ability to take the reader deep within the psyche of her characters. We are given a glimpse into the life and mindset of a woman who will never fully realize her potential because of the constraints placed upon her by the society in which she lives. Her one attempt at breaking free of societal constraints results in a catastrophic breakdown from which she has yet to completely recover. As a result, she forms a very deep attachment to Selena Dawes with disastrous consequences.
Unfortunately, the very strengths of this novel also tend to be it's worst flaws. The over-reliance on flowery prose gives this work the appearance of being a 352 page poem that lacks the structure of a well organized novel. As well, the author's habit of going back and forth in time leaves the reader feeling more than a little confused and frustrated. Despite these flaws, Affinity is a beautifully written novel that revels in the art of language and atmosphere.

In a novel whose plot revolves around a spisterish lady in 19th century England who visits prisoners at the goal (prison), Waters shines as an author. Margaret Prior visits those lonely souls at the gaol in Victorian England where she meets Selina Dawes, a self-professed medium/spiritualist in prison for doing harm to a young girl and causing the death of her hostess. Reading this book I wondered to myself if Sarah Waters hadn't perhaps been in communication or channeling the spirits of Anne Radcliffe and/or Jane Austin as she was writing. Affintity is a sensous novel delicately written in a hybrid of gothic and Victorian styles with the sensibility of the 21st century. Waters' writing style is beautiful, her prose luminescent and descriptive without being overly descriptive as to take away from the plot. This novel is creepy, with high tension without being melodramatic or artificial. In short I happily recommend this novel to readers no matter what their tastes normally run to, it is suitable and appealing on many levels, to an eclectic audience. So if you're looking for a good Victorian novel but have read all the Bronte Sisters' and Austin's not to mention many other fine female novelists of the period go read AFFINITY.

A thriller set in Victorian England, I stayed up late into the night finishing this one. There were many twists & turns and the ending was a total surprise, the ending actually left me feeling outraged. I will read this again sometime soon to see what little details along the way I missed the first time.
The story is of a high-strung spinster who becomes a regular "visitor" to a women's prison where the conditions are wretched. She meets a woman inmate who was a practicing spiritualist before being imprisoned and is still apparently in touch with the world of spirits.
I have also read Sarah Waters' "Tipping the Velvet" and enjoyed that as well, another Victorian setting, but more "bawdy", a lesbian coming out story. "Affinity" is for anyone who enjoys occult thrillers, historical novels or the spiritualist period in Victorian England.

Having enjoyed Waters' TIPPING THE VELVET, I brought AFFINITY along on vacation (mostly, I'll admit, because it was one of the few paperbacks I had handy and wanted to travel light!). What a wonderful read! Set in the late 19th Century, this book captured me from the start with page-turning prose not often found in current writers. Waters' prose reads like Daphne Du Maurier's - musically poetic yet abundantly understandable. This is the (fictional) story of Margaret Prior - a woman of means in 19th C. England who, because she's at odds with Victorian society, becomes involved with an emprisoned psychic spiritualist. I won't spoil the plot, but suffice it to say there are many twists and turns!

This book evolved in a way that left me feeling I was hands of an adept writer. I was, quite simply, engrossed.

If you are looking for excellent suspense novel, this is something that exceeds the expectations. Only if you are looking for something better than "Fingersmith", you may be a trifle disappointed.

"Affinity", set in London of the 1870s, is a story of Margaret Prior, an unhappy, miserable and ultimately pathetic woman who after her father's death and her companion's marriage to her brother tried to commit suicide. The attempt was unsuccessful and depressed Margaret had an idea to become an official Lady Visitor of the Millbank prison at the women's ward. She meets there a lot of characters, the inmates as well as guardians (called "matrons") and forms a relationship (an affinity, as she believes) with a very exceptional girl, Selina Dawes, who in her past was a spiritual medium. In parallel, we are given the fragments from Selina's diary a couple of years ago, explaining the circumstances leading to her sentence. The "affinity" between the two women develops into an obsession on Margaret's part, and she desperately wants to help Selina get out of prison and start a new life together with her.

The plot is very clever, even for someone like me, who as a natural sceptic is suspicious of all the spiritualist movement and thinks the believers pathetic. I could predict the general direction but there were unexpected turns, and clues so ingeniously hidden that there was a surprise in the end. Waters definitely has a talent for detail and suspense, and

although, as I said earlier, this book is a little less perfect that "Fingersmith", but it is much better than "Tipping the Velvet". The author demonstrates a great writing skill and her familiarity with the Victorian times is remarkable. The whole atmosphere and behavior of the people of that era, their restraints, hypocrisy, and at the same time a certain naivety are depicted fabulously.

The Author:
Did thorough research of Victorian Era culture, geography, sociology, psychology and history. Articulate and beautiful words. The Queen's English may sometimes be very difficult to understand, however in Sarah Waters' writing, the language smoothly levitate off of the pages and absorb your soul to the point of you palpating the pulse of the characters and their stories unfolding. The skillful use of language were used to separate the narratives aristocratic social elite Margaret Prior to the street-wise caddish delinquent Selena Dawes. Cleverly weaving each plot points and devilishly fooling you until the end! Bravo Ms. Waters!

The Novel Plot:
Depressing, creepy, and heartbreaking.
Devastated by the recent passing of her very dear father and a recent failed suicide attempt, Margaret Prior occupies her time by volunteering at Millbank prison as a "lady visitor", one who provides company to and hope to reform for the women residents of Millbank. While there, she meets and befriended Selena Dawes.

Selena Dawes is a medium, incarcerated for murder. All the rage during Victorian England was holding seances. During one of said seances, Selena's sponsor (they say patron) dies. She was ... scared to death. Selena denies any wrong-doings and attributed the death to a very naughty spirit, Peter Quick.

Margaret was at first skeptical. Strange things started to happen. Items would mysteriously dissappear while other items appear to and from Margaret's residence and the prison. During the many visits and hearing Selena's tale, Margaret came to trust, believe, and falls in love with Selena. Selena claims to reciprocate the feeling.

We discover from Margaret's journal that the feelings she has, the way she thinks, and how she wants to live her life, that she is a lesbian. Of course Margaret didn't know what it was called or who she really was because of the stigma of one with "unnatural fansies" during 17th century England. Margaret had a really close friend, Helen. It was only suggested that they were really close and that there really weren't any physical romances between them, however, the emotional love was there. Helen couldn't bear the idea of being different, hence, she married. She married Margaret's brother.

So, finding and meeting Selena, Margaret felt alive again and fell heads-over-heels. With time, Selena convinced Margaret to help her escape Millbank.

The end is too good to reveal. Invest the time. Have the heart and patience through the first 100 pages, you will be rewarded. Pay attention to the different narratives.

Please do yourself a favor -- if you like historical fiction, and especially if you like Victoriana, read this book. You won't be sorry; it's among the best of the best.

Now, do prepare yourself for the fact that there is not a lot of action in this book, beyond psychological action. It's a thinking person's book. However, it is quite suspenseful and the characters are fascinating, so you won't mind the fact that the events aren't happening at the speed you may be used to.

I gave this book four stars and not five because of some uneven editing in the book, especially in the antagonist's diary entries.

Overall, however, this book is top-notch. Read it and like it very much.

BTW, this isn't a "lesbian book" as it is often billed. There's nothing sexy in this book, and nobody comes out of the closet as a lesbian; it's all implied.

Kudos to Ms. Waters for writing yet another beautifully crafted story! I did not get into this book as easily as I did with Tipping the Velvet, but I wasn't any less fulfilled by novel's end. Sarah Waters's words teem with life and her characters are expertly developed. Affinity was a gripping tale, masterfully created--slowly but surely--to horrify and mystify the reader. It does take 100 or so pages to get the plot rolling, but after having completed the book, I realize the pace of the novel was necessary to the entire flow of the story. The ending did a complete 180 from what I expected it to be. I was on the edge of my seat and holding my breath while reading the conclusion to this fascinating novel. You will too.

Waters is able to create a strange moody literary landscape--one that would never be in a bestseller. For me this is refreshing and interesting. Waters crafted the beginning and middle of the novel very painstakingly--I appreciated the craft but at times I wanted a little more variation in pace. She actually takes you into the musty constrained world of a slightly hysterical spinster--and makes it interesting because she unearths the passion underneath the surface.

The ending felt a little rushed--but this might be because it was jarring and sudden for the protagonist and Waters brought me into her world.

All in all a worthwhile read that takes you to another time and place!!

Sarah Waters' Affinity is a beautiful novel. The author captures a time with tremondous skill and evokes a atmosphere, both Gothic and Victorian, until it is practically dripping from the page. Her real skill is in providing a story that is as absorbing as the atmosphere swirling around it. This woman visitor, Margaret Prior, to the women's ward of Millbank prison provides a character and a narrative voice to carry the reader through both the chill of cold horror and the warmth of her erotic tinglings with equal skill. The spiritualist prisoner she meets in prison, Selina Dawes, is a wonderful and original fictional creation that will haunt the reader as much as it does the lady visitor. A fine read.

This novel is gripping, realistic, and fascinating. I loved the protagonist and found myself desperately rooting for her. Her past is gradually revealed, the readers' sympathies for her grow accordingly. We readers fall under the same spell that she does. Loved the author's metaphors about prisons and how women in that era were all imprisoned, one way or another. The denouement is chilling, painful, and brilliant. I could not put down the last 100 pages. Waters is a master....after reading the ending's twists and turns, I frantically flipped back the pages and realized that Waters had laid all the clues down perfectly. As others have noted, this is not a novel that leaves you feeling happy and light. It is a stunning work which you can only marvel at.

A wondrously-rendered, gloriously languid 19th century roman noir, sure to tug at the heart or provoke a tear or two by the novel's end. Once again, Waters drops her readers smack in the middle of a setting that feels faintly modern but assuredly is not. The slow burn of the narrative suits both the characters and their respective motives. The story is as old as the ages — duplicities of love; nonetheless Waters has crafted something strangely beautiful and heartfelt.

Affinity is no Tipping the Velvet (TTV), which is brilliant. Since I read TTV first, perhaps I was expecting the same depth of character development, descriptions of Victorian enviornment & culture. I raced through TTV and was hungry for more. Not that these aspects weren't developed in Affinity, but the scope was much smaller. Perhaps it needed to be to create the macabre feel of a supernatural tale of deception? This choice by the author perhaps dragged the book's pace down. I didn't feel as much for the characters or their plight as I did in TTV. For me Affinity was Margret/Aurora's story. Her fragility (and whining) made me crazy most of the book but what a great/sad character. Selina was hard to know. Perhaps the distance was necessary for a charater who proved to be so deceptive. I didn't care about/know well/interested in many of the lesser characters either (just the opposite in TTV). Often the plot dragged for me and I found myself skimming sections, saying "I guess this is a 'scary' part." Some sections seemed overdone/drawnout; not as engaging as I felt the author was attempting to make them. I kept waiting for something suspenseful and thouroghly engaging. The last two chapters provided that: a good, ending to a good book. It was somewhat worth the trip but the destination was much better than the journey. Affinity is a good read, just not great (like TTV).
With all that said, Ms. Waters is still an important writer. She writes about the lives of women from such a place of honesty with a keen perception of herstory and awareness of the Victorian socialization of women. Affinity did attempt to show the pain of the characters' confining social roles (women in prison (imprisoned) as reality and methaphor) & how life beat down their bodies and spirits, in some cases to oblivian. Ms. Water's: please keep writing about lesbian women's lives. I did like the way the women who were lesbian (married and not) where drawn: the author not hiding their sexuality but having it be an aspect of their character like other aspects of their character. Ms. Water's doesn't make anyone's sexuality out to be the end of their experiences or actions. She also doesn't ignore the social & cultural forces that impacted lesbian women and all women for that matter. It's so important to have this reality represented in such a sophisticated & truthful way. Bravo.

Ms. Waters has created a novel that is a curiously satisfying mixture of Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens, and Toni Morrison. The narrative style and empathetic female characters are of Bronte; the description and carefully drawn settings and character names are truly Dickensian; and the craftwork of the plot and language are reminiscent of Morrison. The story's framework, told by the journals of both Selina and Margaret, is skillful and well-suited to the plot. I felt immersed in the life of Millbank and the inner turmoil of Margaret. As soon as I finished this book, I recommended it to friends and began to read it again, looking for subtle clues and shadings that were adeptly woven into the story, leading to its conclusion. This book was, without a doubt, the best current fiction I have read in quite some time.

By 1873, in her late twenties, upper class Margaret Prior tries kill herself to end her unhappy life following a failed love affair. She also fails at suicide and by the fall of 1874, as part of her recuperation, Margaret begins visiting London,s Millbank Women,s Prison, home of convicted murderers and thieves who almost all claim their innocence.

However, one individual, the spiritualist Selina Dawes, connects on an emotional level with Margaret. Selina has been imprisoned because of the death of an elderly patron at a seance she hosted. Selina begins to send tokens of her affection to Margaret via her "associate" Peter. Margaret finally decides to free her "future" lover and herself from the solid and imaginary walls that separate them even if it means risking her life.

AFFINITY is a powerful yet detailed Victorian tale centering on relationships, especially that forbidden by society between two women. The story line is drawn along two paths, Margaret's current diary and Selina's journal of her pre-incarceration days. Surprisingly, this technique works as readers obtain a juxtaposition glimpse at Selina from her own view and that of her wannabe lover. With homage to the authors of that era, Sarah Waters shows she is a rare talent who demonstrates that emotion and intellect do not often go hand in hand as human frailty intercedes.

Harriet Klausner

"Affinity" is a wonderfully atmospheric novel, set amongst the dank prisons and fog shrouded streets of Victorian London. It is much more than that, though: it is a feminist tale with lesbian undertones, a thriller, and a supernatural shocker with a twist ending that delightfully turns on its ear endings like "The Sixth Sense" and "The Others". (I read this for a book club, and NO ONE was expecting that ending.) There is a pathos to these characters lives -- it was not easy to be a woman in such a repressive society, especially a spirited one.
Highly recommended... there's something for everyone in this one.

In Victorian England, a scholarly spinster with a tragic past who prefers feminine companionship becomes at the recommendation of her attending physician, a lady visitor at a women's prison. Expecting to forget her tragedy and heartbreak by doing charity work with women "more wretched than she", she comes under the spell of a spirit medium serving time for fraud and assault. Is the prisoner the real deal and an innocent woman wrongly sentenced or is she just a con-artist and seductress? Chapters alternate between the medium's diary told in flashback leading up to the events that caused her to be imprisoned and in the present of the story in the diary of the lady visitor. The twisted ending is revealed in the final 2 chapters of the book.

Loved this book, I found it a bit slow reading to start, but it does pick up. This is a must read if you like period stories. If you liked Michael Faber's "The Crimson Petal and the White", you'll like this.

This is the first historical fiction novel that I have read. I found the language set in Victorian era a bit hard to get used to at first. The changing narrative also threw me a bit, but once I was familiar with Water's style it became easy to read.
Margaret becomes a Lady Visitor at Millbank prison to befriend those women who toil and suffer their isolation behind bars. Selina, a spiritulaist medium becomes the object of Margaret's visits. Their relationship grows and is the intricate point of this story. The story contains hints of ghosts, theivery, secrets and forbidden love. The ending was a twist and in my opinion, very real.
I give this novel at 3.5 out of 5 stars, as it was an interesting read, but not my usual taste in novels. Water's does build her characters and make them real to the reader. I would recommend this novel to others.

There's definitely a dark Gothic feel to this book. I loved the setting even though it was a dreary one. The novel was weird to be frank, but without giving away any spoilers I did enjoy it. There was a certain creep factor to the story so if you loved dark settings, ghosts, and characters who really bring a story to life then you should try it.

Not as good as Fingersmith, which I loved. It did give some interesting insights into the lives of women in the 19th century, though, showing how constricted they were (physically and socially) and how limited their options were. I'm not giving up on the author, though. I hope her other novels are a bit livelier!

I have just finished reading Affinity, not more than 5 minutes ago. This book was surprisingly intruiging to me, as I am not one to enjoy stories set in old time periods. I could not put this one down, however, and found the author's style of writing quite easy to read.

Having received this book in a bookcrossing.com book ring without knowing the exact pretense of the story, I went into reading it with several pre-conceived notions. Knowing that it was set in the 1800's, I thought that the text and storyline would prove to be difficult to follow. That could not have been further from the truth!

I will refrain from giving my synopsis of the book, as you should be able to gather that based on the excellent review entries above. I will, though, make some personal comments on some issues that personally spoke to me:

I understood the plight of our protagonist, Margaret, to be one of overcoming and/or enduring the challenge of being a lesbian woman attempting to find her place among the socialite set of 19th century England. She clearly had an understanding of being "different" from other women in her class, and felt considerable shame associated with her sexual desires. I think only her father understood her completely, and his death left her unable to envision a time or place in which she would feel free to be herself. Her realtionship with Helen (her brother's wife) was never expanded upon, but one can surmise that there must have been some sexual experience in their past that Margaret longed for, but Helen was unable to continue. After experiencing the loss of her father and the rejection of her lover, Margaret was lonely and vulnerable upon her arrival as a Lady Visitor at Millbank Prison.

The ending was perfect, and I had not guessed what was to come before it was right upon me. The author did an excellent job of slow-dripping clues throughout the story that all made sense in the end. I can't wait for the rest of the members of this book ring to make their comments! I will be recommending this book to my friends and family, and also hope to read more work by Sarh Waters.

Another brilliant book by Sarah Waters. The creepiness "creeps" up on you in this one. A young woman becomes a "Ladies Visitor" at Millbank Prison. She encounters a woman known as a "Spiritualist", for whom strange things seem to appear and disappear, and for whom spirits do bidding. After falling in love with this woman, events race to an all too devastating conclusion.

Sarah Waters is trully gifted. Affinity is written in the form of the heroine's diary. But it's far from what other authors have done in their novels, this one is trully unique. It is unique because because the characteristics of the times are written with realism and attention to detail, and the characters are depicted with well thought-of depth and wit. It is unique because the intensity of the emotions make your heart race like crazy. And finally, it would take one clever writer to come up with such unexpected twists. I finished this novel shocked, disturbed, and kept thinking about it for the rest of the day. It doesn't happen everyday that a story has such a powerful impact. I can't wait to start reading Tipping the Velvet.

If you have read "Tipping the Velvet", you know that Sarah Waters is a talented author. In that first novel, we discovered a lesbian author able to put up some good sex scenes. So, maybe she was a great lesbian author, maybe she was a good author of erotic books (not pornographic, by the way). But can she be more than that?
I was so anxious to know for sure, that I bought "Affinity" from the store.co.uk in January 2001 (Sarah Waters being a english author, I was right thinking that she would be published in U.K. before being published in U.S.A.). I was not disapointed.
Although my english is not that good, I fully appreciated this novel. "Affinity" is not an erotic novel. There is love, but not sex, and the fact that the love is between two women is not the main feature. I don't want to make a complete résumé because I think it is difficult to do so without spoiling the pleasure you'll have reading it until the end.
Let's just say that this novel is about a sad young woman who desperately need to be loved, who is desperately ready to believe in love and who thinks that she had find it while visiting a prison in London, in 1874. This is not a funny or a "feeling-good" book. But Sarah Waters knows how to make you feel, smell, taste and see the life of a woman who would have live 125 years ago.
Now I know: Sarah Waters is a great author. Don't read "Affinity" because you think that it is a sex book (it is not). Don't read it because you think Sarah Waters is a lesbian. Read it because it is a great book. The best I've read in a long time. Believe me, I'll wait for her next book.

I usually don't like books written in the "diary" format, but this one sucked me in and wouldn't let go. I sat down shortly after lunch to start reading, and didn't stop 'til long after bedtime. It was hard to tear myself away. It's a story that haunts you. Sarah Waters' style is lyrical, and the plot engrosses the reader almost instantly.

It's top-notch historical fiction, rich in period detail from from the dull, grim life in an English women's prison to Victorian repression, it really does come alive.

I absolutey adored this book! If you are into period pieces, journal entry style writing, dark and moody environments, suspence, and supernatural happenings, check out Affinity. I don't know if Sarah Waters intended for the reader to be as entranced as the main character Margaret, but that is what happened to me. This is more than a book, it is an experience. The reader, if suseptible to it, can become as entranced as Margarette is, by Selina and the 'supernatural events' which take place. While reading it you fall under the same 'Spell' as the main character. A spell cast by the Spirtual Medium Selina Dawes. I found myself experiencing the same trust, and finally shock that Margaret feels at the end of the book. I don't want to give anything else away! Just give it a shot. You won't be sorry.

Margaret Prior is a lady visitor to the grim Millbank Prison - her role is to encourage the inmates to reflect on their misdeeds. But her encounters with the spiritualist Selina Dawes, convicted of fraud and assault, turn into something more, dot dot dot. This is Sarah Waters so of course we have the two vital elements: lesbianism and Victorianism. She writes beautifully and atmospherically, although I think this suffers from being all in first person - she's not too good at differentiating voices, and it's so limiting in terms of what she tries to achieve in plot and suspense. I enjoyed this mostly until the final sections, partly because the plot becomes rather contrived, and partly because it's so depressing.

This story is so very intriguing that I felt like I was right there in Millbank prison with Selina Dawes. Sarah Waters' description of how horrid a Victorian 'gaol' actually was is chilling and yet when you really think on it, it was probably even more terrible than that. I can only imagine what it was like to totally 'lose it' and be meanly shuffled off to 'the darks' bound in a Victorian version of the straight jacket. Also the supernatural factor of this story is amazing and one gets a taste of Peter Quick. What a great taste it is. This book is a MUST if you enjoyed The Alienist by Caleb Carr.

Atmospheric and at times quite creepy, this novel explores the charlatans of Victorian England who pretended to be able to contact the spirit realm. Waters has a talent for creating characters who are likeable even when they do pretty distasteful things.

In Affinity, Margaret Prior has become a Lady Visitor at Millbank prison. The superintendant thinks that visiting the women and teaching them of manners and the outside world will assist them in their rehabilitation.
Margaret is drawn to several of the women, and the portraits of their lives and crimes are brilliantly drawn. She is especially fond, however, of one prisoner: Selina Dawes. Selina is a spirit-medium, and as Margaret comes to know more of her and her story she becomes even more drawn to Selina, to the point of obsession. Margaret comes to realize that the women in the gaol are not the only ones in prison; but that she is imprisoned by her family, her society, and her inability to express her forbidden longings.
The book tells brilliantly of Victorian society, and of women's place in the world.

A much different setting than "Tipping the Velvet," Affinity has still managed to capture a dark side of Victorian London. It brushes on the mysteries of "spiritualism" and indulges in a forbidden love of two women. It is suspenseful, keeping you on the edge of your seat until the very end and then some.
It is the story of a proper lady, Margaret Prior and the love affair she shares with prision inmate, Selina Dawes. The books twists and turns, taking you on an unexpected ride where the characters battle between propriety, love, spiritualism and dark secrets.

I like Sarah Waters -- her writing is lovely and her characters are well-developed and interesting. Her ability to evoke 19th century England is fine and she sets the mood, often dark and eerie, rather well. This is a good book, and, like Fingersmith, contains a twist. It's not as interesting as Fingersmith, however; the story isn't as compelling, nor are the characters, and the twist isn't that surprising (the twist in Fingersmith literally made me yelp!). It is a tad slow as well. It's worth the read, but if read after Fingersmith this may disappoint a bit.

This book was shared. It took us by surprise here, the Victorian suspense with subtle lesbian erotic content is not one that any of us might usually choose. We rate it as a 5 because it is a novel that we discussed for days after. I will read it again one day to try to see how it was so masterfully crafted.

Wow!
What a story!
The writing is excellent. I could feel the dampness of the Victorian prison. I could visualize the dank, thick, stone walls which housed the prisoners.
Here's a story of spirits and psychic mediums.
Margaret takes on the volunteer work of a Lady Visitor of the women's prison. She is quite obsessed with the place and takes her duties seriously.
Margaret meets and is very intrgued by Selena Dawes, a woman in prison for fraud. Margaret has tender feelings in her heart for the unfair, brutal treatment of Selena and the other women imprisoned.
This is a very good book telling a very different type of story.
The ending of this story is a breath taking surprise!
I recommend reading this book, but it is not a light read. It will make you think and it's a terrific book to discuss with others.
This is an eye opener of a story.
Outstanding writing!

Irrefutably, Affinity is well-written, engrossing to read. It's a tour of Victorian England, particularly the spiritual "business," through the protagonist's eyes. The emotions that the reader can feel through this exploration is ebb and flow. Miss Prior is flawed or she thinks she's flawed. So, the reader becomes her. And when she finds hope, the reader finds hope. The Author's style is that of journal-writing, in a way, it's epistolary. This is where the secret of the writing lies, it is a vital style to use to unfold the whole story. Miss Dawes is an engaging counter-character. The "low" of the book is when I got depressed, not clinically, however, it renewed my fervor for writing. It reminded me why I persisted on being a writer.

Reader, have a care. This grim & claustrophobic tale by the author of Tipping the Velvet has none of that novel's raffish humor. Sarah Waters continues to dazzle with her verbal skill & her mastery of plot; the brutal twist at the book's end comes as a true shock. But prison scenes of graphic cruelty and a narrative voice from the point of view of a pitiable, deluded protagonist conspire to drag Affinity down, down, down. Brilliant -- but excruciating.

After being entirely pleased with TIPPING THE VELVET, I was eager to read Affinity. Waters widened my scope of appreciation for stories like Affinity because although it evoked immense sadness and haunting disappointment, I found myself enamored with, and awed by its delivery. I was compelled to know more about its heart, and read into the late, late hours of night, which hasn't happened in a long time.

I picked this book up because a friend recommended it, I dont know if I will be listening to him in the future. The book is only about 350 pages and it took me a week to read it, where normally it would take about 2 to 3 days, (I normally get really into books and cant put them down). This book is extremely boring for the first 300 or so pages. I dont like the way its narrated. The author switches back and forth between the main character's diary entries, Margaret Prior and Selina Dawes', the prisoner. I didnt mind so much reading Prior's take, it dragged a bit, but it has a few interesting bits. BUT, the sections where Dawes narrated were EXTREMELY BORING, and most of it seemingly pointless, I think now that Ive finished the book. I think that either some of the story was left unexplained, or I didnt pay close enough attention, because I still dont know who Peter Quick is, but I dont think I really care.
The only reason Im giving this more than one star is the end. The last 40 pages or so were very good and came as a pleasant surprise. I wasnt expecting that at all.
Would I recommend this book? Only if you are really patient and enjoy boring books with fairly surprising endings.

I read this book after reading Fingersmith and Tipping the Velvet, and perhaps that is why I was disappointed with Affinity. Fingersmith being genius and TTV being extremely entertaining, Affinity was a letdown for me.

The book was slow and the build-up was tedious...

Although I was wowed with the conclusion, I felt more frustrated with it than satisfied.