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If you’ve never read a Sarah Walter’s novel, I recommend reading it. “Fingersmith” was one of the most moving novels I’ve ever read. And “Tipping the Velvet” touched on coming-out better than any modern day novel has ever done. I’m speaking of them together because they are Sarah Walter’s best known works and one can very rarely hear about one without the other coming up.

So…
 

Tipping the Velvet…. Velvet is the story of Nancy Astley. A teenager growing up in the Victorian Era. She visits a theater one night and becomes infatuated with a male-impersonator (masher) named Kitty Butler. She first becomes friend to her favorite performer and then her partner on the stage. Eventually they become lovers and just when you think happily ever after is set to follow, a cog is thrown in the works.

Fingersmith….. is complicated to really tell you about without giving away important surprises. It’s the kind of story you walk away from envying those who will watch/read it for the first time after you. Like Velvet it’s a Victorian Era tale. This time we go to the slums of London and a Den of thieves where a young swindler known as “Gentleman” convinces the members of this Den of thieves to allow him use of their prize girl, Sue Trinder, in a plot to swindle an heiress out of her fortune. He plans to set up Sue as the heiress’ maid and get her to convince the girl (Maud) to marry him. Then they will dispose of the girl and split the money. His plans are complicated though when the girls, surprisingly, fall in love with each other.

In the case of Tipping the Velvet I saw the movie first and was moved by every single moment of it. The Mini-series (produced by the BBC) plays in three parts just like the novel. In the first part, Nan falls in love for the first time, with a girl… a girl who dresses like a boy (for performing reasons only) and has to define what that means. She also becomes fond of dressing like a boy herself and it’s clearly not just for performance sake for her. Her life is changed by all this, but her heart is broken at the end by the person she loves. In part two she is forced to redefine herself and falls into bad habits and bad company. But even during this dark period in her life she finds her comfort zone as a butch woman and as a lesbian (or Tom is the slang word used in the novel). Still, bad habits and bad company lead to bad ends and so that’s where Nan finds herself at the end of part two. Part three is her redemption from all the darkness and a coming together of everything she learned about who she is and what she wants.

What I liked about Tipping the Velvet was the fact that the primary character, during her journey, is allowed to have several lovers. Though many romances like to play it otherwise, we very rarely fall in love with the “right” person the first time. Therefore, Velvet is not the romance of Nan Astley and Kitty Butler, but the journey of Nan Astley into finding herself. But I honestly didn’t fully understand that until I read the book. In my opinion… all Sarah Water’s works should be read as books first. The book gets into the very soul of Nan. I also adored the fact that she (the author) allowed two women with Butch looks about them to fall in love and love each other rather they were both dressed like men, both dressed like women, or dressed as man and woman. Their love wasn’t about boy/girl issues, it was about Nan loving Kitty and that’s all. My lesbian world is very butch/femme (Dom or Stud, the butches generally call themselves) so it was refreshing to see/read a story that embraced breaking that butch/femme idea. The failing of the movie (after reading the book) mainly lies in the fact Nan isn’t butch enough. In the book, Nan is so convincing as a boy, they ‘femme’ up her costumes to make the ‘act’ work. Still, I think the actress does an incredible job with the emotional ups and downs of Nan’s life and the problem with movies is sometimes you have to abandon the “look” of the character for the sake of the best actress you can find. I mean 80% of the Harry Potter characters are just wrong with compared with their book descriptions.

The other character who fails to translate well is one of Nan’s love interest, Flo. This important love in Nan’s life is played much more innocent in the film then she is in the book. In the book she has layers. Yes, she’s a political idealist and outwardly conservative and sort of stiff with Nan when they meet in part 3 of the story. But in the book she’s also very much “out”, as “out” as one can be as a lesbian in her era. Her family knows what she is and she allows them to deal with it or not be in her life. While Nan accepts herself she hasn’t had the benefit of experience or the lesbian social circles Flo has had in her life. By the time Nan meets Flo she’s well on the way to accepting herself, but as she and Flo grow closer she also discovers a place where she can be accepted by others and be accepted as a butch woman at that. By changing Flo to some innocent girl who, likely (from the movies’ implications) has only loved the one girl who loved her, but didn’t want-her-that-way, they take away some of her power. She’s still a major part of Nan’s development as a person, but in the film she looses the layers she gains as a character when she and Nan hook up in the novel. Even still the movie is as much worth watching as the book is worth reading. But if you read the book first put some distance between you and the book before watching the film.

The same goes for Fingersmith, even though Fingersmith the BBC Mini-series changes a lot less than the Tipping the Velvet series. Still, having read the book first and then immediately gone to watch the DVD, I felt every page that was lost. The book is told in three parts. Sue’s perspective, Maud’s perspective, and then back to Sue for the conclusion. Even though by then Maud has added something to the story that sheds light on things Sue herself doesn’t completely understand during most of the third part. The Movie-Series is cut into two parts, but still amazingly preserves the story. When I saw little Maud at the beginning of the series I just knew they were giving away too much, things (as a reader) you don’t begin to understand about Maud until you hear her words. Oddly enough, the linear reorganizing of the tale works well. If anything, seeing the child Maud taken to her uncle increases your sympathy for her in the first part. As for Sue, well she’s a swindler, but you see the softening of her in her love for Maud.

In both the movie and the film, re-reading or watching reveals things you didn’t get the first time. And also, as with all things with crazy plot twist, you sometimes pick apart things that don’t make sense to you. There are some things (especially in the movie) where you think … “why would they do that if the other thing was true”. But mostly you feel cleverly duped by the writer. While I think the lead actress were fantastic in the film, I loath the actor playing Gentleman. He’s just not the man I imagined while reading. His was probably the worst cast role, everything and everyone else was damn near perfect in the film. However, despite the brilliant acting I still felt the film took liberties with Maud. Although she was quite soft to the audience in Part 1, in Part 2 the movie shyed away from things that would harm that image too much. Like the unkind way Maud treated her maid before Sue or even some of her less-than-appealing character traits in general. They barely touched on the wild child she was before her uncle tamed her to his bidding. In doing so I think they reduced some of the change in her that came with loving Sue. Basically, Maud too was changed for the better for loving Sue. What she did to Gentleman in the end was all for the protection of Sue’s heart.

So which was better, Fingersmith… as a movie and book it’s just miles and miles better. People say the ending is sad… the story is sad… but I think it’s the most beautiful story. As the most honest thing about it, despite all the deceit between the characters, was Maud’s love for Sue and Sue’s love for Maud. In my opinion, Velvet had a much sadder ending. Why? Because even though the love Nan had for Flo was seen as the mature and “right” choice, it lost some romance in it’s “reality”. Maud and Sue had a love that was stronger than the horrible trials it was put through. Nan and Flo found a love that was “good enough” seeing as Flo’s gal died and Kitty couldn’t climb out of the closet. But in the end they are two different journeys. Velvet is Nan’s journey of self-discovery, Fingersmith is Maud and Sue’s journey to each other. Thumbs up for both (or should I say all four, both movies and both books). All worth the time spent with them