Tipping the Velvet is Sarah Water's debut novel. It is the coming of age story of Nancy Astley, an oyster girl from Whitstable, England. Nancy meets Kitty Butler, a masher (a girl who dresses as a boy and sings for the stage) and falls in love. Nancy and Kitty move to London, develop a cabaret show act as two mashers and enjoy a bit of success. However, as Nancy falls more deeply in love with Kitty, Kitty has other ambitions - to make it as a star on the stage. Nancy suffers her first heartbreak, but has discovered something about herself - she truly enjoys dressing as a boy, and she truly enjoys being a tom - a lesbian. Nancy goes on to earn money on London's streets, then meets a rich widow who takes her on as a sort of sexual slave. When that situation ends disastrously, Nancy moves in with Florence, a socialist activist and a tom. In the process of moving from relationship to relationship, Nancy learns more about herself and finally becomes comfortable with who she is.

Tipping the Velvet is a good book, but not a great book. The setting and historical detail are exquisitely sumptuous, but in the end the story is a simple one. It is a coming of age story that ends with a romance. Nancy starts out as a naive girl, not only not understanding her own sexuality, but really not understanding the ways of the world. As she moves through various aspects of London's society, she discovers that bad people and treachery abound. In the end, though, she is redeemed in her relationship with Florence, who not only is open about her sexuality, but pursues good causes, helping the poor and indigent. Nancy learns that her own background is honest and good, as she is herself.

In many ways, I wish I had read this before I had read Waters' third book, Fingersmith. Fingersmith was so astonishingly good that any other novel, especially a debut, would have a difficult time measuring up. Which is not to say that Tipping the Velvet is not a good book. Waters does a fantastic job of bringing Victorian London alive. There is so much period detail - you feel as if you have been dropped into the middle of the action. Unfortunately for me, though, I didn't particularly like Nancy. I found her to be a bit too naive, too overwrought, and found it difficult to have a lot of sympathy for her. But the other characters, especially the fascinatingly cruel Diana and her friends, helped balance the occasional annoyance I had with Nancy. ( )

I enjoyed Fingersmith, so I thought I would also try this one. I was surprised at how much I really did enjoy this book. It was a great historical novel. It was just a tad slow starting for me, but once Nan met Kitty and the story really got started, I could hardly put it down. ( )

Another good read from Waters, the life of a 19th Century "tom" in London. Nancy, an oyster girl from Kent, moves to London with Kitty, a masher. London brings her freedom, but society still dictates how she should act. ( )

Sexy, sexy book. The writing is lush; you can almost taste the gaslights and the London streets, the cold cream and the sweat. It's hard to relate to Nan, personally, but I LOVED the other characters, particularly Diana. I was sad when it ended because I wanted more, more, more.

It seems almost improper that this book gets lumped under "lesbian fiction." It's so much more than that.

I came across this book while looking for something completely engrossing and entertaining in that old-school Dickens sort of way. Characters and places that pull you in and wrap you up in an engaging experience unlike your own.

What I found was a mesmerizing tale of Victorian England's sub-culture and the richly described characters who were part of it. This is a larger-than-average book, but I raced toward the end at breakneck speed wanting to read more and more about these people. Yet, as I got toward the end of the novel, I was torn between wanting to finish and wanting to savor our last minutes together.

This is an unbelievably good novel for any author, and especially for an author's first novel. I will be reading more of Sarah Waters' books. ( )