“I had left the door ajar, and now I saw why. There was a woman standing just outside it, in the gloom of the passage. She was wearing a simple, dark dress, and a shawl over her head.”
— Margaret first encounters Selina Dawes.
Archivist's Choice
Affinity
Sarah Waters (1999)
Genre
Historical Fiction / Mystery / Romance
Reading Time
700 min
Key Themes
See below
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In Victorian London's most notorious prison, a grieving socialite is drawn to a spiritualist inmate, risking scandal and her sanity to unravel a mystery of séances, betrayal, and forbidden desires.
Synopsis
Margaret Prior, a privileged but troubled Victorian woman recovering from a suicide attempt, begins visiting Millbank Prison. There, she becomes captivated by Selina Dawes, a young spiritualist imprisoned for a séance that went wrong. Despite initial doubts, Margaret finds herself drawn into Selina's world of spirits, developing an intense emotional bond with her. As Selina shares her story, Margaret believes she is innocent and plans to help her escape, hoping to find her own freedom from a suffocating life. The escape attempt, however, reveals a devastating betrayal, exposing Selina's manipulative nature. This leaves Margaret disgraced and heartbroken, her lingering affection now a source of deep pain.
Reading time
700 min
Difficulty
Medium
Pacing
Slow
Mood
Atmospheric, Suspenseful, Melancholy, Dark, Intimate
✓ Read this if...
You enjoy atmospheric Victorian settings, psychological depth, slow-burn mystery, and intense, complex female relationships with a dark twist.
✗ Skip this if...
You prefer fast-paced thrillers or stories with clear-cut heroes and villains, or if you dislike ambiguous endings and themes of manipulation and confinement.
Plot Summary
A New Beginning at Millbank
Margaret Prior, an unmarried woman from a respectable upper-class family, is recovering from a suicide attempt. This was brought on by her father's death and a restrictive home life. As a form of therapy and charity, she starts visiting the female inmates of Millbank Prison, a harsh penitentiary in Victorian London. Her first visits are uncomfortable, and she feels distant from the prisoners. However, she is determined to continue, hoping this new purpose will help her escape the sadness that has consumed her. Margaret observes the various inmates, many of whom are rough and quiet, and struggles to find any real connection or usefulness in her new role.
Encountering Selina Dawes
During one visit, Margaret meets Selina Dawes, a young, striking woman imprisoned for fraud and manslaughter after a séance led to a death. Unlike the other inmates, Selina has a quiet intensity and a mysterious air that immediately captivates Margaret. Selina is known throughout the prison for her supposed spiritualist abilities, a reputation that both interests and disturbs Margaret, who is naturally rational. Their first conversations are careful, with Margaret asking Selina about her crime and her 'gift,' while Selina remains guarded, speaking in riddles that only deepen Margaret's interest. Margaret feels an unusual pull toward Selina, a feeling she struggles to understand.
The Developing Connection
As Margaret continues her visits, a unique and intense bond forms between her and Selina. They begin exchanging secret letters, smuggled out by a sympathetic wardress, Mrs. Billis. In these letters, Selina shares details of her life before prison, her spiritualist experiences, and her feelings of injustice. Margaret confides her own loneliness, past struggles, and growing emotional attachment to Selina. The letters become a lifeline for both women, a private world where they can express themselves freely. Margaret finds herself increasingly obsessed with Selina, her thoughts consumed by the young spiritualist, blurring the lines between charitable duty and personal desire. Selina's letters often contain cryptic messages and hints of supernatural occurrences, drawing Margaret deeper into her world.
Selina's Story Unfolds
Through Selina's letters and their talks, Margaret learns about Selina's past. Selina describes her poor childhood, her discovery of her spiritual 'gifts,' and her rise as a medium in London's spiritualist circles. She details the séance at Miss Guppy's home, where a spirit manifestation went wrong, causing Miss Guppy's death and severely disturbing another young woman, Helen Barbour. Selina says she is innocent, claiming she was a vessel for forces beyond her control and that the events were a tragic accident, not deliberate fraud. Margaret, despite her initial doubts, finds herself increasingly believing Selina's story, swayed by Selina's conviction and her own growing affection.
Escalating Feelings and Doubt
Margaret's emotional attachment to Selina grows, becoming a deep and unspoken love. She feels jealous when Selina mentions other inmates or her past life. However, small inconsistencies in Selina's stories and her occasional evasiveness start to create doubts in Margaret's mind. Selina's predictions and 'messages' from spirits often seem to match information Margaret has unknowingly revealed. Despite these brief suspicions, Margaret pushes them aside; her desire to believe in Selina and her love for her outweigh her rational judgment. She finds herself increasingly isolated from her family and social circle, who see her prison work as an odd hobby.
A Plan for Freedom
Driven by her love and belief in Selina's innocence, Margaret decides to secure Selina's freedom. She begins researching legal options and considering increasingly risky plans. Her plan focuses on a staged escape, involving the help of Mrs. Billis. Margaret carefully plans the details, including finding a safe house and money for Selina's disappearance. She is willing to risk her reputation, social standing, and even her freedom for Selina, convinced that their future together is worth any sacrifice. The scale of her undertaking excites and scares her, but her resolve remains firm, fueled by the hope of a shared life with Selina.
The Escape Attempt
The day of the planned escape arrives. Margaret, disguised and nervous, waits at a set location outside Millbank Prison. She has arranged for a carriage and clothes for Selina, who is to be led out of the prison by Mrs. Billis during a shift change. The tension is high as Margaret paces, her heart pounding with fear and excitement. She imagines their life together, free from the constraints of Victorian society and the prison walls. The hours pass slowly, and Margaret's hope battles with growing anxiety as Selina fails to appear at the appointed time. The silence and the passing time become increasingly unsettling.
Betrayal and Revelation
As dawn breaks, Margaret realizes the escape has failed. Returning home in despair, she receives a letter from Mrs. Billis, revealing the truth: Selina never intended to escape with Margaret. Instead, Selina used Margaret's plan and resources to escape with another inmate, a younger woman named Helen Barbour, the same woman traumatized during the séance. This revelation shatters Margaret's view of Selina. She re-reads Selina's letters with new eyes, seeing the subtle manipulations, the calculated deceptions, and the cold opportunism she had been too lovestruck to notice before. The spiritualist's 'gifts' were nothing more than a facade for her own selfish goals.
The Aftermath and Disgrace
The failed escape and Selina's betrayal leave Margaret devastated and publicly shamed. Her family keeps the scandal quiet to protect their reputation, but Margaret's social standing is ruined. She withdraws further into herself, dealing with the deep sense of foolishness and heartbreak. The world she had built around her love for Selina crumbles, leaving her with only the bitter truth of her manipulation. Her charity work stops, and she becomes a recluse, haunted by the memory of Selina and the depth of her own delusion. The experience leaves a lasting mark, stripping her of her innocence and forcing her to confront the harsh realities of human nature and her own vulnerability.
A Lingering 'Affinity'
Afterward, Margaret is left to rebuild her life. While the betrayal is crushing, a part of her still recognizes Selina's lasting impact. Selina, despite her deceit, opened Margaret's eyes to a world beyond her sheltered existence, showing her passion, risk, and a deeper understanding of human desire, both good and bad. Margaret's bond with Selina, though born of manipulation, changed her forever. She is no longer the naive, sad woman who first entered Millbank. Though scarred, she has gained a painful but important insight into herself and the complexities of human connection, however deceptive. The memory of Selina, a mix of love and bitter betrayal, will always stay with her, a haunting reminder of her emotional awakening.
Principal Figures
Margaret Prior
The Protagonist
Margaret transforms from a repressed, melancholic woman into one capable of intense passion and self-sacrifice, ultimately suffering profound heartbreak and disillusionment but gaining a painful self-awareness.
Selina Dawes
The Antagonist/Love Interest
Selina maintains her enigmatic and manipulative nature throughout, revealing her true colors as a master deceiver who exploits Margaret's affections for her own escape.
Mrs. Billis
The Supporting
Mrs. Billis moves from a sympathetic observer to an unwitting accomplice, eventually discovering the truth of Selina's manipulation and informing Margaret.
Helen Barbour
The Supporting
Initially a silent victim, Helen is revealed to be a conscious participant and Selina's true partner, escaping with her.
Miss Guppy
The Mentioned
Deceased before the main narrative, her death serves as a foundational plot point.
Mrs. Prior
The Supporting
Remains largely static, representing the societal constraints Margaret attempts to escape.
Helen Prior
The Supporting
Remains largely static, representing the societal norms Margaret rejects.
Themes & Insights
Love, Obsession, and Manipulation
The novel explores the destructive power of unrequited love and manipulation. Margaret's initial interest in Selina quickly becomes an intense obsession, blinding her to Selina's true nature. Selina uses Margaret's loneliness, romantic longing, and desire for purpose, creating a story of innocence and spiritual connection that feeds Margaret's fantasy. The letters, meant for genuine affection, become tools of manipulation for Selina, showing how easily emotional vulnerability can be exploited. This theme ends with Margaret's deep heartbreak and the realization that her affection was built on deceit, highlighting the thin line between real connection and calculated exploitation.
“What a fool I had been! My affinity, my bond, my love – it had all been a trick, a clever, cruel game.”
Victorian Repression and Female Desire
The novel shows the restrictive social rules for women in Victorian society, especially unmarried, upper-class women like Margaret. Her sadness and suicide attempt come from a lack of agency, purpose, and emotional outlet. Millbank Prison, ironically, offers a kind of freedom from these societal expectations, allowing Margaret to explore forbidden emotions and desires. Her attraction to Selina is a rebellion against the passionless existence dictated by her class. The novel suggests that the extreme repression of female sexuality and autonomy can lead to desperate actions, both in seeking forbidden love and in resorting to manipulation to escape constraints.
“I felt a peculiar lightness, as if a great weight had been lifted, though I knew the chains were still there, invisible, binding me to my life.”
Truth vs. Deception / Reality vs. Illusion
A central theme is the constant blurring of lines between what is real and what is perceived, especially in spiritualism and personal relationships. Selina Dawes, as a spiritualist, embodies this ambiguity; her 'gifts' are a carefully built illusion. Margaret, initially skeptical, slowly believes Selina's stories and the 'supernatural' elements, desperate to believe in something extraordinary. The narrative constantly challenges the reader to question Selina's truthfulness, mirroring Margaret's own internal struggle. The final revelation exposes the stark reality of Selina's calculated deception, shattering Margaret's illusions and forcing her to confront the painful truth that her deepest emotional connection was based on a lie.
“But a spirit is a tricky thing. It will show you what you wish to see, and hide what you fear to know.”
Imprisonment and Freedom
The theme of imprisonment goes beyond the literal walls of Millbank Prison. Margaret, though physically free, is emotionally imprisoned by her social class, her family's expectations, and her own sadness. Selina, though incarcerated, at first seems to have a spiritual freedom and agency that Margaret lacks. The desire for freedom drives much of the plot: Margaret seeks emotional liberation through her connection with Selina, and Selina desires literal freedom from prison. The tragic irony is that Margaret's attempt to free Selina leads to her own emotional and social imprisonment, while Selina achieves physical freedom through deceit. This highlights the complex and often contradictory nature of true liberty.
“The prison, for all its grimness, held a strange allure for me. It was a place where passions were raw, where lives were stripped bare, and where I, too, felt a kind of dangerous freedom.”
Plot Devices & Literary Techniques
Epistolary Format (Letters)
The exchange of letters between Margaret and Selina drives the emotional plot.
The secret letters exchanged between Margaret and Selina serve as a crucial plot device. They allow for the intimate development of their relationship, bypassing the constraints of prison visits and Margaret's own inhibitions. The letters provide a direct window into each woman's thoughts and feelings, building suspense and emotional intensity. For Margaret, they are a lifeline, a place to confess her growing passion. For Selina, they are a primary tool of manipulation, allowing her to craft a compelling, sympathetic narrative and subtly extract information from Margaret. The re-reading of these letters after the betrayal underscores their deceptive nature, revealing hidden layers of meaning and manipulation.
Spiritualism and the Supernatural
The presence of spiritualist beliefs creates ambiguity and a sense of the uncanny.
Spiritualism, and the question of genuine supernatural phenomena versus elaborate fraud, is a pervasive plot device. Selina's reputation as a medium and the details of the 'fateful séance' introduce an element of the unknown and the uncanny. This ambiguity serves to blur the lines between truth and deception, making it easier for Selina to manipulate Margaret, who, despite her rationalism, is drawn to the mysterious. The hints of the supernatural keep the reader (and Margaret) on edge, wondering if Selina truly possesses powers or if it is all an elaborate performance, thus heightening the suspense and the eventual impact of the betrayal.
First-Person Narrative (Margaret's Perspective)
The story is told entirely from Margaret's limited and subjective viewpoint.
The entire novel is told through Margaret Prior's first-person perspective, primarily through her internal monologues, diary entries, and recollections. This device is crucial for creating suspense and highlighting the theme of deception. The reader experiences Selina and the events of the prison solely through Margaret's eyes, sharing her growing infatuation and her gradual descent into delusion. This limited perspective makes Selina's eventual betrayal all the more shocking, as the reader has been privy only to Margaret's interpretation of events, making the discovery of Selina's true nature a shared moment of profound disillusionment.
Foreshadowing and Subtle Clues
Hints of Selina's true nature are subtly woven throughout the narrative.
The novel employs subtle foreshadowing and clues that, upon re-reading, reveal Selina's manipulative intentions. These include minor inconsistencies in Selina's stories, her evasiveness on certain details, and the way her 'spiritual messages' often align conveniently with information Margaret has already provided. These details are designed to be overlooked or dismissed by Margaret (and the reader) due to the overwhelming emotional narrative. This device enhances the impact of the final revelation, demonstrating that the signs were always there, but obscured by love and desire, making the betrayal feel both shocking and inevitable.
Critical analysis
Notable Quotes
“It was as if I had been holding my breath for months, and now, at last, I could exhale.”
— Margaret reflects on the sense of freedom and excitement Selina brings to her life.
“The air in the room seemed to shimmer with her presence. I felt a strange mixture of dread and longing.”
— Margaret's initial conflicted feelings about Selina's powerful aura.
“Do you believe in spirits, Miss Prior? Do you believe that the dead can speak to us?”
— Selina Dawes poses a direct question to Margaret about her beliefs.
“I was like a moth to a flame, drawn inexorably to the heat of her gaze.”
— Margaret describes her intense, almost involuntary attraction to Selina.
“There are some things, Miss Prior, that cannot be explained by science or reason.”
— Selina hinting at the mysterious nature of her abilities or the world.
“I had always thought myself a rational woman, but now I felt my reason slipping away, like sand through my fingers.”
— Margaret's internal struggle as her logical worldview is challenged by Selina.
“Love, she whispered, is a kind of haunting.”
— Selina's poetic and slightly ominous definition of love.
“The asylum was a place of shadows, both literal and metaphorical.”
— Margaret's perception of Millbank Prison, where Selina is incarcerated.
“It was not a kiss of passion, but of desperation. A silent plea, a desperate promise.”
— A significant physical interaction between Margaret and Selina.
“I had come to believe that happiness was a fragile thing, easily shattered.”
— Margaret's growing cynicism and understanding of life's hardships.
“Perhaps we are all prisoners, in one way or another.”
— A philosophical reflection on confinement, extending beyond physical walls.
“The world, I was discovering, was a far stranger and more treacherous place than I had ever imagined.”
— Margaret's realization about the complexities and dangers of life and human nature.
“She was an enigma, a puzzle I was desperate to solve, even if it meant my own undoing.”
— Margaret's obsessive fascination with Selina, despite the potential risks.
“I felt a terrible, thrilling sense of being utterly lost, and yet, at the same time, utterly found.”
— Margaret's complex emotional state, torn between fear and fulfillment.
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Key Questions (FAQ)
The novel centers on Margaret Prior, a melancholic upper-class woman recovering from a suicide attempt, who begins visiting female inmates at Millbank Prison as part of her charity work. She becomes captivated by Selina Dawes, a young spiritualist imprisoned for an alleged fraudulent séance that resulted in a death, leading to a complex and dangerous relationship between them.
About the author
Sarah Ann Waters is a Welsh novelist. She is best known for her novels set in Victorian society and featuring lesbian protagonists, such as Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith.
