Sarah Waters (1998)
Genre
Historical Fiction / Romance
Reading Time
10-12 hours
Key Themes
See below
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A young woman's obsession with a captivating male impersonator leads to a passionate, secret affair, challenging Victorian norms and redefining her life.
Nan King, an oyster girl in Kent, lives a simple life until she visits the Canterbury Palace of Varieties. There, she is captivated by Kitty Butler, a charming male impersonator. Nan is smitten by Kitty's performance, her masculine clothes, and her stage presence. She starts attending every show, using her savings and even skipping work. With help from a box office worker, Walter, Nan meets Kitty backstage. This brief meeting strengthens Nan's desire to be close to Kitty, prompting her decision to leave her provincial life.
Driven by her admiration, Nan decides to leave her family and the oyster trade. She travels to London, hoping to find Kitty and work for her. After searching, Nan finds Kitty and is offered the role of her personal dresser. This new role puts Nan into the busy world of the music hall. She dedicates herself to Kitty's needs, preparing costumes and helping backstage, all while feeling a deep, unspoken affection for the performer. This move marks Nan's true entry into a life far from her humble beginnings.
As Nan and Kitty spend more time together, their professional relationship changes. Nan, with her natural stage presence, begins to help Kitty on stage, first as a prop, then as a partner. They create a popular double act, performing sketches and songs, and quickly become famous in London's music halls. Their success brings them fame and a comfortable life. During this time, their closeness leads to a romantic and sexual attraction. Their affair begins in secret, in the privacy of their shared rooms, away from the public.
Despite their passionate affair and professional success, Kitty shows signs of wanting social acceptance beyond the music hall. She befriends the wealthy Diana Lethaby and her group. To Nan's shock and heartbreak, Kitty announces her engagement to a man, a move to secure her social standing and financial future. This betrayal shatters Nan, who had given everything to Kitty. Alone and devastated, Nan is forced to leave their shared life and face the reality of her abandonment, falling into depression and aimlessness.
After Kitty leaves, Nan is adrift in London, without a home, job, or purpose. Her savings quickly disappear, and she lives in squalor. To survive, she tries to revive her own male impersonator act in less reputable venues, but she lacks the drive without Kitty. As her situation worsens, starvation drives her to the streets. She becomes a prostitute, working with both men and women, a life she hates but sees as her only way to survive. This period is her lowest point, a complete loss of innocence and hope.
While working as a street prostitute, Nan meets Florence, a sophisticated woman who takes an interest in her. Florence, seeing Nan's vulnerability, offers her a way out. She brings Nan to a luxurious, secretive house in Chelsea, run by Mrs. Jex. This house is a high-class brothel for wealthy clients, specializing in various fetishes. Nan, though wary, accepts this new life, finding a strange comfort and security in this lavish but morally ambiguous environment. Here, she begins to rebuild her life in an unconventional way.
In Mrs. Jex's house, Nan transforms. She sheds her rough exterior, learns upper-class manners, and becomes an accomplished courtesan. She observes the wealthy who frequent the house, gaining insight into their hidden desires and social codes. This period, though financially secure, is emotionally complex. Nan performs various roles for clients, often adopting masculine guises, which brings back memories of Kitty. She forms a complex, almost sisterly, bond with Florence, who is both a mentor and fellow performer in this gilded cage.
One evening, Nan is shocked to find Kitty Butler, now married to Mr. Lethaby, among the clients at Mrs. Jex's house. Kitty is there with her friend, Diana Lethaby, who is interested in the 'performances' offered. Nan, in her new persona, remains unrecognized by Kitty, but the encounter is unsettling. She observes Kitty's respectable life from a distance, contrasting it with her own. Later, Nan is specifically requested by Diana, and their interactions become intense, with Diana's possessive nature emerging. This reintroduction of Kitty into Nan's world reopens old wounds and forces Nan to re-evaluate her past and present.
Diana Lethaby becomes intensely obsessed with Nan, showering her with gifts and demanding her exclusive attention. She manipulates Nan, offering her a luxurious life outside Mrs. Jex's house, but always on Diana's terms. Nan feels trapped by Diana's control, which reminds her of Kitty's subtle control. Mrs. Jex's house begins to feel like a prison under Diana's watch. Realizing she is merely a possession to Diana, Nan longs for independence and a life free from performing for others. She begins to plan her escape, seeking a genuine connection.
Tired of Diana's possessiveness and the artificiality of her life, Nan makes a decisive break. She confronts Diana and rejects her offer. Leaving the house, Nan seeks out Florence, with whom she has developed a deep understanding. Florence, also weary of her life, joins Nan in her quest for a new beginning. They decide to leave London together, seeking a life of their own, free from past expectations. This marks a turning point where Nan chooses her own path and finds genuine love and companionship.
Nan and Florence move to a quiet house in the suburbs, away from London's music halls and pleasure houses. They establish a domestic life, finding peace and contentment in their shared home. Florence acts as a respectable, though unconventional, lady of the house, while Nan finds fulfillment in simple tasks and the security of their bond. Their relationship deepens into mutual respect and partnership. This period represents Nan's journey towards self-acceptance and finding a stable, loving home, free from the performative aspects of her past.
As Nan and Florence settle into their new life, their pasts are not forgotten but no longer define them. Hints of their previous lives are integrated without shame. Nan sheds the need for constant performance and disguise. She finds quiet confidence in her authentic self, no longer seeking external validation or conforming to societal expectations. The novel ends with Nan and Florence embracing a future built on honesty, love, and the freedom to be themselves, having found their place away from the 'velvet' of illusion.
The Protagonist
Nan evolves from a naive, infatuated girl to a heartbroken prostitute, then a sophisticated courtesan, finally finding genuine love and self-acceptance through her relationship with Florence.
The Supporting/Antagonist
Kitty achieves professional success and social ascent, but at the cost of her genuine connection with Nan, illustrating the compromises made for societal acceptance.
The Supporting/Love Interest
Florence moves from a resigned existence in a pleasure house to finding true companionship and a quiet, authentic life with Nan.
The Antagonist
Diana remains largely unchanged, serving as a catalyst for Nan's eventual escape and quest for genuine freedom.
The Supporting
Mrs. Jex remains a static, powerful figure, embodying the system Nan must escape.
The Supporting
Walter's role is brief but pivotal, serving to initiate Nan's pursuit of Kitty.
The Mentioned
Nancy's role is static, representing the life Nan abandons.
The Mentioned
Mr. Lethaby's role is static, representing the societal ideal Kitty pursues.
The novel explores the fluid nature of identity, especially for women in Victorian society, and how performance shapes it. Nan constantly takes on new roles—oyster girl, dresser, male impersonator, courtesan, suburban housewife—each requiring a different 'performance' of self. Her initial interest in Kitty Butler, a male impersonator, highlights the appeal of gender fluidity and the freedom it offers from rigid expectations. Later, in Mrs. Jex's house, Nan performs various identities for clients, blurring the lines between who she is and who she pretends to be. The search for an authentic self beneath these layers is central to Nan's journey.
“It was as if I had been born to wear trousers, and it was a woman's clothes that were the disguise.”
The complexities of love, desire, and betrayal form the emotional core. Nan's intense love for Kitty is met with betrayal when Kitty chooses social advancement. This heartbreak sends Nan into despair. The novel explores various forms of desire—innocent infatuation, passionate romance, transactional desire in the brothel, and the steady love Nan finds with Florence. It questions what true love is and the sacrifices people make for it in a restrictive society.
“I had given myself to her so utterly, with such a want of a future, that I had no past left to go back to.”
The novel shows the rigid class structure of Victorian England and the limited ways for social mobility, especially for women. Nan's journey from a working-class oyster girl to a music hall star and then a high-class courtesan demonstrates unconventional ways to transcend one's birth. However, each step up the social ladder often brings compromises and dangers. Kitty Butler's decision to marry for status highlights societal pressures to conform. The contrast between the East End's squalor and the opulence of Mrs. Jex's house or Diana Lethaby's home highlights vast disparities in wealth.
“I knew then that the world was a great stage, and that every man and woman upon it played a part.”
A central theme is the exploration of lesbianism and gender non-conformity in a period when such identities were hidden or condemned. The male impersonator act symbolizes gender fluidity and the blurring of traditional roles, offering both freedom and danger. Nan's relationships with Kitty, Florence, and Diana are explicitly lesbian, shown with passion and nuance. The novel challenges conventional notions of gender and sexuality, portraying women who love women and who embrace masculine presentation as self-expression and empowerment, often outside 'respectable' society. It highlights the courage needed to live authentically then.
“I loved her, not as a woman loves a man, but as a woman loves a woman. It was a love that had no name.”
Throughout Nan's journey, the tension between freedom and various forms of confinement is present. She seeks freedom from her humble origins in Kent, finding it initially in the music hall. However, this freedom is conditional, dependent on Kitty. Her time as a prostitute and then a courtesan, while offering financial independence, is also a type of gilded cage, where her body and identity are commodified. Diana Lethaby's possessiveness represents another form of control. Nan's goal is not just freedom from poverty or societal judgment, but the freedom to define her own life and love, culminating in her escape with Florence to a life of quiet autonomy.
“I had always thought freedom meant being able to do what you liked. But now I saw that it was being able to be yourself.”
A theatrical act that symbolizes gender fluidity and societal subversion.
Male impersonation is not just a plot point but a central metaphor. It allows female characters like Kitty and Nan to transgress rigid gender roles, offering them power, agency, and a platform for expression not typically afforded to women in Victorian society. It represents the allure of the forbidden, the blurring of boundaries, and the performative nature of gender itself. For Nan, it's initially an act of devotion to Kitty, then a means of survival, and finally a reflection of her own internal struggle with identity and authenticity. The 'trousers' become a symbol of both liberation and disguise.
A vibrant setting representing freedom, illusion, and a subculture for queer identities.
The music hall serves as a crucial setting and a microcosm of the novel's themes. It's a place of dazzling illusion, where working-class entertainment and subversive performances thrive. For Nan, it's initially a gateway to excitement and a new life, a place where societal rules are bent. It provides a space where female performers can achieve fame and financial independence, and where same-sex desires can be subtly expressed or understood within a queer subculture. It contrasts sharply with the 'respectable' society, highlighting the allure and dangers of living on the fringes.
A recurring motif representing luxurious confinement and loss of true freedom.
The motif of the 'gilded cage' appears in several forms throughout Nan's journey. Initially, her life with Kitty, while exciting, becomes a form of emotional confinement due to Kitty's ultimate ambition. Later, Mrs. Jex's lavish house, despite its opulence and security, is a literal gilded cage where Nan's body and identity are commodified for the pleasure of others. Diana Lethaby's attempts to 'keep' Nan in luxury also represent a gilded cage, offering material comfort at the cost of personal autonomy. This device underscores the novel's exploration of what true freedom entails beyond mere financial security.
Allows intimate access to Nan's evolving perspective and emotional journey.
The novel is told from Nan King's first-person perspective, providing immediate and intimate access to her thoughts, feelings, and sensory experiences. This narrative choice allows the reader to deeply empathize with Nan's naiveté, her passionate infatuations, her profound heartbreak, and her gradual self-discovery. It makes her transformations more impactful and her reflections on identity, love, and societal norms more personal and poignant. The reader experiences the world through her eyes, from the gritty streets of Kent to the glittering music halls and the secretive pleasure houses, enhancing the sense of immersion and emotional connection.
“I was standing in the very place where Nancy Astley had stood, and I was seeing the very things she had seen – or at least, the things she might have seen, if she had been as bold as I was.”
— Kitty Butler's first performance at the music hall, viewed by Nancy.
“That was the way with them, you see – they were like two halves of a single thing, and it was hard to tell where one began and the other ended.”
— Nancy reflecting on the intense bond between Kitty Butler and Walter.
“I felt as if I were slipping into a dream, a dream of satin and gaslight, of painted faces and whispered secrets.”
— Nancy's initial immersion into the world of music halls.
“It was not a kiss like any I had ever known. It was not a kiss of love, or of passion, or of tenderness. It was a kiss of knowledge.”
— The first significant kiss between Nancy and Kitty Butler.
“Oh, to be a man! To be able to walk into a room and command attention, to take what you wanted, to be free!”
— Nancy's thoughts on gender roles and freedom while disguised as a man.
“I was a man, and I was nothing; I was a woman, and I was everything.”
— Nancy's shifting sense of identity while cross-dressing.
“There was a hunger in me, a hunger for experience, for life, for all the things I had been denied.”
— Nancy's growing desire for a more fulfilling and unconventional life.
“She was like a lamp, and I was like a moth, drawn to her light, even though I knew it might burn me.”
— Nancy's intense attraction to Diana Astley.
“To be a lady, it seemed to me, was to be a kind of prisoner, locked in a cage of silk and lace.”
— Nancy's disdain for the restrictive life of upper-class women.
“I had left the ordinary world behind, and stepped into a world of shadows and secrets, where nothing was quite as it seemed.”
— Nancy's journey into the bohemian and illicit parts of London.
“The past was a foreign country; they did things differently there. But the past was also a part of me, and I carried it with me wherever I went.”
— Nancy reflecting on her past and how it shaped her.
“I was Nancy Astley. I was a music-hall girl, a rent-boy, a kept woman, a lady of leisure. I was all these things, and none of them. I was simply myself.”
— Nancy's ultimate acceptance of her multifaceted identity.
“It was as if a curtain had been drawn back, and I was seeing the world for the first time, in all its glorious, terrible, beautiful truth.”
— Nancy's awakening to a fuller understanding of life and love.
“There was a freedom in being lost, a strange exhilaration in having nothing to lose.”
— Nancy's experience of destitution and independence.
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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.
