AQA (A) Literature: ‘Victorian literature’; ‘Love through the ages’
Sarah Waters’ Fingersmith (2002) is both a popular and a well-respected novel. Shortlisted for the Orange and Man Booker prizes, it was serialised by the BBC. Set in Victorian London, it tells the story of an orphan girl, Sue Trinder, brought up in a household of petty thieves (‘fingersmiths’) dominated by Mrs Sucksby. Sue is persuaded to pose as a lady’s maid, helping the conman Gentleman to seduce Maud Lilly, a young woman living in a gothic house called Briar with her uncle. Gentleman plans to marry Maud to gain the fortune she is to inherit before committing her to a lunatic asylum. However, Sue and Maud fall in love, though in a dramatic twist it is Sue who is deceived and locked up, while Maud is taken back to London, to take Sue’s place at Mrs Sucksby’s.
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