Sarah Waters

“Oliver Twist with a twist…Waters spins an absorbing tale that withholds as much as it discloses. A pulsating story.”—The New York Times Book Review The Handmaiden, a film adaptation of Fingersmith, directed by Park Chan-wook and starring Kim Tae-Ri, is now available. Sue Trinder is an orphan, left as an infant in the care of Mrs. Sucksby, a "baby farmer," who raised her with unusual tenderness, as if Sue were her own. Mrs. Sucksby’s household, with its fussy babies calmed with doses of gin, also hosts a transient family of petty thieves—fingersmiths—for whom this house in the heart of a mean London slum is home. One day, the most beloved thief of all arrives—Gentleman, an elegant con man, who carries with him an enticing proposition for Sue: If she wins a position as the maid to Maud Lilly, a naïve gentlewoman, and aids Gentleman in her seduction, then they will all share in Maud’s vast inheritance. Once the inheritance is secured, Maud will be disposed of—passed off as mad, and made to live out the rest of her days in a lunatic asylum. With dreams of paying back the kindness of her adopted family, Sue agrees to the plan. Once in, however, Sue begins to pity her helpless mark and care for Maud Lilly in unexpected ways...But no one and nothing is as it seems in this Dickensian novel of thrills and reversals.

Fingersmith

Forced to take in lodgers in economically challenged 1922 South London, widow Mrs. Wray and her spinster daughter find their lives profoundly and disturbingly changed by the arrival of a modern young couple. By the best-selling author of The Little Stranger. 100,000 first printing.

The Paying Guests

After her award-winning trilogy of Victorian novels, Sarah Waters turned to the 1940s and wrote THE NIGHT WATCH, a tender and tragic novel set against the backdrop of wartime Britain. Shortlisted for both the Orange and the Man Booker, it went straight to number one in the bestseller chart. In a dusty post-war summer in rural Warwickshire, a doctor is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the Georgian house, once grand and handsome, is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, the clock in its stable yard permanently fixed at twenty to nine. But are the Ayreses haunted by something more sinister than a dying way of life? Little does Dr Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become entwined with his. Prepare yourself. From this wonderful writer who continues to astonish us, now comes a chilling ghost story.

The Little Stranger

Piercing the shadows of the naked stage was a single shaft of rosy limelight, and in the centre of this was a girl: the most marvellous girl - I knew it at once! - that I had ever seen. A saucy, sensuous and multi-layered historical romance, Tipping the Velvet follows the glittering career of Nan King - oyster girl turned music-hall star turned rent boy turned East End 'tom'. It launched the career of one of Britain's most exciting and successful writers. `One of the best storytellers alive today' - Independent. Sarah Waters has written five subsequent bestselling novels, all of which have been filmed or are currently in production and she has received critical and popular acclaim and prize shortlists. She was awarded the Stonewall Writer of the Decade in 2016. Tipping the Velvet was adapted by Andrew Davies and filmed by Sally Head Productions for the BBC

Tipping the Velvet

I thought everything would change, after the war. And now, no one even mentions it. It is as if we all got together in private and said whatever you do don't mention that, like it never happened. It's the late 1940s. Calm has returned to London and five people are recovering from the chaos of war. In scenes set in a quiet dating agency, a bombed-out church and a prison cell, the stories of these five lives begin to intertwine and we uncover the desire and regret that has bound them together. Sarah Waters's story of illicit love and everyday heroism takes us from a dazed and shattered post-war Britain back into the heart of the Blitz, towards the secrets that are hidden there. Olivier-nominated playwright Hattie Naylor has created a thrilling and theatrically inventive adaptation of a great modern novel. The stage adaptation of The Night Watch was premiered at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, on 16 May 2016.

The Night Watch

Now you know why you are drawn to me - why your flesh comes creeping to mine, and what it comes for. Let it creep.From the dark heart of a Victorian prison, disgraced spiritualist Selina Dawes weaves an enigmatic spell. Is she a fraud, or a prodigy? By the time it all begins to matter, you’ll find yourself desperately wanting to believe in magic.

Affinity

An anthology of the winning entries for the Jane Austen Short Story Award Two hundred years ago, Jane Austen— traumatized by her parents’ decision to give up the rectory in Hampshire where she grew up, and unable to write for a decade—accepted her brother Edward’s offer of a permanent home in his Chawton House estate. It was there that she picked up her pen once again . . . and gave the world some of the most beloved and enduring novels ever written. The Jane Austen Short Story Competition celebrates the immortal author and her works, and the blessed home that afforded her the peace and security to create them. Judged and chosen by Sarah Waters, bestselling author of Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith, Dancing with Mr. Darcy includes the winning selection and nineteen runners-up, as well as introductions from Waters and Rebecca Smith, the great-great-great-great-great niece of Jane Austen.

Stories Inspired by Jane Austen and Chawton House

Dancing with Mr. Darcy

Ladra

Nancy, jeune vendeuse d'huîtres sur la côte du Kent, voit sa vie basculer lorsqu'elle tombe amoureuse de Kitty, une chanteuse de music-hall aux allures de dandy. Bien décidée à vivre sa passion, Nancy la suit à Londres et s'embarque pour une incroyable épopée dans le West End, quartier énigmatique et inquiétant qui ne prend tout son sens que sous les feux de la rampe._x000D_ _x000D_ « Câlins et caresses compensent la dureté de l'Angleterre victorienne, et cette éducation sentimentale au féminin conjugue pudeur et impudeur avec une incroyable virtuosité. Chapeau pour un premier roman. »_x000D_ Alexis Liebaert, Elle_x000D_ _x000D_ Traduit de l'anglais_x000D_ par Erika Abrams _x000D_

Caresser le velours

Londres, 1862. A la veille de ses dix-huit ans, Sue Trinder, l'orpheline de Lant Street, le quartier des voleurs, se voit proposer par un élégant, surnommé Gentleman, d'escroquer une riche héritière. Orpheline elle aussi, cette dernière est élevée dans un lugubre manoir par son oncle, collectionneur de livres d'un genre tout particulier. Dans cette atmosphère saturée de mystère et de passions souterraines, Sue devra déjouer les complots les plus délicieusement cruels, afin de devenir, avec le concours de la belle demoiselle de Briar, une légende parmi les cercles interlopes de la bibliophilie érotique. Héritière moderne de Dickens, mais aussi de Sapho et des Libertins, Sarah Waters nous offre une vision clandestine de l'Angleterre victorienne, un envers du décor où les héroïnes, de mariages secrets en amours interdites, ne se conduisent jamais comme on l'attendrait. Un roman décadent et virtuose.

Du bout des doigts

El Lustre de la Perla

«Combina lo espeluznante con una aguda observación social. Una novela apasionante, perturbadora, infinitamente entretenida» (Hilary Mantel, The Guardian) Un día de verano llaman al doctor Faraday a Hundreds Hall, la mansión de los Ayres, en el desolado centro de la Inglaterra de posguerra. Faraday ya había estado allí cuando era un niño y su madre era una de las criadas de la casa. Ahora es médico, aunque con una posición social no muy cómoda, y piensa que esta visita es un golpe de suerte. Pero Hundreds Hall ya no es más que la sombra de sí misma. La señora Ayres aún es una señora elegante, aunque viva entre paredes desconchadas. Roderick, su hijo, ha vuelto de la guerra enfermo de los nervios. Se ocupa como puede de la casa y va vendiendo las tierras. Su hermana Caroline, excéntrica y masculina, y no desprovista de encanto, ha tenido que volver a Hundreds Hall para ayudarlo. Pero los Ayres han llamado al doctor Faraday para que se ocupe de Betty, la joven criada que quizá sólo está enferma de miedo. Y aunque nadie la cree, en la mansión se oyen ruidos inexplicables y se ven sombras fugaces, y las cosas más familiares pueden volverse perversas...

El ocupante

Os hóspedes

Figen Bingül

Ustaparmak

It's 1887 and Nancy Astley sits in the audience at her local music hall: she doesn't know it yet, but the next act on the bill will change her life. Tonight is the night she'll fall in love... with the thrill of the stage and with Kitty Butler, a girl who wears trousers. Giddy with desire and hungry for experience, Nancy follows Kitty to London where unimaginable adventures await. Sarah Waters' debut novel, Tipping the Velvet was highly acclaimed and was chosen by The New York Times and The Library Journal as one of the best books of 1998. Reviewers have offered the most praise for Tipping the Velvet's use of humour, adventure, and sexual explicitness. The novel was adapted into a somewhat controversial three-part series of the same name produced and broadcast by the BBC in 2002.

เล่ห์รักนักล้วง

Andra världskriget är slut och nya vindar sveper över England. Hundreds Hall var en gång ett av landets största och pampigaste gods, men nu flagnar putsen från husfasaden och ogräset som hotar att ta över trädgården vittnar om förfallet. När doktor Faraday kallas till huset en het sensommardag för att se till en patient upptäcker han att det inte bara är ekonomiska svårigheter som har drabbat familjen Ayers, det tycks också vila något olycksbådande över godset. Snart dras han in i familjens liv och föga anar doktor Faraday hur hans eget liv kommer att påverkas av huset och dess invånare. Vad är det som hemsöker godset? Vad är det som kastar sin mörka skugga över Hundreds Hall? Sarah Waters hyllade roman Främlingen i huset är en suggestiv berättelse med en omisskännlig tidsprägel från efterkrigstidens England. En riktig spökhistoria, och samtidigt en skildring av klasstillhörighet och makt i form av en bladvändare. Sarah Waters (född 1966 i Wales) debuterade 1998 med Kyssa sammet som också blev hennes genombrott. Därefter har det blivit ytterligare fem prisbelönta historiska romaner och Waters har nominerats till Bookerpriset tre gånger. Under 2015 är hon aktuell med en ny roman, Hyresgästerna. I samband med detta ger Natur & Kultur åter ut Nattvakten och Främlingen i huset i pocket. Samtliga titlar finns också tillgängliga som e-böcker.

Sarah Waters

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