England, 1860s. It's a simple plan (famous last words, there): smart con man finds wealthy but very sheltered and naive young lady in the country, with an inheritence that will only pay out when she marries. So he hires a young female pickpocket from London to pose as the lady's chambermaid and convince her to marry him. Once he's consummated the marriage, he intends to ship her off to an insane asylum and live happily ever after off her money. Except of course that this is a Sarah Waters novel, and so something happens that none of them had anticipated: the two girls fall for each other instead. And things aren't as simple anymore. And that's just the beginning of it...

I'm not sure if I would have enjoyed Fingersmith more or less if I'd read more of the English classics; it certainly likes to play with all of the classic tropes - moustache-twirling villains, mixed-up identities, grand houses and filthy dens of thieves, madhouses and libraries and of course the eternal dance between rich and poor, men and women (and women) and their fixed Victorian (and modern) roles. The latter, especially, Waters is happy to deconstruct.

The overexposure of women to literature breeds unnatural fancies.

As it is, though, I enjoyed it a lot. Yes, it's a bit long as Waters' Victoriana pastiching gets a bit too overdone at times, but it manages to balance character drama - the kind where almost everyone does things that are completely wrong, but make a lot of sense given their situation - with a smart plot that twists and turns quite nicely. And it's even quite heartwarming (and -breaking) at times. Does that make me a sap? Maybe it does. But hey, I can live with that. It's one of those books you just gobble up and, despite 500+ pages, don't feel bloated afterwards but just nicely full, warm and still caught up in it after it's over.