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Affinity
by Sarah Waters
ISBN: 1573221562
ISBN-13: 9781573221566
Format: Hardcover
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Summary
Recovering after an attempted suicide, Margaret Prior makes charitable visits to the women's ward at Millbank Prison, where she encounters the charismatic spiritualist Selina Dawes. Caught up in Selina's spell, Margaret begins attending séances, and eventually allows Selina to persuade her to help her escape. A 2001 nominee for a Lambda Literary Award.
Customer Reviews
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Media Reviews
"Waters has found a superb metaphor for the love that dares not speak its name, and developed it with remarkable ingenuity and power: another stunning performance...."
-- Kirkus
"The real power of this book belongs not to Selina but to the author herself. Through the lens of her late-20th-century consciousness, she pictures their world, even as she flawlessly renders the tone and diction of these 19th-century women's experiences. Admirers of Waters's first novel will recognize her consummate skill in evoking a sense of place-a particularly challenging task in the first half of AFFINITY, in which Margaret sets out to write a factual catalog of her visits. Waters manages to imbue wealth of potentially dry descriptive material with the emotion Margaret has tried to suppress...." -- Nancy Willard
-- New York Times Book Review
Bibliographic Details
Publisher: Putnam Pub Group
Published date: 2000
Edition: 1th edition
Size: 5.75 x 8.75 inches
Weight: 1.2 pounds
Pages: 351
Publisher's Notes
Visiting a grim London prison as part of rehabilitative charity work, upper-class suicide survivor Margaret Prior is drawn into the Victorian world of enigmatic spiritualist and inmate Selina Dawes and is persuaded to help her escape. 15,000 first printing. First serial, Salon.
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Affinity
Sarah Waters
Riverhead Hardcover. Used - Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! ( more information) Offered by Better World Books (United States)
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Affinity
Sarah Waters
Riverhead Hardcover, 2000-06-05. Hardcover. Good. This a hardcover book with a dust jacket. *The front hinge is loose/cracked.* ( more information) Offered by The Book Center (United States)
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Affinity
Waters, Sarah
New York: Riverhead Books, 2000. 352 bright, white pages. Rubbing wear to jacket. Bump to top spine. First American Edition. Sticker on spine. From jacket: "An upper-class woman recovering from a suicide attempt, Margaret Prior has begun visiting the women's ward of Millbank prison, Victorian London's grimmest jail..." Quotes are for illustrative purposes only and remain the property of their copyright holders. Thanks for shopping with us. 100% of your purchase benefits charity and supports literacy and life-long learning.. First American. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. ( more information) Offered by Charity Bookstall (United States)
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Affinity
Waters, Sarah
New York, New York, U.S.A.: Riverhead Hardcover. Hardcover. 1573221562 This book has some shelf wear as well as the inside cover ripped out and a black ink mark on the bottem of the pages. An upper-class woman recovering from a suicide attempt, Margaret Prior has begun visiting the women's ward of Millbank prison, London's grimmest jail, as part of her rehabilitative charity work. Amongst Millbank's murderers and common thieves, Margaret finds herself increasingly fascinated by one apparently innocent inmate, the enigmatic spiritualist Selina Dawes. Initially skeptical of Selina's gifts, Margaret is soon drawn into a twilight world of sances and shadows, unruly spirits and unseemly passions, until she is at last persuaded to concoct a desperate plot to secure Selina's freedom. . Good. 2000. Reprint. ( more information) Offered by Cupboard Maker Books (United States)
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5)
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Affinity
Waters, Sarah
New York, New York, U.S.A.: Riverhead Books, 2000. his book comes from the Center Library at New York City's Gay & Lesbian community center. The only exterior library marking is a stamp on edge of book. Other than library markings a Fine or Fine+ copy. Exceptionally clean and tight copy. . ISBN: 1573221562. Hard Cover. Near Fine/Fine. First Printing. ENGLAND FICTION LONDON GHOST ROMANCE. ( more information) Offered by firstfloorfront (United States)
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6)
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aFFINITY
Waters, Sarah
Riverhead Books, 1999 New unread trade paperback. Soft cover. ( more information) Offered by Baba's Books (Canada)
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7)
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Affinity
Sarah Waters
Riverhead Hardcover, 2000-06-01. Good. Good+/ Good+: ex-library w/ usual markings, otherwise clean & unmarked inside & out, tight, square copy Affinity is a tale of power and possession that Henry James himself might admire. In her first novel, Tipping the Velvet, Sarah Waters explored secrets and longing--capping off this lesbian romp with a utopian-socialist vision. Her intricate follow-up is just as sensual but infinitely darker, its moral more difficult to descry. Its stylistic and psychological rewards, however, are visible at every turn, the author's persuasive imagination matched by her gift for storytelling. In late September 1874, Margaret Prior makes her way through the pentagons of London's Millbank Prison, a place of fearful symmetry and endless corridors. This plain woman on the verge of 30 has come to comfort those behind bars, several of whom Waters brings to instant, sad life. And our Lady Visitor plans to take her role dead seriously, having recovered from two years of nervous indolence in her family's Chelsea house. One person, however, makes her job a passion. Opening an inspection slit (or "eye" as these devices are known), Margaret hears "a perfect sigh, like a sigh in a story." Peering inward, she's confronted by the most erotic of visions--a woman turned toward the sun, caressing her cheek with a forbidden . Suffice it to say that the first full encounter between these two very different women is enthralling. "You think spiritualism a kind of fancy," Selina riddles. "Doesn't it seem to you, now you are here, that anything might be real, since Millbank is?" And soon enough Margaret receives several viable signs of the supernatural: a locket disappears from her room, flowers mysteriously appear, and her dazzling friend. Strangest of all, Selina seems to love her. As Margaret records her weekly prison forays, her own past comes into focus, notably her plans to travel to Italy with her first love (who is now her sister-in-law). But her current journal, she convinces herself, is to be very different from her last one, which "took as long to burn as human hearts, they say, do take." Meanwhile, Waters offers a narrative two-for-one, placing Margaret's diary cheek by jowl with Selin. This dispassionate, staccato record initially suggests that we can separate truth from desire. Or can we? What Waters's haunting creation leaves us with is a more painful reality--that knowledge and belief are entirely different things. --Kerry Fried. Edition: 1st American ed. Jacket: Good+. 352pp. ( more information) Offered by Driftless Books and Music (United States)
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Affinity
Waters, Sarah
Riverhead Books, 2000. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good. formerlibrarymarked and worn ( more information) Offered by www.cassiesbooks.com (United States)
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Affinity
Waters, Sarah
Riverhead Hardcover. Hardcover. 1573221562 Brand New ~ slight shelf-wear ~ PRISTINE text ~ We Ship within 24 Hours + FREE Tracking, answer emails fast, accept returns & work hard to deliver 100% customer satisfaction! . New. ( more information) Offered by CambridgeBookstore.com (United States)
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10)
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Affinity
Sarah Waters
Riverhead Hardcover, 2000-06-05. Hardcover. New. Hardback w/ DJ. Enjoyable reading copy for your personal pleasure. This copy is nearly flawless! Dust jacket has barely noticeable shelf wear. You are buying a Book in NEW condition with very light shelf wear to include very light edge and corner wear. Buy it Now!!! As always, thank you for buying this book from International Book Source, YOUR ONE source FOR ALL your BOOK related NEEDS. Please remember to CHOOSE carefully how QUICKLY you would like to RECEIVE this material FAST, or standard (on next page). Thanks again!!!! ( more information) Offered by International Book Source (United States)
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11)
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Affinity
Waters, Sarah
Riverhead Books, 1999 First edition. UNCORRECTED PROOF copy. Author's second novel, after Tipping the Velvet, a historical novel of lesbian London. Fine in glossy printed wraps.. First Edition. Original Wraps. ( more information) Offered by March Hare Books (United States)
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