Fingersmith by Sarah Waters Summary

Fingersmith is a Victorian-era crime novel about Susan Trinder, a petty thief from London's slums, who becomes entangled in an elaborate con scheme targeting wealthy heiress Maud Lilly. The plot involves Sue posing as a lady's maid to help conman Richard "Gentleman" Rivers seduce, marry, and commit Maud to an asylum to steal her fortune. However, shocking betrayals and revelations unfold as Sue and Maud develop a romantic relationship, revealing deeper layers of deception involving switched identities, maternal schemes, and wrongful institutionalization.

Fingersmith appeals to readers who enjoy Gothic Victorian fiction, psychological thrillers with unreliable narrators, and LGBTQ+ historical romance. Fans of suspenseful plot twists, complex female characters, and neo-Victorian literature that confronts gender oppression and class inequality will find this compelling. The novel suits readers interested in stories about women reclaiming agency within patriarchal systems, as well as those who appreciate Sarah Waters' meticulous historical research combined with modern sensibilities about sexuality and power dynamics.

Fingersmith delivers a masterfully constructed narrative with multiple jaw-dropping plot twists that rival classic Victorian sensation novels. Sarah Waters' dual-narrator structure allows readers to experience the same events from Sue's and Maud's perspectives, creating suspense while exploring themes of desire, madness, and female subjectivity. The novel successfully combines thrilling crime elements with thoughtful commentary on Victorian society's treatment of women, making it both entertaining and intellectually engaging for readers seeking literary fiction with page-turning momentum.

Fingersmith is a neo-Victorian historical crime novel that blends multiple genres including Gothic fiction, psychological thriller, romance, and sensation literature. Sarah Waters deliberately evokes Dickensian storytelling while incorporating modern elements that Victorian authors couldn't publish due to cultural constraints. The novel falls within LGBTQ+ literature and feminist historical fiction, reimagining Victorian England through a contemporary lens that addresses women's sexuality, wrongful institutionalization, and the construction of female identity under patriarchal systems.

The central twist reveals that Sue, not Maud, gets committed to the asylum after the marriage ceremony. What initially appears as Sue helping Gentleman con Maud is actually an elaborate counter-scheme orchestrated by Maud and Mrs. Sucksby. A deeper revelation exposes that Sue and Maud were switched at birth—Sue is actually the heiress Marianne Lilly's daughter, while Maud is Mrs. Sucksby's biological child. This switching was part of Mrs. Sucksby's long-term plan to claim the inheritance, transforming the entire narrative from a simple con story into a complex exploration of identity and maternal betrayal.

Fingersmith explores the suppression of female desire through Victorian society's linking of women's sexuality to accusations of madness and institutionalization. The novel examines class inequality, contrasting Sue's criminal underworld with Maud's isolated existence as her uncle's assistant in cataloging pornographic texts. Identity formation and the construction of self through narratives—both imposed and self-created—features prominently as the switched daughters navigate false histories. Patriarchal power, wrongful confinement, lesbian love as resistance, and women reclaiming agency from male-dominated systems drive the thematic core.

Susan Trinder (Sue) is a fingersmith raised by baby farmer Mrs. Sucksby in London's Borough, skilled in thievery and deception. Maud Lilly appears as a wealthy but isolated heiress forced by her uncle Christopher to transcribe his pornographic library at Briar estate. Richard "Gentleman" Rivers is the charming conman who initiates the scheme. Mrs. Sucksby serves as Sue's surrogate mother with hidden motives involving a decades-old baby-switching plot. Charles, an asylum worker, ultimately helps Sue escape and reveals crucial truths about the intertwined deceptions.

Fingersmith is Victorian slang with dual meanings that reflect the novel's themes. Originally referring to midwives, the term evolved to mean pickpockets or petty thieves, describing Sue's occupation in London's criminal underworld. Sarah Waters uses this ambiguity symbolically—the "finger" work represents both illicit survival skills and the intimate touch between Sue and Maud. By novel's end, "fingersmith" becomes a shared identity signifying the women's liberation from patriarchal constraints, as they use their hands to escape confinement, write their own narratives, and express physical love.

Sue and Maud develop an intense romantic and sexual relationship that complicates their initial deception schemes. Despite Sue's plan to betray Maud and Maud's counter-plan to have Sue institutionalized, genuine attraction and love emerge between them. Their relationship progresses from mutual manipulation to physical intimacy to devastating separation when Sue is committed. The novel's resolution shows them overcoming layers of betrayal to reunite, with their lesbian love representing resistance against Victorian patriarchal systems that sought to control female sexuality and confine women who defied heteronormative expectations.

Fingersmith exposes how Victorian institutions weaponized madness accusations to control women who violated social norms, particularly regarding sexuality and inheritance. Sarah Waters depicts asylums as tools of patriarchal oppression where sane women could be imprisoned on male authority alone. The novel contrasts social classes—Sue's criminal Borough community versus Maud's genteel imprisonment at Briar—showing how both environments confined women differently. Waters includes explicit content Victorian authors couldn't publish, revealing the era's pornography industry, wrongful commitments, and abuse, creating confrontational discourse about normalized gender oppression.

Some critics find Fingersmith's elaborate plot twists implausible or overly convoluted, arguing the multiple layers of deception strain credibility despite their entertainment value. The pacing occasionally slows during detailed Victorian setting descriptions or when retreading events from different perspectives. A few readers note the novel's deliberate mimicry of Victorian sensation fiction creates melodramatic moments that may feel dated. However, most acknowledge these elements serve Waters' neo-Victorian purpose of both honoring and critiquing the genre, with the compelling characters and social commentary outweighing structural concerns.

Readers who enjoyed Fingersmith should explore Sarah Waters' other Victorian novels:

• Tipping the Velvet (lesbian music hall performer's journey)
• Affinity (spiritualist medium prison romance)

The Paying Guests offers Waters' trademark suspense in a 1920s setting. For similar neo-Victorian psychological thrillers, try The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield and The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber. The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry combines Victorian Gothic elements with complex female characters, while Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood explores women's institutionalization and unreliable narratives.