If you haven’t read ‘Fingersmith’ yet by Sarah Waters, I envy you! You come fresh to the surprise of it, the jaw-dropping twist at the heart of the narrative. In fact, the plot is so intricate, it puts me in mind of the hidden mechanism of the finest clock.
A ‘fingersmith’ was the old Victorian word for a thief. But could it be the author herself who is tricking us?
I once heard Waters speak about her writing at a literary festival. She was so modest, despite her great gifts.
When the original source material is of such high quality, it can be adapted to very different settings without losing the power of its universal themes. The novel is set in Victorian England and yet the director Park Chan Wook transposes it to Korea under Japanese colonial rule. The result is ‘The Handmaiden.’
For once, the trailer is great – revealing the tension of this erotic thriller, but not giving too much away!
