Crimson Petal and the White

[Kim]

Just finished this book while on vacation. Thought it was so good -- and somewhat a sinful pleasure to read!

Anyone else read this one? It was long, but almost every page was worth it!

[gossamer]

Our book club is getting ready to read this. Has anybody else read it?
Gossamer

[Elphaba]

I read it. Frankly I expected more from it.

[LoneFemale]

I really enjoyed this book, although I was a little disappointed with the ending. I guess I wanted the ending spelled out for me instead of depending on my imagination. LOL Even though it was long, I found that I didn't want it to end!
I'm glad someone else enjoyed it.

[plum]

i read it last year. the beginning was good; i enjoyed how 'immersed' i felt in the culture. the second half/ending was a letdown, though.

[Wilhemina]

I enjoyed it too last summer. I recommended it to my sister, but she hasn't read it. Definately immerses the reader in that time and place. It is so pitiful how the characters yearn for real relationships, but are so constrained by cultural mores they can not create them. Except maybe the brother and his crusading (girl)friend, but what a strange situation that was. Wish I remembered more. Maybe as this discussion continues it will come back to me.

[karen ann]

I read it last year and I remember I enjoyed it except for the ending. My reacll of details is a bit fuzzy right now. I heard it was being made into a movie a while ago.

[daylily]

I just finished it, and thought I'd revive this thread.

I enjoyed the book, in the sense that it was never boring, but it is a flawed novel. IMO, the book falls apart halfway through, when Rackham installs Sugar as his daughter's governess. Puh-lease. I know all about the willing suspension of disbelief, but this is just too preposterous, especially when Faber makes such a big deal about presenting a realistic warts-and-all portrait of Victorian London. Especially vexing is when Rackham's neighbor asks him if his new governess is a "Rescue Society" girl--are we supposed to take seriously the notion that women were lifted out of prostitution and placed as governesses? Scullery maids, maybe. A governess was a gentlewoman.

This would be more forgiveable in a novel that didn't pretend to give us a realistic portrait of the time. And speaking of being realistic--Faber relies too much on describing the sh*t in the streets as a way to get us to see what London was really like. There were horses who dropped manure everywhere. We get it. No need to mention it on every other page.

I did like Agnes Rackham--definitely the most interesting character in the book. Faber does a good job of creating someone who's both the epitome of an insipid Victorian lady, and completely deranged.

And Henry Rackham and Emmeline Fox seem to have no purpose in this book. It seems like Emmaline was inserted, simply to let us know that a woman could be respectable and have a sex drive.

I was annoyed with William Rackham. There's really no explanation for his profound personality change. What is Faber trying to say? That a man can either be a free spirit with an overabundance of lust or a captain of industry who's impotent? It's lame to try to get us believe that business worries change him from a horny man-about-town into a boring, staid, stick-in-the-mud.

Edited to add that I'm now reading another historical novel about prostitution--Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue. I'm not finished with it yet, but I'm thinking it's better than "Crimson Petal." Not as bawdy and darker (in 18th century London, a 14 year old girl is forced into prostitution when her family kicks her out of the house), but well written and an interesting historical portrait. It's also based on a true story.

[enkmom]

I LOOOOOVED "Slammerkin". Read it about a year ago. I enjoyed the first part of "The Crimson Petal...", but just quit reading it about midway through. I just could not read one more page.

[operamommy]

I enjoyed the book, though I will agree that the ending kind of fell flat. I wasn't certain if I felt sorry for Sugar at the end or not. Sure, she went through the torment of finally falling in love with someone only for that to turn out badly, but her decision in the final chapter really made me angry. I suppose I can understand it on one level, but on another it was just too big of a change in her character. (I didn't want to give too many spoilers)

operamommy

[daylily]

I was upset about Sugar's action at the end, too, until I remembered the scene with Rackham screaming at Sophie and calling her an imbecile.

[daylily]

Shameless bump in hopes that there might be people willing to continue this discussion.

[TranscendentalMom]

Hey I finished this book about a month ago! I agree that the story began to fizzle when Sugar became governess. It still held my interest and was great writing...but it just went in a direction that I didn't understand. I actually liked the ending though! I felt so sorry for that little girl and was happy she would be with someone who really loved her....

[Mrs Dimples]

I have an inexplicable and frankly rather embarrassing affinity for these historical-fiction-slash-hooker-love-story glorified beach blanket novels...I read the Crimson Petal very shortly after it came out and frankly I didn't love it. Hard to explain, it just didn't ring my bell. I did like the writing itself though, I didn't feel talked down to, which I intensely dislike. And Sugar was a redhead, so I felt an instant bond there, lol. But I agree with everyone else, it would seem, that the story got decidedly less interesting after Rackham took Sugar into his home. It didn't have to lose interest there, but it did. I was disappointed in that...the book had potential that it did not realize fully, IMO.