The Paying Guests
The “volcanically sexy” (USA Today) bestseller about a widow and her daughter who take a young couple into their home in 1920s London.
It is 1922, and London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned; the out-of-work and the hungry are demanding change. And in South London, in a genteel Camberwell villa—a large, silent house now bereft of brothers, husband, and even servants—life is about to be transformed, as impoverished widow Mrs. Wray and her spinster daughter, Frances, are obliged to take in lodgers.
With the arrival of Lilian and Leonard Barber, a modern young couple of the “clerk class,” the routines of the house will be shaken up in unexpected ways. Little do the Wrays know just how profoundly their new tenants will alter the course of Frances’s life—or, as passions mount and frustration gathers, how far-reaching, and how devastating, the disturbances will be.
Short-listed for the Man Booker Prize three times, Sarah Waters has earned a reputation as one of our greatest writers of historical fiction.
It is 1922, and London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned; the out-of-work and the hungry are demanding change. And in South London, in a genteel Camberwell villa—a large, silent house now bereft of brothers, husband, and even servants—life is about to be transformed, as impoverished widow Mrs. Wray and her spinster daughter, Frances, are obliged to take in lodgers.
With the arrival of Lilian and Leonard Barber, a modern young couple of the “clerk class,” the routines of the house will be shaken up in unexpected ways. Little do the Wrays know just how profoundly their new tenants will alter the course of Frances’s life—or, as passions mount and frustration gathers, how far-reaching, and how devastating, the disturbances will be.
Short-listed for the Man Booker Prize three times, Sarah Waters has earned a reputation as one of our greatest writers of historical fiction.
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Community Reviews
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The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
564 pages
What’s it about?
This novel takes place in London in 1922. The First World War is over and London is still reeling from the deaths of so many young men. In this atmosphere, Mrs. Wray and her spinster daughter Frances must take in boarders to make ends meet. Nothing will be the same after Mr. and Mrs. Barber move into the house.
What did it make me think about?
The historical time period was interesting. You forget how many freedoms we now enjoy that men (and especially women) did not enjoy in 1922.
Should I read it?
I enjoyed this book but thought it was a little wordy at times. Much like “The Goldfinch”, I felt like the book would have been better had they cut out about 50 pages. Having said that, it was a totally unexpected story. Some will love it and some will not. None of the characters were particularly likable and that is an obstacle for me. Because of that, I enjoyed it but did not love it.
Quote-
“Like the parted kimono, the sounds were unsettling; the silence was most unsettling of all. Sitting at her bureau a short time before, Frances had been picturing her lodgers in purely mercenary terms- as something like two great waddling shillings. But this, she thought, shuffling backward over the tiles, this what it really meant to have lodgers: this odd, unintimate proximity, this rather peeled-back moment, where the only thing between herself and Mrs. Barber was a few feet of kitchen and a thin scullery door.”
The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
564 pages
What’s it about?
This novel takes place in London in 1922. The First World War is over and London is still reeling from the deaths of so many young men. In this atmosphere, Mrs. Wray and her spinster daughter Frances must take in boarders to make ends meet. Nothing will be the same after Mr. and Mrs. Barber move into the house.
What did it make me think about?
The historical time period was interesting. You forget how many freedoms we now enjoy that men (and especially women) did not enjoy in 1922.
Should I read it?
I enjoyed this book but thought it was a little wordy at times. Much like “The Goldfinch”, I felt like the book would have been better had they cut out about 50 pages. Having said that, it was a totally unexpected story. Some will love it and some will not. None of the characters were particularly likable and that is an obstacle for me. Because of that, I enjoyed it but did not love it.
Quote-
“Like the parted kimono, the sounds were unsettling; the silence was most unsettling of all. Sitting at her bureau a short time before, Frances had been picturing her lodgers in purely mercenary terms- as something like two great waddling shillings. But this, she thought, shuffling backward over the tiles, this what it really meant to have lodgers: this odd, unintimate proximity, this rather peeled-back moment, where the only thing between herself and Mrs. Barber was a few feet of kitchen and a thin scullery door.”
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