The Paying Guests

shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction

By: Sarah Waters

Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson

'I raced through it, breathing fast and when I had finished had to reread parts of the wonderful early chapters. I don't like historical novels but this is the exception. I shall let a few months go by and then read it all over again with, I'm sure, undiminished pleasure' Ruth Rendall, Guardian

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.

For 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. And as passions mount and frustration gathers, no one can foresee just how far-reaching, and how devastating, the disturbances will be...

This is vintage Sarah Waters: beautifully described with excruciating tension, real tenderness, believable characters, and surprises. It is above all, a wonderful, compelling story.©2014 Sarah Waters

Critic reviews

Absolutely brilliant

Another wild ride of a novel . . . magnetic storytelling

A page-turning melodrama and a fascinating portrait of London on the verge of great change

This novel magnificently confirms Sarah Waters's status as an unsurpassed fictional recorder of vanished eras and hidden lives

I raced through it, breathing fast and when I had finished had to reread parts of the wonderful early chapters. I don't like historical novels but this is the exception. I shall let a few months go by and then read it all over again with, I'm sure, undiminished pleasure

You know you are in the hands of a skilful, confident writer when you read a Sarah Waters book. She slowly reels you in. She weaves plots and themes that creep up and entangle you while you are innocently following her characters. They go about their shadowy business and by the time you raise your head from the page to take a breath, you're hooked

The Paying Guests demonstrates the writerly qualities for which Waters is esteemed, proving as 'fantastically moody and resonant', in terms of the rendering of domestic space, as a novel the author herself described as such and which she once said she would like to have written: Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca

Sickeningly tense - and thumpingly good

You will be hooked within a page . . . At her greatest, Waters transcends genre: the delusions in Affinity (1999), the vulnerability in Fingersmith (2002), the undercurrents of social injustice and the unexplained that underlie all her work, take her, in my view, well beyond the capabilities of her more seriously regarded Booker-winning peers. But The Paying Guests is the apotheosis of her talent; at least for now. I have tried and failed to find a single negative thing to say about it. Her next will probably be even better. Until then, read it, Flaubert, Zola, and weep

A nod towards Little Dorrit also seems perceptible in the book's quiet ending amid the bustle and clamour of London. Unillusioned but tentatively hopeful, it is a beautifully gauged conclusion to a novel of ambitious reach and triumphant accomplishment

A masterpiece of social unease . . . It isn't so much the plot that makes you read on - the novel's armature is a comparatively uncomplicated suspense narrative but barnacled to it is an astonishing accretion of detail . . . A virtuoso feet of storytelling

A seductive thriller

The Paying Guests is so evocative and compelling that all the time I was reading, I had a feeling it was me who had done something terrible, instead of her characters

Brilliantly involving . . . juicy, beautifully observed and not afraid to be explicit

Waters's page-turning prose conceals great subtlety. Acutely sensitive to social nuance, she keeps us constantly alert . . . From a novelist who has been shortlisted for the Booker three times, this is a winner

just ... so ... long

A good story but too laboured for me. So much detail.

On the other hand, I listened to the end after giving up and coming back to it several times. Possibly it's actually excellent and I'm just too impatient

What an anticlimax

Too long and the story drags and expected a twist at the end but nothing .

To be a fly on the wall in 1922

If you could sum up The Paying Guests in three words, what would they be?

moving, thrilling, suspensful

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Paying Guests?

So Many, the ashtray, the verdict

Have you listened to any of Juliet Stevenson’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Started off OK, but the more i listened, i thought Juliet really brought the characters to life.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The desparation of francies and Lillan to be happy

Any additional comments?

Started of a bit slow, But gradually it pulls you in. Sarah waters is just a great story teller.
Started to re listen again.

Not to my taste, but well written (minor spoilers)

I will try to keep the first part of this review spoiler free, when I start going in to spoilers, I will write a warning.

This book really consists of two separate stories, a love affair and a murder history, they flow in to each other but the love story occupies the first half of the book, the murder the other.

The story is seen from the point of view of Frances, an upper class woman living with her mother in their old house, her father left them nothing but debts when he died and so they are forced to take in lodgers, a young married couple. Frances starts having an affair with the woman in the couple and they start making plans for how they can be together.

This is just a personal opinion of mine BUT: I find it very tiresome that almost every historical novel that centres a female character has to be about a woman who is upper class, or in the very least middle class. I really long for a good historical novel from the point of view of a working class girl or woman. And I would have found it even more intriguing to read about a working class homosexual woman, as I know Waters have done in the past with "tipping the velvet". However I did enjoy the descriptions about domestic life in the 1920's and I did find the romance sweet.

I will say that Waters is very masterful when it comes to her portrayal of men, especially in how she portrays ordinary men's everyday disrespect of women's boundaries. I have never before seen a writer who so skilfully manages to convey that terror that happens when you, as a woman, are faced with a man who does not behave in a way that is overstepping the line, but just toeing it enough to make you feel uneasy and unsafe but without being able to speak up as the man is not doing anything extraordinary. So for instance, when Frances is at a party and a man clings on to her and refuses to take her hints that she does not wish for his company, that's very well portrayed and feels incredibly true to life.

I will also say that Juliet Stevenson does a fantastic job with the narration, no complaints, she's just marvellous.

spoilers in the rest of the review!

I am no big fan of murder mystery novels or anything of that sort, and this story does not do anything extraordinary with the whole "murderers point of view"-thing. It plays out exactly as you would have expected and the whole thing just feels very anonymous. None of the charm or wit that had been there previously in the novel came through after the murder. It became very by the books and so maybe if you are in to murder stories this might still be up your alley, but for the rest of us, I would not bother really.

I also found that the characters all acted very odd and "out of character" after the murder had taken place. Of course they were shaken by the events, but, still there were a lot of odd things that just seemed out of place. No one acted like a real person, they all just became like people in an ordinary Noir thriller.

All in all, I will read or listen to more by Sarah Waters, as this book did intrigue me. And I am looking forward to it as well, but this book just didn't do it for me.

Keeps you engaged

A little repetitive in part but the story line is good and engaging. The ending is a tad abrupt. Overall I listened to this over several days while walking and the novel was a motivator in my setting out on my walks.