„Tipping the Velvet“ by Sarah Waters was recommended to me with the words „There are a lot of women dressed in drag in it. I think you will love it“. Based solely on these words I ordered the book and read it. It's basically the life story of a lesbian in England during the Victorian Age. Nan, the main character, growns up in a small village. She falls in love with a male impersonator (Kitty) and they become lovers. They go to London, where Nan starts working as a male impersonator, too. When Kitty cheats on her with a guy, they break up. Nan works as a male prostitute giving hand- and blowjobs to gay men for a while, before she gets picked up by a rich lady, whose lover/servant she becomes. She's kicked out after sleeping with one of the servants. Eventually she ends up in the house of a feminist-marxist activist.
When I first started reading it, the book seemed incredibly dull and predictable to me. The first part is pretty much just the love story of Nan and Kitty and the first 100 or so pages are only Nan talking about how pretty and great Kitty is, blabla. My thoughts were „Great, another one of those dramatic lesbian love stories. That's new …. not!“, but I kept reading anyway. I'm very glad I did. It's a great journey through the society of the Victorian age and also a great character development. Also, the lesbian scenes (sex scenes as well as just general love scenes) clearly show that the author knows what she is writing about. Even the boring love story in the beginning is well written. I can very much relate to it. Judging from people I know, myself and books/movies/TV most lesbians tend to get quite obsessed with their first love. More so then straight girls. I wonder why that is. My intuitive answer is that guys are just not sexy enough to get obsessed over, but I guess that is not the true answer ;)
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