The Golden Question Do You Consider the Paying Guests to Be a Worthy Prize Winner Or an Odd Choice? Which Side of the Critical Response Do Your Opinions Align With?

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The Golden Question Do You Consider the Paying Guests to Be a Worthy Prize Winner Or an Odd Choice? Which Side of the Critical Response Do Your Opinions Align With?

Trends and Preoccupations in Modern Literary Culture – Session Thirteen – 31st January 2017 Sarah Waters – The Paying Guests Introduction Waters began writing her first novel after completing her PhD thesis, which was entitled ‘Wolfskins and togas: lesbian and gay historical fictions, 1870 to the present’. The theme of her doctoral research has permeated almost all of her work since, perhaps most famously in her debut novel, Tipping the Velvet. As well as her lesbian themes, Waters is noted for her meticulous research into various historical periods. The Paying Guests was shortlisted for the ‘Baileys Womens Prize for Fiction’ in 2015, and was named the 2015 ‘Fiction Book of the Year’ by The Sunday Times. “‘The Paying Guests’ is twice as long as it should be. […] The first half is a convincing and absorbing immersion in particular lives at a particular time; the second sags like an overloaded washing line.” – Charlotte Moore, The Spectator Do you feel the novel’s length is justified? Is anything gained from the lengthiness of the story, or are there some sections you feel could have been edited or removed? If so, which? “Because [Lilian] is so conventional – and admits as much – and because we have no access to her thoughts, her intention chips away at the reader, opening up doubt, and the expectation that she might be duplicitous.” – Arifa Akbar, The Independent Were you convinced by the characterisation of Lillian? Were you convinced by her love of / desire for Frances? “Waters's unusual gift for drama and for social satire is squandered on the production of middlebrow entertainment” – Rachel Cusk, The Guardian Does this novel work as a social satire? If so, of what? “Cut about 30 pages from the melodramatic self-induced abortion scene […] make it harder to see the stupid plot twist coming from 100 pages away, and narrow the last 250 pp. of legal drivel down to 75. Finally, please give the two main characters personalities so that readers can tell them apart.” - La Petite Américaine, Goodreads What do you think of the above criticisms? The Golden Question Do you consider The Paying Guests to be a worthy prize winner or an odd choice? Which side of the critical response do your opinions align with? .

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