The Crimson Petal and the White - Paperback

by Michel Faber (Author)

A teenage prostitute ascends through the many layers of Victorian London society in this highly acclaimed "big, sexy, bravura novel" (New York Times).

London, 1870s. At the heart of this panoramic narrative is a young woman's struggle to lift her body and soul out of the gutter. Sugar, a nineteen-year-old whore in the brothel of the terrifying Mrs. Castaway, yearns for a better life. Her ascent through the strata of Victorian society begins with the egotistical perfume magnate William Rackham. Infatuated with Sugar, William's patronage brings her into the circles of his family and milieu: his wife who barely overcomes chronic hysteria to make her appearances during "the Season"; his mysteriously hidden-away daughter, left to the care of minions; his pious brother, foiled in his devotional calling by his lust for the Widow Fox; as well as preening socialites, drunken journalists, untrustworthy servants, vile guttersnipes, and whores of all stripes and persuasions.

Twenty years in its conception, research, and writing, The Crimson Petal and the White is teeming with life, rich in texture and incident, with breathtakingly real characters.

"Cocky and brilliant, amused and angry, [Faber] is rightfully earning comparisons to observer extraordinaire Charles Dickens. . . . It's hopeless to resist" (Entertainment Weekly).

Back Jacket

A New York Times Notable Book
Meet Sugar, a nineteen-year-old prostitute in Victorian London who yearns for escape to a better life. From the brothel of the terrifying Mrs. Castaway, she begins her ascent through society. Beginning with William Rackham, a perfume magnate whose lust for Sugar soon begins to smell like love, she meets a host of lovable, maddening, unforgettable characters as her social rise is overseen by assorted preening socialites, drunken journalists, untrustworthy servants, vile guttersnipes, and whores of all kinds.
Named a Best Book of the Year by: People, Entertainment Weekly, and The Chicago Tribune.
"Gorgeous.... Colossal, kaleidoscopic... Capable of rendering the muck of a London street amid the delicate humming-bird flights of thought with equal ease." -Time
"Ambitious and accomplished...nothing could have prepared readers for the sweep and subtlety of The Crimson Petal and the White."--The New York Times Book Review
"Tell[s] a good story grippingly and colorfully.... An old-fashioned page-turner with pleasingly newfangled twists." --The Washington Post Book World
Michel Faber's work has been published in twenty countries and received several literary awards. He lives in Scotland.