The Crimson Petal and the White cover art

The Crimson Petal and the White

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The Crimson Petal and the White

By: Michel Faber
Narrated by: Jill Tanner
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About this listen

NOW A MAJOR BBC DRAMA starring Romola Garai, Chris O'Dowd, Gillian Anderson, Richard E. Grant, Shirley Henderson, and Mark Gatiss.

'Watch your step. Keep your wits about you; you will need them....' So begins this irresistible voyage into the dark side of Victorian London. Amongst an unforgettable cast of low-lifes, physicians, businessmen, and prostitutes, meet our heroine Sugar, a young woman trying to drag herself up from the gutter any way she can. Be prepared for a mesmerising tale of passion, intrigue, ambition, and revenge.

©2011 Michel Faber (P)2011 W.F. Howes Ltd Fiction Historical Fiction

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Critic reviews

"A big, sexy, bravura novel...wildly entertaining." (The New York Times)
"Irresistibly readable." (Ruth Rendell)
"Faber is the master of the spine-tingling page-turner, while creating a wholly believable universe." (Dazed and Confused)
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Beautifully written and highly accomplished, but more to be admired than enjoyed. Certainly the book could have achieved the same effect whilst being half the length. The narration is excellent.

Victoriana

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An amazing story which literally takes you into the squalor of London life and inequalities in a heart wrenching story line. The narration was absolutely astounding and the characters came to life through the wonderful descriptive text and brilliant narration. Would highly recommend.

Brilliant story that draws you into its very depths

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When you have invested 40+ hours in a book a better ending is deserved. Performance was excellent!

Loved everything apart from the ending!

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Not for the fainthearted but a fascinating read.!
Well worth purchasing and totally fascinating.
As mentioned here, the ending is a little sudden. But this may be a blessing in disguise as it left me wondering what might have happened.

Amazing

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I'm not one for a long winded period drama. But I liked it, I was a little disappointed there wasn't a murder investigation. But I really liked the characters or disliked the horrible characters. I will say many of the story arcs don't have a definite end but I hope that some ended well.

Love the narrator. Dickens for the mordern reader.

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this was intoxicating, I've never known a book like it. not once did it drag and the narration was incredible. I will listen to it again and again.

so so so good!!!!

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If you could sum up The Crimson Petal and the White in three words, what would they be?

Captivating, absorbing, intriguing

Any additional comments?

This audiobook gripped me from start to finish, despite its length. The author brings Victorian London to life, as well as the vivid cast of characters. The narrator did justice to the text, on the whole; there were a peppering of mispronunciations which did grate on me, but despite that I enjoyed her reading.

Gripping from start to finish

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A good story with no holds barred about the inequality of life well narrated. I all a very good book.

Raw book about raw times

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OK, so people complain about the abrupt ending, and yes, it does end without resolving a number of loose ends, but life does that.
For me, the plot wasn't the point. The richness of the world that was portrayed and the interesting, very human, characters we meet engaged me without the need for a strong plot. I've found that before, That's me, others enjoy different things.
Many of the characters have massive gaps in their awareness of what's happening to them, Agnes in particular, and the reader/listener is put in the same position, The central relationship is the very asymmetrical one between Sugar and William. Sugar has constantly to perform for William in various ways, Ultimately neither of them really know what went wrong, so how can we?

A fascinating immersion in a different time.

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Jill Tanner was absolutely brilliant. She made this book live. She made all its characters dimensional and all too human!

The Narrator

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