I'm a little late in finishing this book club book, but I'm so glad I did. Sarah Waters' writing was utterly transportative -- I felt like I really went everywhere that Nancy went -- and the details of historic London were so vivid that I am still thinking about them, as if I took a trip to a real place.

I realize that Nancy was young when she fell in love with Kitty Butler, but I did find myself annoyed that through all the years of the story, she seemed to have so little willpower of her own. Maybe that is a side effect of Kitty breaking her heart at such a young age.

This was my second book read on the Kindle, and I noticed a lot of typos (maybe the print version has these too?), but my favorite feature this time was realizing I could make highlights of my favorite quotes and have them stored online in my Kindle account.

Favorite quotes:

The world, to me, seemed utterly transformed since Kitty Butler had stepped into it. It had been ordinary before she came; now it was full of queer electric spaces, that she left ringing with music or glowing with light.

But children, he concluded, weren’t made to please their parents; and no father should expect to have his daughter at his side for ever... ‘In short, Nance, even was you going to the very devil himself, your mother and I would rather see you fly from us in joy, than stay with us in sorrow - and grow, maybe, to hate us, for keeping you from your fate.'

the blue of the September sky showed unexpectedly vivid and clear - as if the sky itself were a ceiling, and, climbing, we had come nearer to it.

It was a wonderful feeling - but a fearful one, too, for you felt all the time that you didn’t deserve your own good fortune; that you had received it quite by error, in someone else’s place - and that it might be taken from you while your gaze was turned elsewhere. And there was nothing you would not do, I thought, nothing you would not sacrifice, to keep your heart’s desire once you had been given it.

her skin (which she wore with a marvellous, easy grace, as if it were another kind of handsome suit, perfectly tailored and pleasant to wear)...

After all, there are moments in our lives that change us, that discontent us with our pasts and offer us new futures.

There is a way rich people have of saying What?: the word is honed, and has a point put on it; it comes out of their mouths like a dagger coming out of a sheath.

The fact was I didn’t know who would be beside me in my paradise. The fact was, there was no one who would want to have me in theirs...

'The kind of work I do is its own kind of fulfilment, whether it’s successful or not.’ She drank her tea. ‘It’s like love.’ 'Love!' I sniffed. ‘You think love is its own reward, then?’ ‘Don’t you?’