Rating: 
Summary: Definitely Worth the Effort
Review: I wasn't sure what to expect from this incredibly lengthy, detailed book, but I was pleasantly surprised. The character descriptions and stories completely pulled me in. I found myself relating to Sugar (even though I have nothing in common with this character). The characters and personalities represent so many of the various personalities we deal with in our time. It's amazing how timeless the stories and characters truly are. While this book is very lengthy and very detailed, it will pull you in and become a relatively easy read. It's worth the effort.
Rating:
Summary: So naughty and so good!
Review: This is definitely a "must read" - you just can not put it down! One of the best books for gift giving, your friends will love it!
Rating: 
Summary: An amazing book-exuberant and erotic
Review: This is not a perfect book, I agree, but it is endlessly fascinating and well-researched without bogging us down in all of the details of Victorian life in London.His narrrative strategy is very Dickensian and self-coscious and drags us right into the world of Sugar and London circa 1870. Marvelous descriptions, sordid, lovely, and funn by turns, make this book a real treat. The ending was a bit rushed, but served to tie up most of the loose ends and resonate.
Rating: 
Summary: Is That All There Is???????????
Review: It took me a little time to get into this book but after a few chapters I was hooked. I couldn't wait to join the characters each night to see what turn of events was in store. I finished the book last night only to say "is that all there is".....is there a sequal in the making???
I found a "short story" on line Ferber wrote about a young Mrs. Fox...it took all of five or ten minutes to read but again I was left asking "is that all there is"??
I have recommended this book to several but will now tell some of them to spend their time on reading something else. I know they would be as disappointed as I was having invested time in a novel that leaves you hanging like the season's final episode of your favorite tv show!!
I saw where this novel is going to be made into a movie....if it's like the book I'll wait until it comes to my local video store rather than invest the [money] to see it on the big screen!
Rating: 
Summary: Boring beyond words
Review: When I purchased this book, I had good expectations, although I had been forewarned about the ending. Well I never got there!
Very seldom do I not finish a book. I must have put this one aside 4 or 5 times in favour of other books, and finally never did bother to pick it up again. I was simply bored beyond words. I was unable to warm up to any of the characters. I had little interest in finding out what happened to any of them. I should have been patient and picked it up in a library instead of paying so much for it. It is not a book I will be keeping in my home library.
Rating:
Summary: Taken Back to a Sordid Yet Very Real Time
Review: The Crimson Petal and the White gave me what I expected and more. While the ending []is disappointing, it accomplishes the effect of leaving the reader imagining her own conclusions. I can't say I cared for this effect but it kept the story and it's characters in my head, wanting to talk about them to anyone who has read it and even to the author. I have some questions for him. Days after completion I am still hoping for a sequel. However, I would be lying if I say I didn't love it.
Set in the 1870's, this is no mushy historical romance. Michel Faber pulled me into this journey by his writing style of addressing the reader in a "Mr. Scrooge" manner. That is, he and you are invisible to the cast and setting as he speaks directly to you, introducing you to characters, letting you know who will be interesting to follow around while anticipating your thoughts about particular people and events. You float about, like a fly on the wall, observing the lives of some intensely complexed and troubled souls.
While, in the beginning, you think the prostitute Caroline is the main character it is Sugar who steals the show. She is a prostitute who, contrary to the time, feels the plight of women is due to the heartlessness of men (and hers is also directly due to her madame mother), she is streetwise, mysteriously intellectual(for a prostitute and for a woman), and she has hopes for rising above her profession somehow. In spite of her cynicism toward men she gradually falls in love with one of her customers, William Rackham, an unwilling heir to his father's perfumery with no self esteem and a troubled marriage. Sugar builds him up to be the man his father and society did not expect him to be as she works her person into the fibers of his life.
As the book unfolds slowly, quite explicit [], descriptive of scenery and state of minds, it picks up quickly introducing a string of characters intertwined with each other. There is Rackham's older brother(a would be minister struggling with the flesh and the spirit), his mentally/physically ill wife, his six year old daughter, two bawdy friends, and a few others all of whose characters evolve before your very eyes.
These 800 pages become a qick read as every chapter had me wondering who and what next was going to go terribly right or wrong. I could not imagine how it would end. This is definately a dark story but there are moments I laughed out loud like when Henry, William's older brother, met up with Caroline in the street to interview her. It didn't go quite as he expected.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is a lover of history, the historical time, intrigue, and complexity of characters. Not to mention, an extremely well written book.
Rating:
Summary: An Instant Classic
Review: Oh, please, this is the best book of 2002, hands down. A fantastic book, a sentiment shared by all five people I bought it for.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: The first novel in a long time that I have had difficulty putting down. The form and narrative style reminds me very much of the few Victorian novels I have read - all
of George Eliot's and some of Hardy's - but of course the language used is much more modern.
I love the book, but whether or not you will is a matter of taste. No matter how good a storyteller may be, no matter
how talented a writer, there will always be those who will not like a book, those who are repulsed by what others find beautiful, and those who simply love pointing out obvious faults in order to exhibit their higher intellect and expose the ignorance of the rest of us. One person's meat is
another's poison. Having said that, I heartily recommend what I consider a fine read! Write me and tell me what you think at my email address.
Rating:
Summary: Unforgettable heroine, superb novel
Review: My expectations were high for this book -- a bad sign, given the disappointment that often comes as a result. But I was certainly not let down. This is a fascinating novel, with an unforgettable heroine -- an almost preternaturally intelligent prostitute caught up in the class snobbery, hypocrisy, prudery and misogyny of late-Victorian England. Each character is etched with such care that you find yourself loathing some of them while pitying them as well -- for Faber brilliantly shows how most are decent people who are simply prisoners of their time. We see how difficult it is to battle social mores and expectations, even when they are destroying us. Some have commented on the rather abrupt ending, but I felt it was perfect. Faber had done such a superb job of defining his characters that we know their unwritten fates as well as if we were to read another 800 pages. My highest recommendation -- a marvelous book.
Rating:
Summary: Loved it--read it twice
Review: Great book about late Victorian England. Read it twice for the nuances contained wherein; Sugar reigns despite the male supremacy around her; a must read for anyone who is interested in late 1900's Victorian society
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