Rating: 
Summary: Couldn't put this book down
Review: I've read many, many great works and this one is among the best. It's a large book and I found myself still hungry for more when I finished it. From the first page, this book drew me in and didn't let me go. Make sure you don't have important meetings or classes when reading this - you'll forget about everything but this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful narration, but alittle long
Review: Just finished this book; it took a little longer than I anticipated. I enjoyed the first third of it and eagerly and captivatingly read through the last soap opera-ish last third, but found myself dragging through the middle. The writing style was beautiful and I thoroughly enjoyed the author's style of narration (that's where the four stars come from)! I just wish the book wasn't over 800 pages long; alittle too much and too drawn out. The ending (as other reviewers point out) was alittle open-ended, but the narrator openly admits to this as being construed purposely. My one major disagreement with the other reviewers is that many of them found this book to contain strong sexual vulgarities and foul language and were somewhat offended. The story is about a prostitute...need I say more? In acuality, I opened this book expecting to find MANY references to sexual "events." Intimacy is referred to throughout and blatant (maybe vulgar?) words are used to refer to bodyparts, but nothing to the extent I was expecting to find. A Harold Robbins novel probably has more explicit sex scenes.
All in all, I did enjoy this book (especially the writing style), but am glad to say it's over. Alittle too long.
Rating:
Summary: Unfair ending
Review: This book was exceptionaly interesting, the only reason I didn't give it 5 stars was because of the horrid ending. It is set in late 19th century London. The heart of the story is a tale of a misbegotten common prostitute. Crimson Petal leads you on a merry and at times sad portrait of her life. While reading this book, I lived it. I was drawn into every word and detail right up to the very last page. The only problem I found was the ending. You are lead on another chase only to have the author simply stop. You have so many questions that it seems hardly fair to end in such and abrupt manner.
Rating:
Summary: CRIMSON AND THE PETAL WHITE
Review: Wonderfully written story. The character development was vivid. The story was very unusual and eccentric. This is one of those books that you think abut long after you have read it. The images of the povery of London in the 19th century were very interesting and made you wonder if this is really how it was for prostitutes. The novel is well written and even though it is 820 pages, there was never a moment that I wanted to put it down.The ending, although surprising, was a great way for the protagonist to finally get something for all of her suffering through the years. I would be able to write more except my book is in Hawaii with a friend that borrowed it and I can't go back and review it!
Rating: 
Summary: slow... slow... slow..!
Review: I was terribly disappointed. This book was so painfully slow that I had to force myself to finish it. Generally I would have completed a book this size in no more than a week, but this one took nearly four!
And the ending... what kind of an ending is that? There is no conclusion, no closure, and nothing is resolved. I definately did not feel that I gained anything from having read this.
Rating:
Summary: No - the ending is absolutely RIGHT!
Review: The Crimson Petal and the White is a multi-layered, brilliant book; if The Corrections was the first great novel of the 21st century, this is the second. The ending is absolutely true to the underlying logic of the book; the author turns the tables on the reader several times before setting things right. The narrator makes much of the fact that the book is like a prostitute; there is much to be made of the prostitute Sugar's novel and wife Agnes' diaries, and how they meld with each other and with the book of the narrator; but my dear reader, this is simply subterfuge to the novelist's real intent! And for his real intent to be realized, no other ending than the one chosen is possible. No more to spoil the tail; read the book and see how Faber does it!
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing "great read"
Review: I really wanted to like this book but, to be quite honest, there really isn't that much to like. The characters are very shallow, unbelievable, and in some cases utterly unnecessary and inaccessible. ... Morever, the non-ending of this book, particulary the coy last paragraph, is not only ridiculous, but also another literary device to give the book an air of being "Literature." It seems that if the writer had indeed spent ten years researcing this book, he could have come up with a more in depth analysis of class than this book provides. This book has many pretensions, which seems to be the plague of many modern fiction writers. Too much emphasis on placed on imitating great authors of the past in order to become the great writer of the present.
Rating: 
Summary: Four wasted hours
Review: I could put it down. This wrist-cracking stinker is a pile of pornographic claptrap. Faber can turn a phrase, but that doesn't mean "Crimson Petal" is engaging or convincing. I tried to care about the supermodel-thin prostitute with the Phi Beta Kappa intellect, and her unappealing, brutal boyfriend, but after hours of trying, I gave up. The length is be somnolence-inducing and entirely self-indulgent -- the man needs an editor. I'm sorry the public library was sweet-talked into buying it by ctiics' reviews, but glad I didn't spend my own money on it.
Rating:
Summary: lovely book
Review: there's nothing i love more than a good "juicy" novel - and that's exactly what The Crimson Petal and the White is...good, "juicy", and extremely satisfying. the story is involved and intriguing, and so well developed... i knew these characters - i felt their fears, their passions, their losses and their triumphs. i love the way the author drew me into the story -- after the first few pages it was impossible for me to stop reading! i also admire his ability to portray the female characters with such depth and compassion...especially since their backgrounds are so diverse. i think Faber captured the plight of nineteenth-century women beautifully...their choices were few, their rights even fewer. i suppose a short, sweet synopsis might be "Pretty Woman" with a hell of a lot more drudgery, dirt, and, above all else...depth!
Rating:
Summary: good read
Review: I really liked this book. I was hesitant to start a book that was over 800 pages long. But the writing was so wonderful that I felt transformed to London in the 1800's. I could actually feel what the time must have been like to live in. I couldn't read this book fast enough and was sorry to see it end. The didn't give this book 5 stars because I didn't like the way the story of william's brother ended. Here you are going along getting more and more eager to find out if he is or isn't going to give in to his lustfull thoughts of the prostitiutes and then the story line just ends. I kept saying "what" that [is not very good]. None of the other reviewers were disturbed by this. Was it just me?
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