 As Waters ' debut novel , Tipping the Velvet was highly acclaimed and was chosen by The New York Times and The Library Journal as one of the best books of 1998 . Waters followed it with two other novels set in the Victorian era , both of which were also well received . Reviewers have offered the most praise for Tipping the Velvet 's use of humour , adventure , and sexual explicitness . The novel was adapted into a somewhat controversial three @-@ part series of the same name produced and broadcast by the BBC in 2002 and a stage play in 2015 . 
