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| Nights at the Circus (Vintage Crucial Classics) | 
 enlarge | Author: Angela Carter
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: £3.99
Buy Used: £0.77
You Save: £3.22 (81%)
New (1) from £26.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 48143
Media: Paperback
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 0099458144
EAN: 9780099458142
ASIN: 0099458144
Publication Date: August 7, 2003
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 Smart book, duff novel... June 23, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
Carter is a devotee of feminist interpretations of Lacanian theory. 'Nights at the Circus' is duly littered with (metaphorical) mirrors, with phrases such as the 'freedom of the mask', and studded with paragraphs that explain how the 'eye of the beholder' affects the object it beholds. Even if you don't especially object to Lacan, this tendentious framework can irritate. The story arc (as distinct from the cooked-up elements of 'magical realism') offers few surprises and the observations are effectively censored by the guiding philosophy (which is itself a kind of Lacanian paradox). Carter's prose style can be horribly 'purple'. The favoured characters are differentiated with idiomatic voices but tend to share their author's aspirational vocabulary - which last often reeks of the thesaurus (there's a sentence where someone walks 'between the pediments of the doorway' - which is just plain embarrassing). The book also progressively succumbs to dated 80's experimental effects: the second section concludes with a kind of 'pataphor' where the heroine escapes on a toy train that becomes real, while the third section mixes first and third person narratives to no clear benefit. At one point in the book Carter describes how the world's shamans manage to retain their integrity despite using fraudulent deception to sustain people's belief; and in a sense, that's what she does herself. There's a very funny joke about the heroine's virginity at the end of the book which perhaps carries the point ("She laughed. She laughed. She laughed."). Carter benefited from the metropolitan bias of the UK publishing industry, while her Lacanian credentials have sustained her presence on University reading lists: she still has a committed fan base, but this - her 'masterpiece' - seems both dated and clumsy.
Wow who thought exams could be this good..? August 30, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
What a fantastically rich and exciting book! An extract from this came up on my A level exam paper and after reading the 300 words given was determined to read more.
I am so glad that I did! Carter explores graphically the timeless treatment of women. It is hard to place this in one time frame as so much over laps, with so many modern yet subtle analogies that you loose track of the reality. Her language is outstanding and the surrealist world coats you in a drug like state as you absorb her rich and creative imagery.
Every page is a void of description so if you don't like in depth writing then this is one to steer clear of. I loved the escapist quality to this book and her convincing social metaphors.
A magical set of characters July 28, 2004
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
Richly written, the joy of this book is in the characters that Carter describes (you get the feeling she enjoyed writing it just as much): from the winged trapeze artist & her maternal assistant to the performing apes and their Professor, this is a book that surprises throughout with its imagination and detail.This is all done at the expense of any particularly tight plot - we begin with an 80-page life story as told to journalist John Walser, but it then becomes more picaresque as we follow the circus and get to know the stories of its staff, with strong female characters particularly making their presence felt. The journey takes us an unusual route to an unusual end. This is a world you can escape into - beautifully realised in the best tradition of magic realism.
 Once in I don't want to get out! April 28, 2004
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is the first of Angela Carter's works that I have read. It took me ashort while to get into it at first - reading and re-reading passages toget used to the writing style - but once in I don't want to get out!
The characters are all colourful yet very disparate and whilst many do nothave much to recommend them Carter manages to show in them enough good orweakness for them to gain your respect, or at least your sympathy.
Above all this book is facinating... and imaginative, compelling, earthyand full of surprises... After my first experience of Angela Carter - I'mgoing to read them all!
Nights at the circus December 20, 2003
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I read this book when I was studing my English Literature A Level. It's stayed with me and here I am going to Waterstones and buying it for my cousin who is going travelling to Australia. I found it enchanting for want of a better word. I read other Angela Carter books through choice during my time and, without sounding as if I didn't enjoy them, this book is a gem. What else I read confirmed to me that she is good but I'll never forget this book. Open your mind and see what you think. 5 stars for definate.
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