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The Magic Toyshop

3.88 of 5 stars 3.88 · rating details · 2,609 ratings · 197 reviews

One night Melanie walks through the garden in her mother's wedding dress. The next morning her world is shattered. Forced to leave the comfortable home of her childhood, she is sent to London to live with relatives she never met: Aunt Margaret, beautiful and speechless, and her brothers, Francie, whose graceful music belies his clumsy nature, and the volatile Finn, who kis...more

Paperback, 208 pages

Published August 1st 1996 by Penguin Books (first published 1967)

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Dec 11, 2012 Nate D rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Nate D by: Maya

Shelves: postwar-re-de-constructions, britain

The simple fairy-tale / literature-of-orphans-and-misfortune (and lots of overlap there) surface of this story seems to conceal a high level of thematic deftness and intricacy, seemingly built around a series of simulacra. And where will it all go?

...

Later: somewhere slightly else, maybe, but the complex underlyings are pretty fascinating. Identity and self, as external from the self, in objects and more importantly, in others. But constructed with a deftness and overriding narative coherency th...more

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Sep 08, 2008 Hannah rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone with an open mind and weird imagination!

Shelves: fiction, magic-realism, loved-it

'The Magic Toyshop' has so many exquisitely written layers, even though I only just closed its final page, I could easily pick it up and read it from beginning to end all over again and glean something new from its darkly spiralling plot.

This tale is wonderfully typical of Angela Carter and her taboo-breaking narratives. Sex, incest, feminism and a sinister magical realism are all weirdly intertwined. Fantastic imagery and symbolism are constant, transforming the story of the orphaned Melanie in...more

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Nov 03, 2009 Leslie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, read-in-2009, ooh-fantastical

Angela Carter’s prose is so decadent; it is ruffled (or stabbed!) with description and metaphor. I enjoy her balance of jeweled things and depravity. It feels wrong to give a book with such lovely writing 3 stars, but I had a terrible time getting through this book. The pacing of the Magic Toyshop was so slow after the first (intoxicating) third of the book. Perhaps this is because last 2/3rds are so concerned with captivity and spectatorship. This portion of the tale is set in the toyshop (and...more

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Feb 03, 2012 Lord rated it 5 of 5 stars

Normally, I walk into bookstores with a list. I didn’t, this time. I felt adventurous. The bookstore was enormous; there were rows and rows of shelves, winding so far it seemed endless. Shaking with delight at the sight of this, I had to ask a saleswoman what time they closed, as I was certain I would be there all day. And I had to set an alarm on my watch an hour before closing time so I’d not be rudely jerked out of my book-browsing stupor by the announcements and rush to the counter with an a...more

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Apr 26, 2011 Allycks rated it 4 of 5 stars

I've been uncomfortably prone (isn't that the name of a Pink Floyd classic?) to literature-related dreaming of late (no joke: I even had a David Foster Wallace-related dream the other night, which was simply too good to be true, and another one related to Amis' "Time's Arrow" which I remembered when subsequently catching a glimpse of an old Coldplay video... by the way... the cliché about other people's dreams being the most boring subject material in the world is way overused and over-rated, as...more

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Apr 17, 2012 Adela Cacovean rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favourites

Melanie are cincisprezece ani, vârsta la care nu e nici copilă, nici adolescentă. De ea şi de fraţii ei, Jonathon şi Victoria, are grijă doamna Rundle, bona lor, împreună cu pisica ei. Părinţii lor muncesc în străinătate pentru ca aceştia să se bucure de toate luxurile vremii respective (nu e specificat în carte, însă bănuiesc că e vorba de anii ’60) de la săpunuri parfumate şi şampon până la simpla hârtie igienică. Într-o noapte în care nu poate dormi, Melanie intră în camera părinţilor ei şi î...more Melanie are cincisprezece ani, vârsta la care nu e nici copilă, nici adolescentă. De ea şi de fraţii ei, Jonathon şi Victoria, are grijă doamna Rundle, bona lor, împreună cu pisica ei. Părinţii lor muncesc în străinătate pentru ca aceştia să se bucure de toate luxurile vremii respective (nu e specificat în carte, însă bănuiesc că e vorba de anii ’60) de la săpunuri parfumate şi şampon până la simpla hârtie igienică. Într-o noapte în care nu poate dormi, Melanie intră în camera părinţilor ei şi îmbracă rochia de mireasă a mamei sale, ieşind mai apoi în grădină şi sfârşind prin a distruge complet rochia printr-o serie de accidente nefericite. Imediat după acest eveniment, părinţii Melaniei mor, ea învinuindu-se pe sine pentru această nenorocire, fiindcă a profanat rochia. Deoarece părinţii lor nu au pus niciun ban deoparte, Melanie şi fraţii ei sunt nevoiţi să locuiască cu unchiul Philip, un păpuşar tiranic, în Londra. Acolo, tânăra îi va cunoaşte pe Margaret, soţia unchiului ei, şi Francie şi Finn, fraţii acesteia. Melanie e şocată de cât de murdari sunt aceştia, dar mai ales de mizeria în care trăiesc. Pe lângă că trebuie să se obişnuiască să trăiască fără luxul de dinainte şi să se adapteze unui nou stil de viaţă, Melanie începe să devină o femeie, să se maturizeze şi să se îndrăgostească. Este fascinată de cei trei fraţi, Margaret, Francie şi Finn, şi îşi doreşte să se integreze în grupul acestora, conştientă că unchiul Philip îi este duşman, căci simpla lui prezenţă crează o atmosferă tristă.

Magazinul magic de jucării este o poveste realistă, plină de surprize, originală, tulburătoare, şocantă, dar totodată fascinantă. Este o carte pe care, sincer vă spun, nu am putut să o las din mână. Pentru mine a fost totodată şi o lecţie de viaţă, şi încă o dovadă că o carte nu trebuie judecată după copertă.

La toate acestea, adaug faptul că mi-a fost dăruită de ziua mea de o persoană deosebită, iubitul meu, acest lucru contribuind şi el la entuziasmul pe care îl am acum scriind despre această carte. O recomand oricui.(less)

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Dec 30, 2012 Elaine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2012

There's only one thing better than a good book, and that's a good book that introduces you to a brand new author. Angela Carter may well just be my new obsession.

Carter's writing is at times, exquisite and at times, harrowing. This has all the elements of a fairy tale but goes much deeper than that. Sex, feminism and incest all get a look in. This book is both claustrophobic and liberating.

The ending is abrupt and a little jarring because of that. With hindsight though, what else was there lef...more

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Oct 13, 2011 Belle Forcible rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favourites

At night, in the garden, they faced each other in a wild surmise.
The last line. That's exactly how this book did me.

I wanted to cry. I didn't expect tragedy. It all seemed so fairy-taley that didn't promise a happily-ever-after ending, only leaving me a lump of surmise. I wanted to protest. But... But. I couldn't bring myself to dislike it.

The writing is exquisite. A subtle romance, with characters of precipitous imperfection, seized by the most critical circumstances. All of eccentricity... Bu...more

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Dec 20, 2011 Roberta rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2007

Melanie, giovane adolescente in balia delle prime confusioni legate alla sua età, vive con il fratello dodicenne, la sorellina e una governante (mentre i genitori sono spesso in viaggio) in una bella casa di campagna, circondata da tutte le comodità possibili ed immaginabili. Quando i genitori muoiono in un incidente aereo, i tre ragazzi sono costretti ad andare a vivere dallo sconosciuto zio Philip. Melanie si ritrova così responsabilizzata nei confronti di ciò che resta della sua famiglia ed i...more

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Feb 02, 2013 Kirstie rated it 3 of 5 stars

I almost gave this book four stars as it was an enjoyable read but it wasn't quite at the four star mark for me. Still, I really like the wistful way that Carter seems to write. This was my first novel of hers that I had read and it follows the journey of our teenage protagonist Melanie and her relocation to different family members and socioeconomic status in London. Melanie has a brother who appears to have some kind of Pervasive Developmental Disorder or Autism the way he is described but it...more

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Jan 07, 2013 L. Leigh rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013, fantastical-books

Another day, another Angela Carter novel devoured. I found this one particularly engrossing, although I don't know if I was ever totally comfortable with what I was reading. Poor little Melanie tries on her mother's wedding dress one day, and the next her life and everything she's come to expect falls to pieces. It's an extraordinarily oppressive book at poor Melanie is shoved into adulthood - perhaps that's why it felt impossible to put down, one needs to feel the light at the end of the tunnel...more

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Sep 04, 2012 Beth rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Aug 07, 2012 Aaron Jansen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Oddly enough, I got a powerful Lemony Snicket vibe from this book, to the point where I would not consider "adult, condensed version of A Series of Unfortunate Events" to be a terribly inaccurate description. Of course this book was written before Daniel Handler was even born. I wonder if he was at all under its influence when dreaming up his series of children's novels.

Okay, the similarities are largely superficial, but they are noticeable. Three siblings (the eldest a girl in her teens, the mi...more Oddly enough, I got a powerful Lemony Snicket vibe from this book, to the point where I would not consider "adult, condensed version of A Series of Unfortunate Events" to be a terribly inaccurate description. Of course this book was written before Daniel Handler was even born. I wonder if he was at all under its influence when dreaming up his series of children's novels.

Okay, the similarities are largely superficial, but they are noticeable. Three siblings (the eldest a girl in her teens, the middle child a boy a few years younger, the youngest a baby girl, just as in Unfortunate Events, although the two younger siblings are mostly inconsequential in this book) find themselves suddenly orphaned and go off to live with relatives who are eccentric almost to the point of absurdity (their aunt cannot speak and writes all of her thoughts down on a chalk board, tyrannical uncle is obsessed with putting on puppet shows, etc.). The mixture of Gothic atmosphere and absurdism, with a dash of humor, I generally found highly reminiscent of Snicket.

But Angela Carter is writing for adults, so she gets away with some things he cannot. She gets to indulge in her ability to write beautifully, although thankfully she does not overindulge often. She is a master at writing poetically but with precision; it's amazing that this is her second novel. She's also able to ramp up the creepiness and weird sexual tension to great effect.

I fell in love with this book somewhere in the last fifty pages and didn't want it to end. The whole second half, really, is wonderful. The first half is perhaps a bit aimless in places but the book is short and reads quickly. Really the only significant flaw is that Uncle Philip, the antagonist, never quite comes to life; he exists as a pernicious force but not as a human being. Had he been more of a character this might have become one of my favorite books.

Angela Carter is one of few writers I read in college that I felt a desire to explore further. I am glad I did.(less)

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Dec 03, 2011 Marike added it · review of another edition

The magic toyshop by Angela Carter

The book is written abolutely beautifully. I can understand why it is a classic and something that can be read and reread again and again. The beauty in the words, the strangeness of the story, the shifts in characters..

Melanie is a a girl of 15 who yearns for life and living, but does not quite realise how fortunate her living is. When the book opens her parents are overseas and she, her brother Jonathan who is absorbed in building model ships and little sister...more The magic toyshop by Angela Carter

The book is written abolutely beautifully. I can understand why it is a classic and something that can be read and reread again and again. The beauty in the words, the strangeness of the story, the shifts in characters..

Melanie is a a girl of 15 who yearns for life and living, but does not quite realise how fortunate her living is. When the book opens her parents are overseas and she, her brother Jonathan who is absorbed in building model ships and little sister Victoria are looked after by a housekeeper, Mrs Rundle. Melanie finds her mother’s wedding dress and wears it – goes out into the garden, a night of stars and darkness. She locks herself out, the dress gets torn in her efforts to get back...

Their lives are turned upside down – they go and live with their unclu in London - and it is the vividness of the toyshop that will stay with one. Uncle Phillip, the toymaker, must rate up as one of literatures most hateful characters. In the truely scary sense – this not being a fairytale, but one with close emotional shifts. Aunt Margaret who lost her voice on her wedding day... The two brothers, Francie with his music and Finn – oh Finn, in his dirt and defiance, his frightfulness and consolation.

I am still thinking about the title. It has such a ring of whimsicalness and lightness about it – the magic toyshop, one expects fairies and fantasy in its more traditional guise. or lightness. The toys are certainly exceptional and hand-made beauties of another era. But any magic must be very dark, a shop of horrors in how Uncle Phillip treats the people close to him. There is no magic in any conventional sense. Maybe it is a comment on the invisible ways in which power (perhaps particularly the power of patriarchy?) presents itself as innocent and beautiful with an underlying darkness and violence.

Uncle Phillip presents the world with beautiful toys, but his heart is dark. He is a tyrant. His family must work like slaves for them and he abuses them all the time. He yells at Finn, his assistant, and beats him up violently. He is pleased with Jonathan because the boy is totally immersed in his one activity and does not gainsay him at all. His wife is silenced. He denigrates Melanie, addresses her as bitch and orchestrates marionette performances to humiliate her, suggesting rape. He does not allow his family members to have their own money, locking them inside a small world of dependence on him, serving him like marionettes to his will. The fairytales and myths alluded to are Leda and the swan (the performance Melanie is made to act) and Bluebeard.

Seeing Melanie’s inner world and how it shifts is beautifully presented. There are deep commentary about expectations – of life, living, freedom, love, connectionsn to others.
It is really wonderfully well written and a story that will stay and stay with one, because of its complexity. But it is remarkably terrifying and frightening even when it is difficult to know why. There are no wizards and witches, no wars, the pacing is slightly odd, the language is beautiful, the world it presents is both huge and very small and it is really frightening – a look into our souls.

(less)

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Jul 29, 2011 Marleen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book has such a cute cover and such an innocent and magical title that I was expecting a fairy-tale between the covers. Since this is a book for grown-ups I didn't think it was all going to be lovely and happy ever after, but I definitely wasn't ready for the rather horrific tale I encountered.

Melanie is 15 when her world shatters. Both her parents die in an airplane accident and she and her younger brother and sister have to go and live with their uncle, his wife and her two younger brothe...more This book has such a cute cover and such an innocent and magical title that I was expecting a fairy-tale between the covers. Since this is a book for grown-ups I didn't think it was all going to be lovely and happy ever after, but I definitely wasn't ready for the rather horrific tale I encountered.

Melanie is 15 when her world shatters. Both her parents die in an airplane accident and she and her younger brother and sister have to go and live with their uncle, his wife and her two younger brothers.
From the start it's clear that things are not right. Instead of their uncle picking them up from the train station, it is the two brothers of his wife who are waiting for them there. Irish and unclean they are like nothing Melanie is used to. When they get to the house where they will be living from now on, over their uncle's toyshop, they discover that their aunt doesn't speak and apparently hasn't spoken since the day she married.
It soon turns out that their uncle is a brute who terrorises his family and lives for the toys he makes and the shows he puts on for the family with his life-size puppets.
In this atmosphere of fear and deprevation, Melanie has to grow up quickly. She takes her first steps towards love, which turns out to be nothing like her fantasies and her eyes are opened to some of the more horrific realities of life. This is a situation that can only end in disaster, and so it does.

Sometimes I read a book and think that it is just not good. Other times I read a book and feel that it is probably very well written, but that it is just not for me. This is one of those books that leave me feeling as if I'm missing something.
The story read as if I was looking at a picture through dirty glasses. I could see the outlines but not any depth or colour. Everything that happened, good or, mostly, bad just washed of me. I found myself indifferent to the fate of Melanie and any of the other characters.
The writing in this book was too descriptive for me and seemed to lack feeling, and as a result it didn't evoke any emotions in me.
I also wonder about the author's feelings about men in general. None of the men in this book seemed to have any redeeming qualities. The brutish uncle being the clearest example, but Melanie's distant brother, and the two young inlaws didn't have a lot going for them either.
This is not a happy or uplifting story, and Melanie's resignation to her fate even before her 16th birthday is devastating.
(less)

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Jun 29, 2011 John rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: modern-classics

Melanie, fifteen years old, wakes up in the middle of the night while her parents are on an overseas trip, having left her and her siblings in the care of a nanny. She sneaks into her parents' bedroom, takes out her mother's wedding dress, puts it on, goes out into the moonlit garden and promptly locks herself out of the house. She takes the dress off and, naked, climbs a tree to her second storey window, dragging the dress behind her. When she finally forces her way back inside, the dress is to...more Melanie, fifteen years old, wakes up in the middle of the night while her parents are on an overseas trip, having left her and her siblings in the care of a nanny. She sneaks into her parents' bedroom, takes out her mother's wedding dress, puts it on, goes out into the moonlit garden and promptly locks herself out of the house. She takes the dress off and, naked, climbs a tree to her second storey window, dragging the dress behind her. When she finally forces her way back inside, the dress is torn to shreds. At that moment, on the other side of the world, her parents die in a plane crash.

Thus runs the first chapter of The Magic Toyshop, and it's an incredible piece of writing. Melanie's disordered thinking as she decides to try the dress on, as though she's trying on the idea of growing into a woman, is rendered with a panache that belies its subtlety. And when Melanie wanders the night-time house, and goes out into the garden, Carter's writing makes everything alive in a way that's nearly impossible to describe. She doesn't write what the stairs, or the lawn, or the nanny's cat look like; she writes what they think. Everything, even inanimate objects, seem to have their own opinions, their own agenda. Simply, there is magic in the air, animating everything. It's a really wonderful chapter, and an amazing start to a book. Unfortunately ...

After her parents' deaths, Melanie, along with her younger brother Jonathan and baby sister Victoria, are sent to live with their uncle and his family in London. Uncle Phillip owns a bizarre toyshop, and makes all his products himself in the basement, but the toys and puppets he crafts are the only thing he loves: he is a cold despot over his household. His Irish wife, Aunt Margaret, was struck dumb on her wedding day, and has never said a word since. Her brothers Francie, a kind man who plays the fiddle, and Finn, a scruffy vagabond with an imp's eyes and roving hands, live with them as well.

And the bulk of the novel consists of Melanie's impressions of her new situation and Finn's attempts to seduce her, which swing from indifferent to passionately sincere. But after we reached the toyshop, it was difficult to really care about anything. Every character but Melanie felt crudely drawn; the curious vividness which animated everything in the first chapter dies away (even though the puppets, Halloween masks and wooden toys that stock the shop should have been easy to bring to life).

The characters don't seem to live their own lives, instead simply going through the motions, pulled hither and thither by the author to suit her needs. Some will argue that's the point, that Carter is making puppets out of her characters because that is what Uncle Phillip (the villain of the piece) is trying to do to those under his thumb. Which is all well and good, and wonderfully clever, but if in trying to do something literary and clever an author causes me to lose interest in their story, I'd say they've got their priorities all wrong.

Carter is clearly an incredible wordsmith, and I'd be interested in reading some of her later (I'm told, maturer) works - The Magic Toyshop was her second published novel - but this one left me cold. Which, after the revelatory first chapter, was a damn shame.(less)

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May 12, 2011 Juushika rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: status-owned, genre-fantasy

Melaine walks through the garden at night in her mother's wedding dress, and the next morning discovers that everything has changed: her parents dead, she and her sibling must leave the comfort of their home to live with her strange, poor relatives above a toyshop. From here, Melanie's story blossoms into a beautifully inexplicit, haunted, magic-tinged coming of age. Her adolescence is troubled but joyfulCarter of course has a particular knack for finding both the beauty and blood in this sort...more Melaine walks through the garden at night in her mother's wedding dress, and the next morning discovers that everything has changed: her parents dead, she and her sibling must leave the comfort of their home to live with her strange, poor relatives above a toyshop. From here, Melanie's story blossoms into a beautifully inexplicit, haunted, magic-tinged coming of age. Her adolescence is troubled but joyfulCarter of course has a particular knack for finding both the beauty and blood in this sort of thing. I wouldn't quite call The Magic Toyshop magical realism, but it leans that way, in atmosphere more than event, putting Melanie's story in terms somewhat more large and vibrant than life, to the benefit, rather than detriment, of its truth. A supporting cast at once finely detailed and slightly caricatured supports this real-world fairy tale sense. And Carter's prose is also a delight, poetic and precise, here somewhat subdued and shadowed, but with an undulled perceptive edge.

And yet The Magic Toyshop pales, for me, in comparison to Carter's short fiction, in particular The Bloody Chamber. This is an issue I can't quite seem to overcome, and so I can't hold it against this book: I love those short works so fiercely I don't know if anything, even from Carter's own hand, can ever measure up to them. Perhaps it's the intensity fostered by their brevitythere are some remarkable moments in The Magic Toyshop (and much of the first chapter is simply breathtaking), but in a novel-length work these can both run long and get a bit lost within a sea of words, and the quieter, less fantastic imagery of this book (lovely as it is) exacerbates that. Perhaps it's just that The Bloody Chamber was my introduction to Carter, and first love is strong. Whatever it is, it makes it hard for me to review this book: it was a joy to read and I reflect favorably upon it now, but it wasn't all I hoped it would beand I suspect that nothing, no matter how good, could be. I'm left with a tinge of disappointment as a result, but I still recommend The Magic Toyshop: for all my personal caveats, it remains a piece of art.(less)

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Feb 08, 2011 Althea Ann rated it 3 of 5 stars

Having just finished Carter's 'The Bloody Chamber,' her retellings of traditional fairy tales, I thought I'd read something else by her in order to have a basis for comparison.
The Magic Toyshop is, firstly, much more horrific and disturbing than the cute cover of this edition would lead one to expect. It's full of over-the-top elements of gothic grotesquerie - I can almost imagine the author, while writing, gleefully exclaiming, "oh yes! I know what will make this Even Worse!!!" - but it's very...more

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Sep 22, 2010 Leanna rated it 2 of 5 stars

What an odd little novel! Melanie, 15, is orphaned (along with her two younger siblings), and they are all sent to live with her uncle, his wife, and the wife's two brothers. Uncle Phillip is basically an ogre. He makes toys for a living, and every now and then puts on a private puppet show for his family. These puppets are his pride and joy, and he subjects his family to bizzare, short shows with these elaborately made creatures. He is a brute: violent, rude, and altogether domineering. His wif...more What an odd little novel! Melanie, 15, is orphaned (along with her two younger siblings), and they are all sent to live with her uncle, his wife, and the wife's two brothers. Uncle Phillip is basically an ogre. He makes toys for a living, and every now and then puts on a private puppet show for his family. These puppets are his pride and joy, and he subjects his family to bizzare, short shows with these elaborately made creatures. He is a brute: violent, rude, and altogether domineering. His wife, the meek Aunt Margaret, is mute. As the book winds down, turns out she's having an affair with one of her brothers. Melanie, meanwhile, explores a relationship with the other brother as the book unfolds.

The plot jerks around from plot point to plot point, in not a very organized or coherent way. The writing, to me, seems uncertain. Carter tries a whole lot of things at once--flights of gothic fancy (a random dismembered hand, an accidental destruction of a wedding dress) coupled with a burgeoning love story, all set against the backdrop of a grief that seems very quickly forgotten. I never quite trusted Carter; the novel seemed rather amateurish in its plotting and in its dips in and out of a sort of magical realism. The book also ends abruptly and with no real sense of closure. Characterization, too, was uneven--most were drawn fairly well, but then Uncle Philip was entirely evil, with no apparent motivation, and Jonathan, Melanie's younger brother, depicted as totally emotionally absent, again for nor particular reason or for any ends. Still, the book kept me intrigued, and I know it was one of Carter's earlier works (1967).

I read about half of "The Bloody Chamber" (1979) recently, too, perhaps Carter's most famous colelction of stories. "The Bloody Chamber" is the gem of the lot, a retelling of Bluebeard. Carter's particular blend of the gothic and the female is compelling and new (her unusual but appropriate diction is perhaps the strongest force of interest here). "Puss-in-Boots" was far too in love with its own cleverness and archness. "The Company of Wolves" also tried too hard, in my opinion, although it contains some nice reversals from the original Little Red Riding Hood story.

My overall feeling on Angela Carter--it's cool that she did something a bit unusual and contemporary with the Gothic, but stylistic experiments which don't pan out too well seem to riddle her work.(less)

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Jun 26, 2009 Tess Avelland rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2009, favorites, wishlist, horror-dark-fantasy, needs-to-be-a-movie

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. [semi-spoilerish as to meaning, without revealing any plot points:]

A very strange, powerful book which left me somewhat off-balance but increasingly impressed. Angela Carter was a sensuous but gritty writer, and her imagery (much like an uncensored fairy tale) oddly melds the beautiful and the unpleasant, the enchanting and the mundane, with touches of grim humor.

The title, the premise, and even the hints of dark-fairytale undercurrents are brilliantly misleading... because it never turns into...more [semi-spoilerish as to meaning, without revealing any plot points:]

A very strange, powerful book which left me somewhat off-balance but increasingly impressed. Angela Carter was a sensuous but gritty writer, and her imagery (much like an uncensored fairy tale) oddly melds the beautiful and the unpleasant, the enchanting and the mundane, with touches of grim humor.

The title, the premise, and even the hints of dark-fairytale undercurrents are brilliantly misleading... because it never turns into magical realism at all. There isn't the expected reveal of the supernatural structure she *could* have been building and which you more or less allow yourself to expect; and the climax is almost wholly enigmatic and unresolved. As another reviewer expressed here, fans of genre writers might be put off when it gets real. You could almost call it an anti-fantasy novel.

By the end, it left me with a sense of much bigger things being said, which weren't hugely apparent while I was absorbed in the actual reading of it. But now I realize that the book not only tells its own story, but also paints indirect, visceral, emotional pictures about modern versus old England, oppression and rebellion (and Ireland), poverty, patriarchy, mistreated women and children, the failure of traditional religion, boundaries and taboos, love and hopelessness and hope... There was enough half-hidden substance here to impress me when it emerged in my consciousness after I finished. I must admit, I wasn't expecting this to be literature.

__________________________________________________

Addition: I just realized that this book struck me the same way that Michael Haneke's 2005 film Caché did, which just doubled my appreciation for it.

In other words, with both this book and that film, you thought one thing was going on, and enjoyed it and were unsettled by it... then you realized (with dawning startled admiration) that it was most likely about something else altogether, something far more relevant and meaningful than its initially-apparent genre led you to expect. (Though as with Caché, I doubt that everyone who encountered it emerged from it with that realization.)(less)

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Jun 25, 2012 Helen Kitson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Carter's interest in fairytales was already foregrounded - the structure of the story itself (echoes of Hansel and Gretel, Babes in the Wood), as well as overt references to Bluebeard in particular. (Though I hate to use the phrase "magical realism" - much of Carter is magical unrealism! I think the MR term gets bandied around rather lazily, to the point where it doesn't really mean very much...)

I like the bridal connection - Melanie trying on and ruining her mother's wedding dress on the eve of...more Carter's interest in fairytales was already foregrounded - the structure of the story itself (echoes of Hansel and Gretel, Babes in the Wood), as well as overt references to Bluebeard in particular. (Though I hate to use the phrase "magical realism" - much of Carter is magical unrealism! I think the MR term gets bandied around rather lazily, to the point where it doesn't really mean very much...)

I like the bridal connection - Melanie trying on and ruining her mother's wedding dress on the eve of her death; Margaret becoming mute upon her marriage; the tulle-dressed puppet Melanie first sees lying face down - which also echoes the face-down statue of Queen Victoria in the garden Melanie goes to with Finn; and Uncle Philip wanting Melanie to perform as Leda (haven't got further than that - have read it before, but many many years ago). Liked the apocalyptic ending, everyone else apparently lost in the conflagration; a man and a woman face each other, startled, as though seeing each other for the first time...Which is pretty much what marriage is like… [Feb 2003]

This is, simply, a magical book. It can be read on so many levels, it is rich with mythical allusions, has a feminist subtext, and above all it's an engaging story filled with odd characters, such as the housekeeper Mrs Rundle who changed her name by deed poll at the age of fifty, from Miss to Mrs, though she's never been married.

Marriage is a key theme in this novel. Fifteen-year-old Melanie's comfortable world collapses when her parents are killed in a plane crash. She feels partly to blame because while her parents were away she tried on (and ruined) her mother's wedding dress. Melanie and her siblings are sent to live with their Uncle Philip, his wife Margaret, and her two brothers. Margaret, we learn, has been unable to speak since her wedding day. She communicates by writing down what she wants to say.

Uncle Philip is a toymaker who hates children. Bad-tempered and sometimes violent, his love is reserved for the life-sized puppets he makes. His wedding gift to Margaret - a silver jewelled collar - sounds more like a torture device than a decorative object.

At fifteen, Melanie is neither a child nor an adult. The presence of Margaret's grown-up brothers disturbs her. They are uncouth, dirty, unpredictable. She allows Finn to kiss her, but finds the experience distasteful. Nevertheless, a bond is formed between Melanie and Finn that she can't quite explain or understand. Finn it is who destroys the giant swan that Uncle Philip uses in his production of the Rape of Leda, with Melanie as Leda. From that point on, the novel hurtles towards a catastrophic conclusion that leaves Melanie and Finn alone to ponder their fate in a world where everything has changed. [September 2006] (less)

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Jul 16, 2010 Allanah rated it 5 of 5 stars

This novel, for me, is perfection. It again merges the adolescent feelings of losing innocence and virginity with the adult concept of it. It all comes down to Melanie trying on her mothers wedding dress. Too big for her, like the idea of sex (in the country.) It's in the city. In the heart of London. After losing her parents and becoming a Flower, she is kissed, she gets intimate, she gets 'fucked.'
There is a looming Uncle who makes toys and puppets that have human qualities. He lives out his...more

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Nov 12, 2012 Cristina Boncea rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Melanie, Victoria și Jonathon sunt trei frați care obișnuiau să trăiască împreună cu bona lor într-o casă la țară. Părinții lor călătoreau peste ocean și le puteau oferi tot ce își doreau.

Aceștia din urmă, mor în urma prăbușirii unui avion (autoarea nu explică foarte clar cum s-a întâmplat) iar cei trei copii rămași orfani sunt obligați să locuiască la unchiul lor în Londra, dat fiind că nu aveau nici un fel de bani puși de o parte.
Ajung într-un cartier mărginaș din sud și o cunosc pe Margaret,...more Melanie, Victoria și Jonathon sunt trei frați care obișnuiau să trăiască împreună cu bona lor într-o casă la țară. Părinții lor călătoreau peste ocean și le puteau oferi tot ce își doreau.

Aceștia din urmă, mor în urma prăbușirii unui avion (autoarea nu explică foarte clar cum s-a întâmplat) iar cei trei copii rămași orfani sunt obligați să locuiască la unchiul lor în Londra, dat fiind că nu aveau nici un fel de bani puși de o parte.
Ajung într-un cartier mărginaș din sud și o cunosc pe Margaret, mătușa lor și pe frații acesteia, Francie și Finn care sunt irlandezi.
Unchiul lor (fratele mamei), Philip Flower, are un magazin cu jucării și e pasionat de marionete.
În scurt timp, Melanie își dă seama că acesta este un tiran absolut, care nici măcar nu vorbește cu ei și este foarte violent cu Finn, pe care l-a transformat în ajutorul lui.
Trăind la un nivel mult inferior celui de dinainte, Melanie este obligată să fie vânzătoare la magazin și să o ajute pe mătușa sa mută cu treburile casnice.
La un momentdat, Finn încurcă unul din spectacolele unchiului Philip iar acesta îl lovește foarte tare, eliberându-l din postul de ajutor și luând-o pe Melanie care trebuie să joace într-o piesa numită Leda și lebăda.
Toți membrii familiei se tem pentru Finn, de faptul că Philip ar putea să îl omoare.
Melanie se descurcă destul de bine cu rolul ei așa că unchiul o lasă în pace.
Într-o zi, acesta îl ia pe Jonathon la o reuniune a pasionaților de ambarcațiuni iar mătușa Margaret, Francie, Finn, Melanie și Victoria profită de acest lucru făcând tot ce nu puteau face în prezența acestuia (femeile să poarte pantaloni, să i se ocupe locul la masă, etc.).
La finalul cărții, unchiul vine acasă și îi surprinde pe soția sa, Margaret și fratele ei, Francie, într-o ipostază incestuoasă decizând să dea foc casei. Melanie și Finn se salvează împreună, avându-se doar unul pe altul în fața viitorului necunoscut.

Nu știu exact de ce i se spune magazinul MAGIC de jucării. Magazinul în sine nu joacă un rol important deloc. Cartea de bazează pe nebunie și tot felul de alte lucruri... extravagante. Este o carte întinsă la extremă din toate punctele de vedere.
Melanie are 15 ani și încearcă să-și descopere sexualitatea. Finn își dorește ca unchiul să-l omoare pentru ca acesta să ajungă în iad. Francie și Margaret, Margaret căreia la final îi revine vocea, Jonathon care nu mai apare deloc în poveste semn că unchiul l-a lăsat în vreo ambarcațiune pentru a-și urma visul...
povestea este extraordinar de interesantă și familia Flower, de milioane (3 frați incestuoși și un nebun scârbos și dezgustat de viață cu idei perverse? why not).
Pe de altă parte, e destul de enigmatică, probabil genul care trebuie recitită de multe ori.
Compromisul Melaniei de a fi cu un bărbat ca Finn, în loc de iubitul viselor sale, modul în care aceasta iese în miezul nopții purtând rochia mamei sale chiar înainte ca telegrama anunțând moartea acesteia să vină, în ziua următoarea (și Melanie considerând că ea e vinovata, pentru că a distrus rochia), puritatea Melaniei, stupiditatea Victoriei...

mă bucur că toate personajele sunt așa bine conturate, autoarea merită într-adevăr citită și probabil că o să mai caut și alte cărți.
Parcă totuși nu are nici o morală, este destul de dark, sadică, chiar foarte sadică.
Mă așteptam ca viața gri și deprimantă a Melaniei să se schimbe în bine la un momentdat, în schimb pur și simplu a rămas pe drumuri alături de Finn. Descrierea din carte e măgulitoare, mulți ar spune că e exagerat de multă dar pe mine mă fascinează tot ce e descris.
Mă regăsesc în persoana Melaniei, în visele și dorințele ei, în revoltele ei, în gândurile ei. Cartea este foarte foarte bună și merită citită. Abia aștept să revin la ea peste ceva vreme.
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Jun 01, 2010 Victoria Wheeler rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fairytale, fantasy-scifi

This book is one of Carter's earlier books, which I received as a birthday gift from my fiancée. I read it in a two hour car ride, plus a bit. It was, just like The Bloody Chamber, absolutely magical and mesmerizing. The subtlety with which Carter writes and the way small elements recur and intertwine is fascinating. It's also amazing how she manages to bend time; the story must be taking place around the 1950s or so, yet one has a hard time not imagining they're reading a work from the 19th cen...more

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Aug 29, 2008 Rat de bibliothèque rated it 1 of 5 stars

I had heard GREAT things about Angela Carter in the past. So I was happy to finally have one of her books. The plan was to sit and enjoy a day of reading this particular book.

It took an hour to read half of the first chapter.

Usually I hate to walk away from a book but reading should be a thing of enjoyment - not torturous labor.

I had to put it down without finishing, look at the back, and wonder what made me pick this up.

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Feb 19, 2012 Judith Lewis rated it 4 of 5 stars

In answer to "what did you think?"I'm not sure what I thought ... A dark, strange and gripping book that was its own complex mixture of a coming of age novel and Dickensian gothic. Carter's writing, with its metaphors and descriptive passages is superb - and I write as one who usually turns the pages too quickly and misses much of the description in order to get on with the story. In some ways I would have liked a longer book and more back-story about the central characters. Though I guess that...more

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Sep 17, 2010 Matt Harris rated it 5 of 5 stars

A completely brilliant read. It's always nice to find a hardback for a change, but Angela Carter forced me to carefully soak up each description and each carefully chosen adjective for her unusual coming of age tale. I happened on this, remembering Grant McLennan's fondness for the author.

It's an economical tale of an girl, eldest of three, just coming into awareness of depths in others' relationships, and potential for her own. Age fifteen, and in a sheltered and free life with a housekeeper wh...more

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Jul 11, 2011 Sandra Lawson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Another book that I didn't want to finish, but didn't want to put down either. It's taken me a while to get to grips with Angela Carter, but I'm so glad I have. This tale is a combination of gothic and uncanny and told through the eyes of fifteen-year-old Melanie. Carter's writing is so descriptive and evocative that you feel as if you're an extra in a film and experiencing every sensation and emotion she describes.

Having to leave her idyllic childhood home, the orphaned Melanie and her two sib...more

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Jan 30, 2011 Inna rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-in-english

I don't know what made Angela Carter hate males so, but it's the second book (and the last) by this writer I've read, and it's ovious that she values women over men and on the whole is a real ballcrusher. She has a fixation on the motive of castration. Well, I understand that it takes all sorts to make the world, but I also think that there's enough strife between the sexes as it is, and it's unwise parading the goodness of ones against the badness of the others. It's the pot calling the kettle...more

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Apr 13, 2010 Teresa rated it 4 of 5 stars

A coming of age tale with a twist - following the sudden death of her parents, our protagonist, Melanie, finds herself and her two younger siblings shunted off to stay with a fiercesome uncle and his bizarre family. Melanie embarks on a strange voyage of self discovery, learning about love, life and lascivious relatives en route.

A seemingly simple plot conceals an elaborate, Gothic tale as our heroine, not unlike Lewis Carroll's Alice, finds herself thrown into a weird, unfamiliar world peopled...more

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About Angela Carter

From Wikipedia: Born Angela Olive Stalker in Eastbourne, in 1940, Carter was evacuated as a child to live in Yorkshire with her maternal grandmother. As a teenager she battled anorexia. She began work as a journalist on the Croydon Advertiser, following in the footsteps of her father. Carter attended the University of Bristol where she studied English literature.

She married twice, first in 1960 to...more From Wikipedia: Born Angela Olive Stalker in Eastbourne, in 1940, Carter was evacuated as a child to live in Yorkshire with her maternal grandmother. As a teenager she battled anorexia. She began work as a journalist on the Croydon Advertiser, following in the footsteps of her father. Carter attended the University of Bristol where she studied English literature.

She married twice, first in 1960 to Paul Carter. They divorced after twelve years. In 1969 Angela Carter used the proceeds of her Somerset Maugham Award to leave her husband and relocate for two years to Tokyo, Japan, where she claims in Nothing Sacred (1982) that she "learnt what it is to be a woman and became radicalised." She wrote about her experiences there in articles for New Society and a collection of short stories, Fireworks: Nine Profane Pieces (1974), and evidence of her experiences in Japan can also be seen in The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman (1972). She was there at the same time as Roland Barthes, who published his experiences in Empire of Signs (1970).

She then explored the United States, Asia, and Europe, helped by her fluency in French and German. She spent much of the late 1970s and 1980s as a writer in residence at universities, including the University of Sheffield, Brown University, the University of Adelaide, and the University of East Anglia. In 1977 Carter married Mark Pearce, with whom she had one son.

As well as being a prolific writer of fiction, Carter contributed many articles to The Guardian, The Independent and New Statesman, collected in Shaking a Leg. She adapted a number of her short stories for radio and wrote two original radio dramas on Richard Dadd and Ronald Firbank. Two of her fictions have been adapted for the silver screen: The Company of Wolves (1984) and The Magic Toyshop (1987). She was actively involved in both film adaptations, her screenplays are published in the collected dramatic writings, The Curious Room, together with her radio scripts, a libretto for an opera of Virginia Wolf's Orlando, an unproduced screenplay entitled The Christchurch Murders (based on the same true story as Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures) and other works. These neglected works, as well as her controversial television documentary, The Holy Family Album, are discussed in Charlotte Crofts' book, Anagrams of Desire (2003).

At the time of her death, Carter was embarking on a sequel to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre based on the later life of Jane's stepdaughter, Adèle Varens. However, only a synopsis survives.

Her novel Nights at the Circus won the 1984 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for literature.

Angela Carter died aged 51 in 1992 at her home in London after developing lung cancer. Her obituary published in The Observer said, "She was the opposite of parochial. Nothing, for her, was outside the pale: she wanted to know about everything and everyone, and every place and every word. She relished life and language hugely, and reveled in the diverse."
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“I think I want to be in love with you but I don't know how.” — 24 people liked it

“She said to the Daisy girl with her big brown eyes: 'I will not have it plain. No. Fancy. It must be fancy!' She meant her future. A moon-daisy dropped to the floor, down from her hair, like a faintly derisive sign from heaven.” — 6 people liked it

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