Experience the Magic of the Circus: Nights at the Circus, 2nd Edition

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Italy on Jan 20, 2023

sharon: I can't honestly say that I 'liked' this book but it was a very interesting read. I really liked the way the author foreshadows links between characters - we read it for book club and I was the only one who picked up on this, but it was something I really liked about it. I was very frustrated with the ending though, I felt that the heroine made the wrong choice, and I wanted to grab her and say WHYYYYYYYYY?

Australia on Feb 12, 2019

Cliente de Amazon: Hermosa edición, llegó en tiempo.

Mexico on Jul 13, 2018

Amazon Customer: One of my favourite books. It was a gift from a friend. Somebody stole it from me. I had to buy it again and I loved it even more because this time I am buying it with my own money.

India on Jun 27, 2017

PCV: This is one of my favorite books. If you're looking for a fun read, an unpredictable plot and larger than life characters, this is the book for you. Carter's style might be out vogue with contemporary criticism, but that doesn't make this novel any less fun. You'll fall in love with the characters. You'll have a blast reading it.

United States on Apr 28, 2017

H. Williams: Angela Carter is a terrific writer with a Brobdingnagian vocabulary and extravagantly rich style of writing. She shifts points of view, invokes a number of post-modern feints, and mixes fairy tales and actual history for her own purposes. It starts with great promise but can't maintain the high-wire act. "Nights at the Circus" is broken into three equal parts:

-- London. This realistic section of the novel introduces the two major characters: Fevvers and Walser. Even in this section time is slippery and some stories about Fevvers don't make sense, but it all seems like a terrific set-up for a fabulous (literally, "fabulous") story.

-- (St.) Petersburg. This is a lengthy description of Colonel Kearney's circus and its performers. Walser joins the troupe and eventually sheds his life as a journalist eventually to become a clown. This section contains a fascinating discussion of clown theory that I'll remember and think about every time I see a clown.

-- Siberia. This section is the least realistic. Events become magical and then outrageous with an impossible collection of coincidences and wild back-stories for the new characters. Carter tries, and almost...

United States on Jun 04, 2015

John B. Gray: This was my first experience with Angela Carter. And life has never been the same since.

This is some of the finest writing I have ever encountered. Carter breaks conventional rules of fiction with masterful skill and yet her words never seem pretentious. The story of a bawdy aerialist/swan is engrossing, memorable, humorous, and poignant. To attempt a description of this book would be in vain. Do yourself a favor and read this magnificent work of art.

United States on Dec 02, 2014

R. Scull: ein Märchen in Märchen in Märchen, erinnert an 1001 Nacht, vom Aufbau her; jemand erzählt und jemand hört zu, oder das Buch erzählt und der Leser hört zu mit seinem inneren Ohr, mal komisch, mal traurig, mal hochdramatisch, unglaublich!

Germany on Feb 17, 2014

K. Floyd: Half swan, half woman! Is she fact or is she fiction? Carter's novel in and of itself is a rollicking three ring circus in which she juggles the Enlightenment, Romantacism, Modernism, Postmodernism, Feminism, Communism, all while making innumerable literary and cultural references. How postmodern. As in The Bloody Chamber, she works with some traditional narratives but adds her own reading of them in. The novel works through a series of odd stories within the story that take place in locations clearly meant to represent historical epochs: Ma Nelson's House of Rational Desires, Madame Schreck's Museum of Women Monsters, Christian Rosencreutz's Gothic Mansion, Colonel Keary's Grand Circus, Buffo the Great's Clown Alley, The Grand Duchess's Panopitc Penitentiary for Husband Killers, and finally the whole crew winds up at a music conseravtory in the middle of Siberia. Through her journeys, the birdwoman protagonist, Fevvers, reinvents and redefines herself, constantly avoiding absolute definition, all the while exposing the problematic dialectics of each era's thinking. And, believe it or not, the whole novel is not overly pedantic, it's incredibly entertaining. I definitely recommend...

United States on Jun 07, 2010

Amazon Customer: I found the narrative style in this work to be a bit like wading through thick mud -- wishing the character would just "get to the point!" It took me months to get three quarters of the way through the book and then I finally gave up. Perhaps I just wasn't in the right frame of mind when I began reading it. Nights at the Circus isn't a bad book -- I know it's one of those "like it or hate it" novels -- I'm certain under the right circumstances it is probably quite fascinating. Who knows, maybe someday I'll pick it up and try again.

United States on Jun 14, 2006