Product Description

A richly comic tale of the tangled fortunes of two theatrical families, the hazards and chances, Angela Carter's witty and bawdy new novel is populated with as many sets of twins, and mistaken identities as any Shakespeare comedy, and celebrates the magic of over a century of show business.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7419 in Books
• Published on: 1998-01-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
"* 'Wise Children is Angela Carter's best book. It deserves many prizes and, better than that, the affection of generations of readers' Times Literary Supplement * 'Inventive and brilliant' The Times * 'A funny, funny book, Wise Children is even better than Nights at the Circus. It deserves all the bouquets, diamonds and stage-door Johnnies it can get' Salman Rushdle, Independent on Sunday * 'Wonderful writing...there is not much fiction around that is as good as this' Ruth Rendell, Daily Telegraph"

From the Publisher
One of the century's finest writers' Sunday Times

About the Author
Angela Carter was born in 1940 and read English at Bristol University, before spending two years living in Japan. She lived and worked extensively in the United States and Australia. Her first novel, Shadow Dance, was published in 1965, followed by the Magic Toyshop in 1967, which went on to win the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. She wrote a further four novels, together with three collections of Short Stories, two works of non-fiction and a volume of collected writings. Angela Carter died in 1992

Customer Reviews

A wonderful, complex, funny work of art.
Being guided through the lives and times of the Chance sisters is an exhilarating experience. With fabulously three-dimensional characters, witty one-liners and clever links with all things Shakespearean and theatrical this is a definite "must-read". In short, I loved this book.I was asked to analyse the first chapter in an English Literature mock A-level exam and knew from then I just had to read on! There is some exceptional use of imagery and metaphor here which are clear and really brinbg this book to life. Whilst being extremely entertaining, this novel is also strangely tragic - it must be remembered that the auther had terminal cancer whilst writing this book and died two months after it's publication. This is a tragedy to all lovers of a good read as there will be no more pieces produced by this wonderful writer. The mixture of the "glitz and glam" of the showbiz world and the stark realities of being orphaned make for one of the most exciting novels I have read yet.

A love or hate sort of book
Your probably reading this book for As Level literature, all I can say is good luck, and you'll be glad to know that if theres one good quality to this book, its that it certainly doesn't lack content.

If you find this book boring, it wont be because of the plot. To describe the Hazards/Chances the book is based around in a phrase it would be thus: messed up. One brother manages to have an affair with all 3 of his brother's wives, twin sisters swap boyfriends, and the youngest Hazard is having an affair with his half sister- old ebough to be his mother. Basically, the book is the autobiography of Dora Chance, her life on the 'bad side' of theatre. In current affairs however, that night just happened to be the night of their father's 100th birthday patry, and their goddaughter had just commited suicide after one amazing preformance on public television.

Through all this Angela Carter focuses on several main themes, fatherhood, responsability, fame, illigitamacy and a few more. If the book seems surrial to you, its supposed to be. Angela Carter's love of shakespeare, the surreal and fairy tales shines through in this very interesting novel.

Just a bawdy romp?
No, of course not, but Carter only lets literary pretensions get the better of her at the end. Until then, it's an enjoyable read. It may be a bawdy, raucous melodrama, but that's the point.

A word of warning, however - don't let the first 30 odd pages put you off. Whilst the first paragraph grabs the attention and keeps it for the next few pages, Carter's rapid, fleeting, expositional and somewhat remote style might be off-putting. However, stick with it, because, whilst it remains like that for much of the book, that's part of the charm. You just have to let yourself go to the storytelling charms of the protagonist Dora.

Wise Children is witty, the prose is knowing (but not self-consciously so) and the characters, whilst stereotypical in places, absolutely spot on for capturing the pomp and sordid side of showbiz throughout the last century.

I'll definitely be checking out some of Carter's other pieces in light of this one.