Product Description

Mabel Stark was one of the most famous women of her time, the centre-ring finale act of the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey circus in the 1920s and 1930s when circus was the most popular form of entertainment in North America.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #341430 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-08
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

Kate Winslet
‘Mabel survived a dozen maulings and five husbands. She has the story that leading ladies were invented for’

Time
'Hough has created one of the most remarkable, sympathetic and finely rendered characters I have come across anywhere'

Gazette (Montreal)
'Mabel Stark is the first heroine I’ve fallen in love with for a long time'

Customer Reviews

...say hello wave goodbye to the circus
Fact or fiction books, even movies on the circus are few and far between. There's Angela Carter's "Nights at the Circus", the dazzle of the ancient but timeless Burt Lancaster - Tony Curtis trapeze flicks; but try finding a history of the circus and you'll struggle, save for the hard to find (American published) "The Circus Age" by Janet M Davis.

Robert Hough in the fictional autobiography, "The Final Confession of Mabel Stark" gives good reason to celebrate the return of the big ring, both to modern fiction and the big screen - filming based on the book starts in summer 2004 and stars Kate Winslet. For the circus in its early twentieth century American incarnation is a mine of colourful characters, die-hard performers and itinerant working folk in one mass roll- along community.

Hough's book is based loosely on the real life Mabel Stark, big cat trainer extraordinaire, who survives a mental institution, five marriages, some all too gaudy maulings, and thousands of miles criss-crossing northern America with such luminaries as the Ringling, Barnes and Robinson's circuses. It's certainly a ripping yarn, well written, intelligent, illuminating and entertaining. There's good insight into the life of the circus and the myriad of characters as well as some thoughtful eulogising on the meaning of life as Mabel contemplates her past loves and motivations.

In its central core, Hough explores Mabel's sexuality in comparisons with her beloved tiger Rajah, the book's most enigmatic character, and her mostly far from beloved husbands. There's much to read into these disparate relationships and Hough enjoys unravelling the thread of sexual tension within, as well as between Mabel and her men and Mabel and her cats.

"...Mabel Stark" is a good book and well worth the read. It is though very American and as such there are clearly some US in-jokes that this, and any other, reader may fail to recognise. It also neatly side steps more modern concerns over animal welfare when of course back in the 1920s this had yet to raise a head of steam. Interestingly the famous circus owner Al G. Barnes, who makes many sparky appearances, points to the future of the circus not in animal acts but with more humane human acrobatics.

What Hough should really be congratulated for is bringing a whole new slice of big top razzmatazz, that largely has been neglected, back to our shelves and Hollywood.

Watch others follow.

Didn't want to finish it
So far the best book I've read this year.

Yes, it is slightly off the wall and a little eccentric but it's refreshingly different, laugh out loud funny, compassionate without being shmultzy and a brilliant story.

The book is based on a real person, but without doubt embellished and Robert Hough gives Mabel a unique voice. The ups and downs of Mabels life are told with a rare talent, a no holds barred "factionalised" story that had me reading until late in the night. I didn't want to finish this book.

If you liked The Time Travellers Wife, Cassius and Clay, Middlesex, Case Histories, then you'll love this. I'll be buying it for friends birthdays!