Status
Available
Publication
New York, NY : Penguin Books, 1986, c1984.
Description
'Angela Carter has influenced a whole generation of fellow writers towards dream worlds of baroque splendour, fairy tale horror, and visions of the alienated wreckage of a future world. In Nights at the Circus she has invented a new, raunchy, raucous, Cockney voice for her heroine Fevvers, taking us back into a rich, turn of the 19th century world, which reeks of human and animal variety' The Times.
User reviews
LibraryThing member richardderus
BkC15) Carter, Angela, NIGHTS AT THE CIRCUS: *swoon*
Yes indeed, I still agree with myself here. In these fill-in reviews of the over 100 books my RL (or F2F, whichever) book circle has read since 1994 that I have never written reviews for, I'm finding that some opinions have changed significantly.
Whatever I tell you about the plot, which is unremarkable (boy meets girl-oid, etc.), is utterly overshadowed by one fact of the book: Fevvers.
She is an aerialiste, the best in the world, and it's all down to her unknown avian ancestry, she tells Jack, the newspaperman who's in love with her (as who isn't?). See, she was hatched from an egg, and spent her post-menarche years as a living cupid in a bordello foyer. Now she's a six-two, winged sensation with only a nodding acquaintance with reality, since she's always lived outside its dreary confines in the bordello, which she helped burn down, and then with Col. Kearney's circus, where she's the star attraction.
The novel takes us from London to Petersburg and points east at the tail end of the 19th century. We meet Lizzie, Fevvers' adopted mom (and probably a witch); the Princess of Abyssinia, a silent-through-trauma cat-tamer and lesbian lover of Mignon, the young lassie with the beautiful voice that drives a jealous spike between Fevvers and Jack; Christian the christian idiot who believes Fevvers is an angel fallen from Heaven and sets about sacrificing her to obtain immortality from god; and not least Col. Kearney himself, the profligate owner of the circus that's on tour, who is advised by his pig Sybil.
PG Wodehouse writes a Monty Python sketch in the style of Virginia Woolf. Enchanting. Scintillating. Close to perfect. A bottle of Veuve Cliquot served in a crystal flute while sitting in the shade of an ancient oak in a summery forest glade.
Yes indeed, I still agree with myself here. In these fill-in reviews of the over 100 books my RL (or F2F, whichever) book circle has read since 1994 that I have never written reviews for, I'm finding that some opinions have changed significantly.
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Not here. *SWOON*Whatever I tell you about the plot, which is unremarkable (boy meets girl-oid, etc.), is utterly overshadowed by one fact of the book: Fevvers.
She is an aerialiste, the best in the world, and it's all down to her unknown avian ancestry, she tells Jack, the newspaperman who's in love with her (as who isn't?). See, she was hatched from an egg, and spent her post-menarche years as a living cupid in a bordello foyer. Now she's a six-two, winged sensation with only a nodding acquaintance with reality, since she's always lived outside its dreary confines in the bordello, which she helped burn down, and then with Col. Kearney's circus, where she's the star attraction.
The novel takes us from London to Petersburg and points east at the tail end of the 19th century. We meet Lizzie, Fevvers' adopted mom (and probably a witch); the Princess of Abyssinia, a silent-through-trauma cat-tamer and lesbian lover of Mignon, the young lassie with the beautiful voice that drives a jealous spike between Fevvers and Jack; Christian the christian idiot who believes Fevvers is an angel fallen from Heaven and sets about sacrificing her to obtain immortality from god; and not least Col. Kearney himself, the profligate owner of the circus that's on tour, who is advised by his pig Sybil.
PG Wodehouse writes a Monty Python sketch in the style of Virginia Woolf. Enchanting. Scintillating. Close to perfect. A bottle of Veuve Cliquot served in a crystal flute while sitting in the shade of an ancient oak in a summery forest glade.
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LibraryThing member Matke
Oh dear. Where to start? Angela Carter spins a complicated tale of magic, myth, history, and feminism while relating the often comic, sometimes sordid, ultimately creepy story of Fevvers. I won’t rehash the plot here because the review would stretch to several pages.
I think this book is either
Part two, about the circus in which Fevvers is the star attraction—who doesn’t want to see a woman literally fly?— is somewhat less successful. Too many characters are added, and it becomes difficult to follow the myriad plot threads. It’s not tedious, precisely, but it requires your mental running shoes just to keep up. Nevertheless, there’s a lot of humor to provide some relief, and an interesting exploration of the appeal, or not, of clowns. We also get a mind-boggling scene with Fevvers and a Russian archduke that’s startlingly menacing.
Finally we follow the circus troupe to Siberia on the Trans-Siberian railroad. And here’s where, for me, the book started to fall apart a bit. Fevvers and her foster mother, Liz, somehow transform from bordello dwellers speaking in breezy Cockney into brilliant social analysts who converse like philosophers. This is jarring, at best. The ending was, I thought, weak, leaving the future highly in doubt. But even this section has some brilliant, if crazy, writing. Carter is so compelling, so realistic in her craziness, that I was driven to research some of what she describes. I was astonished to find that even the most bizarre events are based in reality.
So. There’s a lot of horror here, a lot of ugliness, but also redemption and hope. Not for the faint of heart or the squeamish, this is an intriguing and very adult book.
I think this book is either
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too short or too long, depending on what the reader wants. The first section, in which Fevvers tells the fantastic story of her life as half woman half swan, is an amazing example of characterization. One falls completely under her spell and becomes totally absorbed in the book. The section is a completely successful short story, with just enough magical mystery and plenty of humor to maintain the illusion.Part two, about the circus in which Fevvers is the star attraction—who doesn’t want to see a woman literally fly?— is somewhat less successful. Too many characters are added, and it becomes difficult to follow the myriad plot threads. It’s not tedious, precisely, but it requires your mental running shoes just to keep up. Nevertheless, there’s a lot of humor to provide some relief, and an interesting exploration of the appeal, or not, of clowns. We also get a mind-boggling scene with Fevvers and a Russian archduke that’s startlingly menacing.
Finally we follow the circus troupe to Siberia on the Trans-Siberian railroad. And here’s where, for me, the book started to fall apart a bit. Fevvers and her foster mother, Liz, somehow transform from bordello dwellers speaking in breezy Cockney into brilliant social analysts who converse like philosophers. This is jarring, at best. The ending was, I thought, weak, leaving the future highly in doubt. But even this section has some brilliant, if crazy, writing. Carter is so compelling, so realistic in her craziness, that I was driven to research some of what she describes. I was astonished to find that even the most bizarre events are based in reality.
So. There’s a lot of horror here, a lot of ugliness, but also redemption and hope. Not for the faint of heart or the squeamish, this is an intriguing and very adult book.
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LibraryThing member antao
' "I do think, myself," I added, "that a girl should shoot her own rapists." '
In "Nights at the Circus" by Angela Carter
Then I thought about it from a different angle. This is a novel written by someone who very strongly holds political and social views, for sure, and a novel which reflects those
I believe a lot of Carter's writing draws on fantasy and horror traditions; I first encountered her writing via a collection of fairy-tales and folklore and coming in that way to her own fiction meant I was completely fine with abusive puppeteers, winged women and panopticons in the tundra. It's a fantasy and horror world informed by the author's feminism, (arguably in the vein of the very earliest horror-feminism à la Maria, or The Wrongs of Woman et al) and I can't help but think considering it in comparison to, say, Atwood's “The Handmaid's Tale”. Atwood's novel is “mittelmässig”, but I would consider it a book in the "usual" dystopian-activist mould; it creates an imagined oppressive world and depicts oppression to make you stand up and want to do something.
Perhaps that's a reductive reading of a very good novel, but the idea I want to get across is that there's a body of political genre fiction that very plainly states what's wrong and what should be avoided and resisted. “Nights at the Circus” isn't that, and isn't interested in being that. It's depicting a strange world and the women and men within it - it puts across without lecturing what the author believes about feminism, but I don't really feel it a call to action.
I think the most obvious artefact of Carter's feminism is the upending of traditional fairy-tale gender roles. Heroines get the better of big bad wolves, and mothers arrive to save the damsel in place of dashing princes. Carter is essentially offering an alternative, more diverse storytelling legacy... rewriting literary history if you like.
I agree that “The Handmaid's Tale” is sort of activism-by-fiction. Actually, so is "The Blind Assassin". Clickbait as novel almost: you read it to be angered and appalled and come away with a difficult-to-justify sense of injustice. You read Carter with a sense of wonder, barely noticing that anything political has even been proposed, let alone achieved. She was always seen as a contradiction and hence she is able to shine a light on what is perceived and actually show us what is real. Even Edmund Gordon’s biography is titled “The Invention of Angela Carter”. It's quite hard to reconcile how Carter writes with how she apparently came across in public.
Here she wrote three different books in a single volume, each one with its own themes and characteristics. Even the form changes: the first part is basically a dialogue between Fevvers and Lizzie; the second displays a more classic third-person narration; the last is interspersed with clutches of text from Fevvers' point of view. My gripes were with the Siberian act. There's not so much humour, the narrative is way less baroque, the events seem more unconnected and the overall tone is too serious, although paradoxically this is the section that relies more clearly on fairy-tale devices. There are moments the story feels kind of botched, to be honest. But the fantasy elements largely make up for any downsides, and there's a couple of U-turns in the plot that are simply ingenious.
Some contemporary SF women writers could learn one or two things with Carter.
In "Nights at the Circus" by Angela Carter
Then I thought about it from a different angle. This is a novel written by someone who very strongly holds political and social views, for sure, and a novel which reflects those
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views in its themes and story, but is it really a Political Novel in the didactic/polemic/instructional sense?I believe a lot of Carter's writing draws on fantasy and horror traditions; I first encountered her writing via a collection of fairy-tales and folklore and coming in that way to her own fiction meant I was completely fine with abusive puppeteers, winged women and panopticons in the tundra. It's a fantasy and horror world informed by the author's feminism, (arguably in the vein of the very earliest horror-feminism à la Maria, or The Wrongs of Woman et al) and I can't help but think considering it in comparison to, say, Atwood's “The Handmaid's Tale”. Atwood's novel is “mittelmässig”, but I would consider it a book in the "usual" dystopian-activist mould; it creates an imagined oppressive world and depicts oppression to make you stand up and want to do something.
Perhaps that's a reductive reading of a very good novel, but the idea I want to get across is that there's a body of political genre fiction that very plainly states what's wrong and what should be avoided and resisted. “Nights at the Circus” isn't that, and isn't interested in being that. It's depicting a strange world and the women and men within it - it puts across without lecturing what the author believes about feminism, but I don't really feel it a call to action.
I think the most obvious artefact of Carter's feminism is the upending of traditional fairy-tale gender roles. Heroines get the better of big bad wolves, and mothers arrive to save the damsel in place of dashing princes. Carter is essentially offering an alternative, more diverse storytelling legacy... rewriting literary history if you like.
I agree that “The Handmaid's Tale” is sort of activism-by-fiction. Actually, so is "The Blind Assassin". Clickbait as novel almost: you read it to be angered and appalled and come away with a difficult-to-justify sense of injustice. You read Carter with a sense of wonder, barely noticing that anything political has even been proposed, let alone achieved. She was always seen as a contradiction and hence she is able to shine a light on what is perceived and actually show us what is real. Even Edmund Gordon’s biography is titled “The Invention of Angela Carter”. It's quite hard to reconcile how Carter writes with how she apparently came across in public.
Here she wrote three different books in a single volume, each one with its own themes and characteristics. Even the form changes: the first part is basically a dialogue between Fevvers and Lizzie; the second displays a more classic third-person narration; the last is interspersed with clutches of text from Fevvers' point of view. My gripes were with the Siberian act. There's not so much humour, the narrative is way less baroque, the events seem more unconnected and the overall tone is too serious, although paradoxically this is the section that relies more clearly on fairy-tale devices. There are moments the story feels kind of botched, to be honest. But the fantasy elements largely make up for any downsides, and there's a couple of U-turns in the plot that are simply ingenious.
Some contemporary SF women writers could learn one or two things with Carter.
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LibraryThing member the_awesome_opossum
Fevvers, the protagonist of Nights at the Circus, is a tangle of paradoxes which puzzles and thrills her audience and Jack Walser, the American journalist sent to write a series of articles about her. She looks half-bird and half-woman; her angelic appearance is betrayed by her brusque Cockney
This book offers a lot as a feminist text. Gender commentary does not just happen in the interactions between women and men (Fevvers is completely in control of Walser's interview with her) but how a woman interacts with the entire world. If she even may. Fevvers gets a public role because she is a performer - and only that because she has *wings* and has crafted herself into a hyperfeminine "Cockney Venus." What about every other woman who isn't Fevvers?
It's a unique book, that gave me a lot more substance than I expected. The circus atmosphere, the freaks and oddities and fun, becomes secondary to more interesting issues, surprisingly skillful and thoughtful.
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attitude; despite her elegance and intelligence, the only jobs she has ever possessed are at a whorehouse and the circus. Fevvers is an enigma, being hailed as the fantastic New Woman of the turn of the twentieth century. But nobody knows what to make of this creature (for lack of a better word) who defies their expectations. And she takes advantage of the confusion; the advertisement for her aerialist performance is "Is she fact or is she fiction?"This book offers a lot as a feminist text. Gender commentary does not just happen in the interactions between women and men (Fevvers is completely in control of Walser's interview with her) but how a woman interacts with the entire world. If she even may. Fevvers gets a public role because she is a performer - and only that because she has *wings* and has crafted herself into a hyperfeminine "Cockney Venus." What about every other woman who isn't Fevvers?
It's a unique book, that gave me a lot more substance than I expected. The circus atmosphere, the freaks and oddities and fun, becomes secondary to more interesting issues, surprisingly skillful and thoughtful.
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LibraryThing member caviglia_jr
Nights at the Circus is written in three parts (or acts, or rings if you like). So many novels about theater, or show business wind up being a little like the novel equivalent of one of those HBO bio pics. Don't misunderstand me, I love HBO bio pics - but I mean they tend to be I guess really
It begins at the cusp of the 20th century in London. Jack, an American reporter sits in Sophie Fevver's dressing room as she tells him her extraordinary life story. Fevvers is the toast of Europe, the greatest aerialist alive - billed as "The Cockney Venus" she has two wings on her back, and may be part swan, part clockwork or a complete hoax. Her tag line is , "Is she fact or is she fiction?" and it's really the question of the book. In all Angela Carter's books and stories, people are always changeable, nothing is carved in stone. Women turn into tigers, men wake up women, you name it. But in her last two great novels, this mutability, her obsession with facades and performance is self-consciously theatrical. She achieves the tone in Circus of a gritty, music hall, magic realism, burlesque that is quite literally completely unlike anything else I've ever read. Little Fevvers was found as an infant on the doorstep of a London brothel just beginning to sprout little tufts of down on her shoulder blades ("Looks like the little thing is going to sprout fevvers!"), was raised there, eventually finding herself in a freak brothel run by an evil, tiny dried up puppet of a woman (who may actually be a puppet). The old whore who raised Fevvers may be an anarchist (the kind that blows things up), and the reporter wonders if Fevvers is actually a man, and if anything he is told is true.
The second act is set in St Petersburg as Fevvers has been engaged by Colonel Kearney's Circus for their Grand Imperial Tour of the Russias and Japan (to be followed by their Great Democratic Tour of the United States). Jack has signed on as a clown, and there is lots of truly disquieting drunken clown mayhem and strange self loathing monologues by the monstrous Buffo the Great who turns the American into "The Human Chicken". There is the ape act, with the drunken Professor who beats his poor, long suffering mistress (who used to work for a crooked spiritualist, playing dead children), the Abyssinian Princess (ahem.) who tames tigers, a high wire act that loathes Fevvers (understandably), a love sick strongman named Samson. And Colonel Kearney himself, the ringmaster and circus owner, a huckster from Kentucky with a remarkable pig named Sybil. The story telling is strange, meandering, and baroque. The third act is set in Siberia, and here it takes a turn into the truly bizarre and nearly mystical. Circus impresarios, murderesses, would-be rapists, amnesia, winged women, tigers caught in mirrors, a Russian Grand Duke, explosions, freaks, whores, truly educated apes. Lots of it is funny, some extremely unsettling. The whole thing is just gorgeous. Angela Carter books aren't about plots, hers are usually absurd burlesques, mad enough to demonstrate that plot should never be the point of good literature.
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linear and about the subject matter in a way that really great literature rarely is. Nights at the Circus is a truly great book that most people I know have never read. Which just kills me.It begins at the cusp of the 20th century in London. Jack, an American reporter sits in Sophie Fevver's dressing room as she tells him her extraordinary life story. Fevvers is the toast of Europe, the greatest aerialist alive - billed as "The Cockney Venus" she has two wings on her back, and may be part swan, part clockwork or a complete hoax. Her tag line is , "Is she fact or is she fiction?" and it's really the question of the book. In all Angela Carter's books and stories, people are always changeable, nothing is carved in stone. Women turn into tigers, men wake up women, you name it. But in her last two great novels, this mutability, her obsession with facades and performance is self-consciously theatrical. She achieves the tone in Circus of a gritty, music hall, magic realism, burlesque that is quite literally completely unlike anything else I've ever read. Little Fevvers was found as an infant on the doorstep of a London brothel just beginning to sprout little tufts of down on her shoulder blades ("Looks like the little thing is going to sprout fevvers!"), was raised there, eventually finding herself in a freak brothel run by an evil, tiny dried up puppet of a woman (who may actually be a puppet). The old whore who raised Fevvers may be an anarchist (the kind that blows things up), and the reporter wonders if Fevvers is actually a man, and if anything he is told is true.
The second act is set in St Petersburg as Fevvers has been engaged by Colonel Kearney's Circus for their Grand Imperial Tour of the Russias and Japan (to be followed by their Great Democratic Tour of the United States). Jack has signed on as a clown, and there is lots of truly disquieting drunken clown mayhem and strange self loathing monologues by the monstrous Buffo the Great who turns the American into "The Human Chicken". There is the ape act, with the drunken Professor who beats his poor, long suffering mistress (who used to work for a crooked spiritualist, playing dead children), the Abyssinian Princess (ahem.) who tames tigers, a high wire act that loathes Fevvers (understandably), a love sick strongman named Samson. And Colonel Kearney himself, the ringmaster and circus owner, a huckster from Kentucky with a remarkable pig named Sybil. The story telling is strange, meandering, and baroque. The third act is set in Siberia, and here it takes a turn into the truly bizarre and nearly mystical. Circus impresarios, murderesses, would-be rapists, amnesia, winged women, tigers caught in mirrors, a Russian Grand Duke, explosions, freaks, whores, truly educated apes. Lots of it is funny, some extremely unsettling. The whole thing is just gorgeous. Angela Carter books aren't about plots, hers are usually absurd burlesques, mad enough to demonstrate that plot should never be the point of good literature.
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LibraryThing member isabelx
But Fevvers, apparently, pottered along the invisible gangway between her trapezes with the portly dignity of a Trafalgar Square pigeon flapping from one proffered handful of corn to another, and then she turned head over heels three times, lazily enough to show off the crack in her bum.
There is
The journalist who signs up as a circus clown to follow her on a tour of Russian and the USA comes to believe that knowing the secret of her wings would spoil her mystery - rather than being a miracle, she would be unmasked as either a fake or a freak.
The touches of magical realism are subtly done; it slowly dawns on the reader that the Educated Apes and some of the other circus animals are rather more intelligent than average, and I had to re-read the section about the faberge eggs a couple of times before I realised how Fevvers escaped the clutches of the Grand Duke.
A fabulous Angela Carter novel, which will keep you wondering throughout if cockney circus artiste Fevvers really does have wings, or if they are just part of the costume for her act.
There is
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much speculation about music hall artiste Sophie Fevvers. Her act is no more daring than any other aerialiste's but her wings allow her to travel between the trapezes much more slowly. She admits to dyeing her feathers red and purple, but are her wings real or a clever fake? She is no small and graceful bird-woman but a statuesque cockney who seems awkward on the ground and in the air.The journalist who signs up as a circus clown to follow her on a tour of Russian and the USA comes to believe that knowing the secret of her wings would spoil her mystery - rather than being a miracle, she would be unmasked as either a fake or a freak.
The touches of magical realism are subtly done; it slowly dawns on the reader that the Educated Apes and some of the other circus animals are rather more intelligent than average, and I had to re-read the section about the faberge eggs a couple of times before I realised how Fevvers escaped the clutches of the Grand Duke.
A fabulous Angela Carter novel, which will keep you wondering throughout if cockney circus artiste Fevvers really does have wings, or if they are just part of the costume for her act.
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LibraryThing member Whisper1
Ladies and Gentlemen, folks of all ages, step right up to the most bizarre cast of circus characters you will ever have the pleasure to read.
Sophie Fevvers, billed as the worlds greatest, extraordinaire aerialiste, charms and woes all who travel in her path.
Soliciting the love of many, including
Lacking all manner of decorum, with the heart of a prostitute, her claim to fame is a very large set of feathered wings that gracefully unfold as she spins on the high wire. While twirling and entwining she draws the meek and the bold who are drawn like a moth to the fire, with the end result of searing, scorching pain.
Segmented into three sections, we travel on the magical mystery tour with Sophie, Jack and a large entourage through London, St. Petersburg and then Siberia.
In our journey, we meet dwarfs, giants, alcoholics, macabre clowns, apes that are smarter than the average human, the sketchy Russian Tsar, prisoners, and fools.
Pardoxically, the writing is so complex and beautiful that it was difficult to read. This is an author who can write with images that smack you in the face and make you look where you might not want to go.
Sophie Fevvers, billed as the worlds greatest, extraordinaire aerialiste, charms and woes all who travel in her path.
Soliciting the love of many, including
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the American journalist Jack Walser, spreading her wings to enfold as she defies human nature, and is unnatural in her behaviors and appearance.Lacking all manner of decorum, with the heart of a prostitute, her claim to fame is a very large set of feathered wings that gracefully unfold as she spins on the high wire. While twirling and entwining she draws the meek and the bold who are drawn like a moth to the fire, with the end result of searing, scorching pain.
Segmented into three sections, we travel on the magical mystery tour with Sophie, Jack and a large entourage through London, St. Petersburg and then Siberia.
In our journey, we meet dwarfs, giants, alcoholics, macabre clowns, apes that are smarter than the average human, the sketchy Russian Tsar, prisoners, and fools.
Pardoxically, the writing is so complex and beautiful that it was difficult to read. This is an author who can write with images that smack you in the face and make you look where you might not want to go.
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LibraryThing member ashleytylerjohn
To be honest, I can barely recall this one (so have given it 3 stars. If I really liked it, I'd remember, if it was really disappointing, I'd remember). I do remember the main character was called "Fevvers" and had wings, so it seemed to me that she'd been named by someone with a speech impediment
(And if you haven't read Angela Carter before, she's usually terrific--read The Bloody Chamber and decide if you like her).
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and meant to called her "Feathers" instead. Reading the plot summary on Wikipedia brings nothing back, but as I'm unlikely to read this again, this review is as good as it gets.(And if you haven't read Angela Carter before, she's usually terrific--read The Bloody Chamber and decide if you like her).
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LibraryThing member AltheaAnn
I feel like I should've read this before reading either 'The Night Circus' or 'Mechanique' - and I feel like now I've got a better background in surrealist circus fiction.
I have to admit, I didn't love this book as much as I loved 'The Night Circus' - but I think it's probably a better work of
On the surface, it's the story of Fevvers - a circus star, a winged woman with a trapeze act, who decides to tell her story - fact or fiction - to the journalist Jack Walser. In search of a juicy scoop (or possibly following Fevvers), Jack runs away with the circus in the disguise of a clown.
From London to the steppes of Russia, the circus encounters a series of disastrous events, culminating in a bizarre and magical - yet unexpectedly domestic - grand finale.
The story is told in a rather circuitous, non-linear style, changing focus and episodes (different 'acts'?). The characters often speak far more like academic theorists than one might guess they would (a prostitute interested in political theory might be unusual, but not as much so as an Educated Ape negotiating his own contract.)
Earthy, lusty (mostly in the sense of a lust for life), both humorous and serious, the book is both entertaining and a worthwhile read.
I have to admit, I didn't love this book as much as I loved 'The Night Circus' - but I think it's probably a better work of
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literature. There's a lot here to think about; it's rich and complex.On the surface, it's the story of Fevvers - a circus star, a winged woman with a trapeze act, who decides to tell her story - fact or fiction - to the journalist Jack Walser. In search of a juicy scoop (or possibly following Fevvers), Jack runs away with the circus in the disguise of a clown.
From London to the steppes of Russia, the circus encounters a series of disastrous events, culminating in a bizarre and magical - yet unexpectedly domestic - grand finale.
The story is told in a rather circuitous, non-linear style, changing focus and episodes (different 'acts'?). The characters often speak far more like academic theorists than one might guess they would (a prostitute interested in political theory might be unusual, but not as much so as an Educated Ape negotiating his own contract.)
Earthy, lusty (mostly in the sense of a lust for life), both humorous and serious, the book is both entertaining and a worthwhile read.
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LibraryThing member Sophiejf
I started reading this book because of a folk song I like called “Hinge of the Year” by Emily Portman, which is about the character of ‘Fevvers’ taking her maiden flight. The song intrigued me and I decided to read Nights at the Circus to find out what it was all about. I thought that the
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book was a marvellous conception and strikingly original. I appreciated its post-feminism, one of the themes being the cultural representation of woman as sexual ‘other’ or ‘monstrous’. The issue I have is that it leaps too much from one wild story to the next and the writing doesn’t seem to have the right flow. I would have preferred the story to be trimmed down and confined perhaps to the first section of the novel; to have its themes and narrative fleshed out more, as it contained plenty of rich, extraordinary and incisive material. Once the narrative moved to Petersburg and Siberia I felt that Carter sort of lost the thread of her own ideas and themes which dispersed into the storytelling. Just 3 stars from me. Show Less
LibraryThing member ahgonzales
When I started the book, I couldn't put it down. The beginning of the story is a journalist interview with a circus star. Then Walser, the journalist, decides to run a way with the circus. The premise is great and the line between showmanship and reality is further blurred by the magical realism.
The problem is that the story seems to break down towards the middle, where there should be excitement at the start of conflict. But frankly, it got a little boring and meandering - which is saying something since it's a story about a woman with wings. I felt less and less inclined to pick up the book. It was okay, but didn't live up to its fun beginnings.
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The problem is that the story seems to break down towards the middle, where there should be excitement at the start of conflict. But frankly, it got a little boring and meandering - which is saying something since it's a story about a woman with wings. I felt less and less inclined to pick up the book. It was okay, but didn't live up to its fun beginnings.
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LibraryThing member jmoncton
This was a book that I wanted to like. It had an interesting protagonist - a half-human half swan aerialist who performed in theaters all over the world - what's not to love? The writing was lyrical and descriptive. But, the plot seemed to meander all around. The story follows our half-human half
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swan, Sophie Fevvers, from London, St. Petersburg, and finally to Siberia. The premise is that an American journalist is trying to uncover whether Sophie is a fraud, or a real anomaly. I don't know if it was the fantasy portion of this or not, but at the end, I was not wowed, and indifferent to whether Sophie was the genuine article or not. Show Less
LibraryThing member BCCJillster
Abandoned. Wrong mood, wrong time I suspect.
LibraryThing member leslie.98
Although I found it picked up a bit at the end, this beautifully written novel just didn't click with me. I never became interested in the characters, and the dialogue seemed completely unreal (if that term has any meaning in the context of a book about a woman with functional wings!).
LibraryThing member leahdawn
Angela Carter's lyrical style brings to live a compelling cast of characters in "Nights at the Circus". From the very beginning the reader is drawn in by the tale of Fevvers and her larger-than-life adventure from foundling to feathered aerialiste. The side stories giving the characters backgrounds
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help create empathy and captivate the reader. A wonderful magical realist tale, this was the first book I ever read by Angela Carter, and it certainly won't be the last. Show Less
LibraryThing member polarbear123
THis is the first Angela Carter book i have read. It was part of the Guardian's 1000 novels to read before you die list which I have been trying to work my way through. I thought this was a superbly written novel with most sentences being a joy to nehold within themselves. There is a great mixture
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of realism and fantasy here with many larger than life characters. The joy is not so much to be found in the main narrative thread but rather in all of the wonderful side stories explaining each character's background. I don't say this too oten but I have to say this is essential reading and Fevvers will stay with you for a long time afterwards! Show Less
LibraryThing member Eyejaybee
I was so annoyed with this dreadful book that I actually left it in the litter bin on my train.
I can't remember when I last read such self-aggrandising bilge.
I can't remember when I last read such self-aggrandising bilge.
LibraryThing member Berly
[Nights at the Circus] by Angela Carter 2.5
Okay. I am not going to lie. I did not like this book. And I feel bad giving it a 2.5, but 3.0 on my newly revised rating means "good" and this wasn't. Interestingly enough, this book scores well on LT, but if you read the reviews, there are a fair number
I powered through to the end because I am reading it with CammyKitty/Jenny and because I never got around to it when I was hosting the David Bowie thread with IreadthereforIam/Megan last year. But I am sorry I spent my time on it.
The book is about the star attraction of the circus, an aerialist who is half woman and half swan, Sophie Fevvers. Other major characters include her foster mother Lizzie, who may be a witch, and a newspaper reporter, Jack Walser, who wants to find out whether Fevvers is a scam artist. The romance didn't work for me, the magic fell flat and the characters never drew me in. The writing is wonderful and I did enjoy Fevvers early childhood growing up in a bordello, but the stories didn't connect later on. Ah well, I finished it and I can check it off my list.
Okay. I am not going to lie. I did not like this book. And I feel bad giving it a 2.5, but 3.0 on my newly revised rating means "good" and this wasn't. Interestingly enough, this book scores well on LT, but if you read the reviews, there are a fair number
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of negative ones.I powered through to the end because I am reading it with CammyKitty/Jenny and because I never got around to it when I was hosting the David Bowie thread with IreadthereforIam/Megan last year. But I am sorry I spent my time on it.
The book is about the star attraction of the circus, an aerialist who is half woman and half swan, Sophie Fevvers. Other major characters include her foster mother Lizzie, who may be a witch, and a newspaper reporter, Jack Walser, who wants to find out whether Fevvers is a scam artist. The romance didn't work for me, the magic fell flat and the characters never drew me in. The writing is wonderful and I did enjoy Fevvers early childhood growing up in a bordello, but the stories didn't connect later on. Ah well, I finished it and I can check it off my list.
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LibraryThing member sinistersister
I don't know how Angela Carter does it. Her prose manages to be intellectual, hilarious, ribald, heartbreaking, and beautiful all at once. I cannot understand how more people don't know about her! This story encompasses so much--feminism, relationships, isolation, alienation, equality, and even
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some political musing. One of the most brilliant writers I've ever come across. Show Less
LibraryThing member Charon07
This is rollicking fun! I expected something somehow darker from Angela Carter, so it was a pleasant surprise that it was so lighthearted.
This is the story of Fevvers, a winged Cockney aerialiste, and Walser, a young American reporter who runs away to join the circus to satisfy his curiosity about
While this is easy and painless to read, it's also full of surprising language. From a list of new vocabulary words (lithic, parupe, capripede, and exiguous, for a small sample) to lovely expressions such as "a language that sounded not as if spoken but as if knitted on steel needles" to the most amazing and fabulous plot turns, it was a delight to read.
This is the story of Fevvers, a winged Cockney aerialiste, and Walser, a young American reporter who runs away to join the circus to satisfy his curiosity about
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her. There's a slew of colorful characters, from the sapient monkeys to the debauched clowns to the escaped murderesses and their guards who the circus encounters on its round-the-world tour as the 19th century is poised to turn to the 20th.While this is easy and painless to read, it's also full of surprising language. From a list of new vocabulary words (lithic, parupe, capripede, and exiguous, for a small sample) to lovely expressions such as "a language that sounded not as if spoken but as if knitted on steel needles" to the most amazing and fabulous plot turns, it was a delight to read.
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LibraryThing member PilgrimJess
"We must all make do with the rags of love we find flapping on the scarecrow of humanity."
Nights at the Circus is set in the tail end of the nineteenth century, in 1899 in fact, and is written in three distinct parts. The first of which opens with American journalist, Jack Walser, interviewing
Fevvers is a six-foot plus, heavy built and claims to be part woman, part bird that was "hatched out of a bloody great egg" who at the age of thirteen developed wings and learnt how to fly. Fevvers paints a vivid picture of her life story assisted by her foster mother, Lizzie. As a hatchling she was apparently dumped on to the doorstep of a brothel where she was adopted and raised by its residents. On that institution's closure poverty then compelled her to join Madame Schreck’s Museum of Women Monsters from where she was consequently sold to a sinister Mr Rosencreutz.
Fevvers is the quint-essential musical hall artist. She is wonderfully bawdy, swigs champagne, belches and flirts with Walser while the night hours slip away. Her story is full of incident and intrigue, and she recounts it with great elan but is it real or part of some Machiavellian charade, a piece of wonderful nineteenth century self-publicity aimed at boosting the mystique that surrounds her?
‘My feathers, sir! I dye them! Don’t think I bore such gaudy colours from puberty! I commenced to dye my feathers at the start of my public career on the trapeze, in order to simulate more perfectly the tropic bird. In my white girlhood and earliest years, I kept my natural colour. Which is a kind of blonde, only a little darker than the hair on my head, more the colour of that on my private ahem parts.
‘Now that’s my dreadful secret, Mr Walser, and to tell the whole truth and nothing but, the only deception which I practice on the public!’
At the end of this first section, Fevvers joins impresario Colonel Kearney’s circus, which is set to tour Russia, Japan before moving on to America. Meanwhile Walser, who is both fascinated and attracted to her decides to tag along undercover as a clown.
The action moves to St Petersburg in the second part of this novel and the author introduces a variety of diverse circus performers ranging from clowns to chimps and tigers. Their stories are told in a series of beautifully written and witty vignettes with plenty of thrills and spills including Walser saving a woman from a rampaging tiger. On the final evening of their stay in St Petersburg Fevvers is invited to dine with the Grand Duke but when he tries to add her to his collection of novelties she escapes his clutches on a miniature train rejoining the others as they travel across Siberia.
The final portion of this book sees the troupe travelling across Siberia heading towards Japan until their train is derailed by an explosion and we meet another group of varying characters. Personally I loved the first two sections of this novel despite the story becoming increasingly surreal but partway through the final section the author lost me. Here Carter really lets her imagination run wild and slips into fantasy and mysticism.
Feminism is an important thread in this the novel. The women often form the closest relationships with other females whilst in contrast their encounters with men often involved violence and abuse. Yet despite this the story is told from the viewpoint of Walser, a none too reliable witness. Personally I would have preferred that the tale had been told in the first person. Also I felt that the final portion of this book really lets the whole down which is a real shame as I felt that it meant that the book rather fizzled out. A real shame.
"What is marriage but prostitution to one man instead of many?"
Nights at the Circus is set in the tail end of the nineteenth century, in 1899 in fact, and is written in three distinct parts. The first of which opens with American journalist, Jack Walser, interviewing
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Sophie Fevvers, the most famous aerialiste of her day. Sat in her London music hall dressing room littered with her dirty underwear, Walser is trying to discover if Fevvers is fact or fiction. Fevvers is a six-foot plus, heavy built and claims to be part woman, part bird that was "hatched out of a bloody great egg" who at the age of thirteen developed wings and learnt how to fly. Fevvers paints a vivid picture of her life story assisted by her foster mother, Lizzie. As a hatchling she was apparently dumped on to the doorstep of a brothel where she was adopted and raised by its residents. On that institution's closure poverty then compelled her to join Madame Schreck’s Museum of Women Monsters from where she was consequently sold to a sinister Mr Rosencreutz.
Fevvers is the quint-essential musical hall artist. She is wonderfully bawdy, swigs champagne, belches and flirts with Walser while the night hours slip away. Her story is full of incident and intrigue, and she recounts it with great elan but is it real or part of some Machiavellian charade, a piece of wonderful nineteenth century self-publicity aimed at boosting the mystique that surrounds her?
‘My feathers, sir! I dye them! Don’t think I bore such gaudy colours from puberty! I commenced to dye my feathers at the start of my public career on the trapeze, in order to simulate more perfectly the tropic bird. In my white girlhood and earliest years, I kept my natural colour. Which is a kind of blonde, only a little darker than the hair on my head, more the colour of that on my private ahem parts.
‘Now that’s my dreadful secret, Mr Walser, and to tell the whole truth and nothing but, the only deception which I practice on the public!’
At the end of this first section, Fevvers joins impresario Colonel Kearney’s circus, which is set to tour Russia, Japan before moving on to America. Meanwhile Walser, who is both fascinated and attracted to her decides to tag along undercover as a clown.
The action moves to St Petersburg in the second part of this novel and the author introduces a variety of diverse circus performers ranging from clowns to chimps and tigers. Their stories are told in a series of beautifully written and witty vignettes with plenty of thrills and spills including Walser saving a woman from a rampaging tiger. On the final evening of their stay in St Petersburg Fevvers is invited to dine with the Grand Duke but when he tries to add her to his collection of novelties she escapes his clutches on a miniature train rejoining the others as they travel across Siberia.
The final portion of this book sees the troupe travelling across Siberia heading towards Japan until their train is derailed by an explosion and we meet another group of varying characters. Personally I loved the first two sections of this novel despite the story becoming increasingly surreal but partway through the final section the author lost me. Here Carter really lets her imagination run wild and slips into fantasy and mysticism.
Feminism is an important thread in this the novel. The women often form the closest relationships with other females whilst in contrast their encounters with men often involved violence and abuse. Yet despite this the story is told from the viewpoint of Walser, a none too reliable witness. Personally I would have preferred that the tale had been told in the first person. Also I felt that the final portion of this book really lets the whole down which is a real shame as I felt that it meant that the book rather fizzled out. A real shame.
"What is marriage but prostitution to one man instead of many?"
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LibraryThing member Crowyhead
A fabulous, playful novel about a young woman who may or may not be part swan. It's bawdy good fun.
LibraryThing member ffortsa
I feel that I read this book without much analytic effort, and the discussion we had put me back in that frame. It's a pretty wild ride, in which we meet a woman with wings and hear her story, or stories, told to a young reporter. She performs in a circus, and he decides to join the circus to learn
One of our readers found an article analyzing the story against the career of Margaret Thatcher, but I haven't seen the details. You certainly don't need that to follow the story. The language is wonderful, and I will look for more Carter in the future.
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more about her and the circus world - or does he join for other reasons he can't articulate? As they travel from London to St. Petersburg to Siberia, the reporter joins the troupe of clowns, participates in an act with tigers, and is rescued by Siberian tribesmen and coached to become a shaman. The winged woman, having spent much of her life posing for the male gaze, flees a magical entrapment, frees other women from strange entrapments, and almost loses her power (as does her dresser/companion). Magic, music, time control, female freedom and power, and the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries, all figure in this wild ride in which the characters move from artifice to authenticity, or civilization to nature. One of our readers found an article analyzing the story against the career of Margaret Thatcher, but I haven't seen the details. You certainly don't need that to follow the story. The language is wonderful, and I will look for more Carter in the future.
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LibraryThing member magicians_nephew
My book group took a look at Nights At the Circus Angela Carters big messy magical hard to describe wonderful novel.
in the waning days of 1899 a skeptical American Journalist is sent to interview "Fevvers", the "Cockney Venus" a big bawdy musical hall Artiste who performs dazzling tricks on the
The journalist is out to prove her a hoax - but then he falls in love. The Swan-Scheherazade is spinning a comic tale of her outrageous upbringing in several different brothels where fantasies are peddled wholesale to wealthy punters.
The story follows Fevvers on tour from London to St Petersburg in Russia and in a manic train ride across the wild lands of Siberia. We meet clowns and con men, musicians and tiger tamers, Grand Dukes and Shamen , and it is phantasmorigical and "WHAT did she just say?"over and over again. What the pig says, goes.
The writing is amazing and baroque and lyrical , and funny and heartbreaking sometimes in a single sentence. Carter has things to say about modern Capitalism and Society and women and society and all that is worth reading but mostly it's just an entertainment and hang on to your hat. Lots of memorable characters take center stage along the way.
You can like it or hate it. I loved it.
in the waning days of 1899 a skeptical American Journalist is sent to interview "Fevvers", the "Cockney Venus" a big bawdy musical hall Artiste who performs dazzling tricks on the
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trapeze and - by the way - has real wings growing out of her shoulders that she claims she can fly with. The journalist is out to prove her a hoax - but then he falls in love. The Swan-Scheherazade is spinning a comic tale of her outrageous upbringing in several different brothels where fantasies are peddled wholesale to wealthy punters.
The story follows Fevvers on tour from London to St Petersburg in Russia and in a manic train ride across the wild lands of Siberia. We meet clowns and con men, musicians and tiger tamers, Grand Dukes and Shamen , and it is phantasmorigical and "WHAT did she just say?"over and over again. What the pig says, goes.
The writing is amazing and baroque and lyrical , and funny and heartbreaking sometimes in a single sentence. Carter has things to say about modern Capitalism and Society and women and society and all that is worth reading but mostly it's just an entertainment and hang on to your hat. Lots of memorable characters take center stage along the way.
You can like it or hate it. I loved it.
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LibraryThing member TobinElliott
I'm splitting the difference on this one and giving it a three-star rating, but that's only because the actual writing--that is, the word choices, the analogies, etc.--was very good. But the story was torturous.
Honestly, to me, this novel started in fourth gear, speeding from the first line and
Anyway, that's the first of the two things I found off-putting. Combine a non-deviating pace with a storyline that feels as though it was made up on the fly, and I found myself drifting from the story quite often, words being taken in, but mind refusing to concentrate and comprehend. By rights, I should have gone over those missed parts again, but the thought of doing that just depressed me.
I don't know why. The characters were, for the most part, interesting. But it was just a little too isn't this just so imaginative, and so fantastic?
Nope. Not to me. I'm afraid that's the last Angela Carter book I'll read.
Honestly, to me, this novel started in fourth gear, speeding from the first line and
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simply did not slow down until the final period. Now, in an action thriller, I don't mind that kind of pacing, but in a story that's 80 per cent fairy tale and 20 per cent...well, porn isn't the word because it doesn't stoop that low. Let's just say there's a fair amount of sex going on, too. Let's call it a dirty fairy tale and leave it at that.Anyway, that's the first of the two things I found off-putting. Combine a non-deviating pace with a storyline that feels as though it was made up on the fly, and I found myself drifting from the story quite often, words being taken in, but mind refusing to concentrate and comprehend. By rights, I should have gone over those missed parts again, but the thought of doing that just depressed me.
I don't know why. The characters were, for the most part, interesting. But it was just a little too isn't this just so imaginative, and so fantastic?
Nope. Not to me. I'm afraid that's the last Angela Carter book I'll read.
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Awards
James Tait Black Memorial Prize (Winner — Fiction — 1984)
British Fantasy Award (Nominee — August Derleth Fantasy Award — 1985)
British Science Fiction Association Award (Shortlist — Novel — 1984)
The Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read (Science Fiction and Fantasy)
Original publication date
1984
Physical description
294 p.; 20 cm
ISBN
0140077030 / 9780140077032
Local notes
fiction
Other editions
Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter (Paperback)