About this title: 'This crazy world whirled around her, men and women dwarfed by toys and puppets, where even the birds are mechanical and the few human figures went masked...She was in the night once again, and the doll was herself.' Melanie walks in the midnight garden, wearing her mother's wedding dress; naked she climbs the apple tree in the black of the moon. ...
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Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Dell
Date Published: 1967
Description: Good. Small pen marks and sticker remains are on the front cover. No creasing to covers. Light rubbing to corners. No creases to spine. Small damp stain on pages. read more
Edition: Reprint
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Virago Press, London UK
Date Published: 1985
ISBN-13:9780860681908ISBN:0860681904
Description: Very Good. Not Issued With Dustjacket. The textblock of this nicely-preserved trade paperback is very clean, tight and unmarked but for minor age-toning and one instance of marginalia to the first prelim. The covers are very clean but show minor finish rubbing, corner bumping and edgewear. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Quality Paperback Book Club
Date Published: 1996
Description: Very Good. 1996 paperback, no marks noted in text, cover has slight curl, All of our products are cleaned with an disinfectant for your protection before shipping. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Virago Press Ltd
Date Published: 1992
ISBN-13:9780860681908ISBN:0860681904
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Penguin Group USA
Date Published: 1996-08-01
ISBN-13:9780140256406ISBN:0140256407
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780140256406. read more
Edition: NEW ED
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: LITTLE, BROWN BOOK GROUP Country = UNITED KINGDOM
Date Published: 1992
ISBN-13:9780860681908ISBN:0860681904
Description: BRAND NEW PAPERBACK. 204 pages. (204 pages) the boldest of english women writers' lorna sage edition new ed (Paperback) read more
Binding: Hardback
Publisher: LITTLE, BROWN BOOK GROUP Country = UNITED KINGDOM
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9781844085231ISBN:1844085236
Description: BRAND NEW HARDBACK. 240 pages. 'her writing is pyrotechnic-fuelled with ideas, packed with images and spangling the night with her starry language' observer (Hardback) read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Dell. 1969.
Date Published: 1969
Description: Reprint of the original hardcover. First Dell printing, October 1969. Paperback, 4x7 inches. Clean, tight interior. ** Flaws: some margin yellowing to pages and inner side of covers. soft crease mark on front cover at lower corner. Still a very nice copy. Very Good +. read more
Edition: First
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, New York
Date Published: (1967)
Description: First American edition. Remainder stripe bottom edge else fine in rubbed, very good dustwrapper. Filmed in 1987 in Great Britain. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Macmillan
Date Published: 1969
ISBN-13:9780330023009ISBN:0330023004
Description: Good. Page colour-Slightly discoloured in accordance with book age. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
"I'll say it, right at the very outset. Straight. This is one of the best books I've ever read, and, believe it or not, the cover is equally fantastic. I did judge the book by its cover, and I am still astounded by how incredible this book is, and I can continue staring at its cover for hours unending.
The plot, in a nutshell, revolves around Melanie, a fifteen year old who plays grown-up one evening, by wearing her mother's wedding dress. The next morning, a telegram arrives informing her, her two siblings and their housekeeper of the children's parents' demise. The children are forced to pack up and leave their life of luxury, and move in with their Uncle Philip, who they've never really known.
Life at Uncle Philip is diametrically different from 'home' - there is no toilet paper, no hot water, there's community shampoo, and there are the "red" people - Uncle Philip's mute wife, and her two brothers: Francis and Finn. Her Uncle, who owns a puppet and toy shop, seems to spend most of his energy on his 'art' and less on his family, but nonetheless being an oppressive tyrant, who everyone in the house fears. He comes across as this abominable puppet master, a sadist, a jealous mean miser, who hates Christmas, and resents people who aren't puppets.
The story focuses on the horrible Uncle, but it's also about how Melanie comes of age, settles into the family, and finds love and affection for her Aunt, and her Aunt's brothers - brothers who her Uncle despises, and never fails to remind that they need to earn their keep. It's Melanie's story, out and out, from the moment the book starts, with her discovering her own sexuality, and fearing dying a virgin, to, her almost bursting into tears looking at the bathroom at her Uncle's place (and comparing it to her old one), to, falling in love, and finally, growing up at the tender age of fifteen going on sixteen. It's a story that starts off at the brink of losing innocence, and progresses with the protagonist falling into a whirlwind of darkness, knowing that life as she knows it is over - and it's never coming back.
This is a beautifully written, heartbreaking tragedy. It's descriptive, magical (pun unintended), and almost scary. Life changes in the blink of an eye, and three children are forced to suffer the consequences, and subjugate themselves to a life they have no control over.
They stood on the step and waited for the taxi with black bands on their arms and suitcases in their hands, forlorn passengers from a wrecked ship, clutching a few haphazardly salvaged possessions, and staring in dismay at the choppy sea to which they must commit themselves.
The metaphors, dark imagery, graphic descriptions and quasi-hallucinatory story makes this gothic fairy tale superb. The vivid scenes, be it Leda-Zeus (Melanie and the Swan puppet), or the jubilation of the entire family when Uncle Philip is away, blows the reader's mind away, and at the end of the book, I was just craving for more.
...And, I don't think my review has done this phenomenal piece of work any justice whatsoever."
"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 no corner of the shop is left out of Carter's listing). Here, Carter creates a landscape that is both claustrophobic and glittery; you are forced to linger in it (and lingering in it is oppressive). The toyshop is full of artifice-lifelike toys and puppets, paper roses, artificial sunlight, electric fire in a fireplace and plastic holly at Christmas. In the toyshop, characters stay put and wait to be savaged. Ravaged?"
"Although I would probably enjoy dissecting this in a class (the feminist issues, the sex, the symbolism), it's not something I'm drawn to for pure reading enjoyment. Carter's characterizations are a marvel and I was continually impressed with her abilities to bring each character to life in a short paragraph. But I'm just not into the gothic & magical realism stuff. I'm too busy/lazy to add a new edition to goodreads, but I read a lovely hardbound Virago Modern Classic 30th edition that I bought at Foyle's in London in May."
"If half-stars were an an option, I'd actually give this a 3.5.
Angela Carter's writing is generally exquisite, and especially so in the first chapter of this book. Unfortunately, the rest of the book (language-wise) failed to live up to the very delicious promise of the first handful of pages (although of course still consistently 'good').
Uncle Philip was a fearsome character, genuinely frightening and looming up out of the pages. The sense of being trapped, of stagnating and suffocating, was almost palpable. Melanie's sense of being cast adrift and metaphorically homeless was very well-conveyed. However, I refrained from rating this book higher because, aside from the aforementioned writing issue, I felt it was far too short! It felt incomplete and left me somewhat unsated."
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