-
Seasonal Offer:
This title is part of our Seasonal Offers promotion.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in The Magic Toyshop (Virago Modern Classics) for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Special Offers and Product Promotions
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'The boldest of English women writers' Lorna Sage 'Her writing is pyrotechnic -- fuelled with ideas, packed with images and spangling the night with her starry language' Observer
Book Description
In this, her second novel, (awarded the 1967 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize) Angela Carter's brilliant imagination and starting intensity of style explore and extend the nature and boundaries of love.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
The summer she was fifteen, Melanie discovered she was made of flesh and blood. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
The summer she was fifteen, Melanie discovered she was made of flesh and blood. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Angela Carter was a master of really weird magical realism. Her second book "The Magic Toyshop," is basically a forcible coming of age/first love story, wrapped in a fairy-tale ambience and exquisitely detailed writing, but it's hard not to be frustrated by the abrupt, bizarre finale.
Melanie and her two siblings are suddenly orphaned, and whisked away from the beautiful country house and idyllic life they've always known. Soon they're living in a slummy area of the city, with their brutish toymaker Uncle Philip, wraithlike mute Aunt Margaret, and her two brothers, in a house that is crammed with the magnificent toys that Uncle Philip creates.
Melanie finds herself increasingly drawn to her aunt's brother Finn, a feisty Irish boy who hides an artistic soul and a punk attitude -- and he and Philip are locked in a silent war. As the family tensions come to a climax, Melanie learns of a dark secret that Aunt Margaret is hiding, and which can only end in a horrific tragedy.
"The Magic Toyshop's" title would make you think that it's about... well, the toys, or the toymaker. Instead, it's all about Melanie's maturation into a young woman, and how she leaves her childhood behind. Unfortunately it starts to stagger toward the finale, as if Carter didn't know how to deal with all this stuff.
What makes this novel so intoxicating is the lush writing. Carter fills her prose with a ripe sensuality, rich in colours, sensations, feelings and impressions (such as the horrifying attack by a swan puppet, a la Leda). And she accurately captures a young girl's dreams and exploration, such as Melanie posing before a mirror, pretending to be a classic artist's model.
Unfortunately, the plot goes downhill in the last lap -- the shocking revelation is shocking mainly because it was never hinted at. And the ending feels tacked on, as if she just had to find SOME way of ending the plot quickly and took the most flamboyant one. It's also incredibly depressing and unsatisfying.
The characters are also unevenly portrayed -- Melanie and Finn are compelling as the young future lovers, one romantic and disgusted by the place she now finds herself, and the other a tough, kindly urchin. The other characters are rather underdeveloped -- Melanie's brother and sister are basically props, Finn's older brother is a shadow, and Philip is an ogre.
"The Magic Toyshop" is an exquisitely written novel, with a likably real teenage heroine, but marred by a contrived ending. Definitely worth a read, but not Carter at her best.
Melanie and her two siblings are suddenly orphaned, and whisked away from the beautiful country house and idyllic life they've always known. Soon they're living in a slummy area of the city, with their brutish toymaker Uncle Philip, wraithlike mute Aunt Margaret, and her two brothers, in a house that is crammed with the magnificent toys that Uncle Philip creates.
Melanie finds herself increasingly drawn to her aunt's brother Finn, a feisty Irish boy who hides an artistic soul and a punk attitude -- and he and Philip are locked in a silent war. As the family tensions come to a climax, Melanie learns of a dark secret that Aunt Margaret is hiding, and which can only end in a horrific tragedy.
"The Magic Toyshop's" title would make you think that it's about... well, the toys, or the toymaker. Instead, it's all about Melanie's maturation into a young woman, and how she leaves her childhood behind. Unfortunately it starts to stagger toward the finale, as if Carter didn't know how to deal with all this stuff.
What makes this novel so intoxicating is the lush writing. Carter fills her prose with a ripe sensuality, rich in colours, sensations, feelings and impressions (such as the horrifying attack by a swan puppet, a la Leda). And she accurately captures a young girl's dreams and exploration, such as Melanie posing before a mirror, pretending to be a classic artist's model.
Unfortunately, the plot goes downhill in the last lap -- the shocking revelation is shocking mainly because it was never hinted at. And the ending feels tacked on, as if she just had to find SOME way of ending the plot quickly and took the most flamboyant one. It's also incredibly depressing and unsatisfying.
The characters are also unevenly portrayed -- Melanie and Finn are compelling as the young future lovers, one romantic and disgusted by the place she now finds herself, and the other a tough, kindly urchin. The other characters are rather underdeveloped -- Melanie's brother and sister are basically props, Finn's older brother is a shadow, and Philip is an ogre.
"The Magic Toyshop" is an exquisitely written novel, with a likably real teenage heroine, but marred by a contrived ending. Definitely worth a read, but not Carter at her best.
33 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I finished The Magic Toyshop in one day (it's the type you just can't put down), and I can only say it is a brilliant book. On first reading, it's an engaging and captivating tale, but on reflection the multi-layered symbolism becomes apparent. It is a book which stays with you, and actually makes you think. I highly recommended it.
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I discovered Angela Carter with 'The Bloody Chamber'. This one 'The Magic Toyshop' is even better. The first chapter drags a little but after that I just couldn't put it down. The further on you read the more fixed on the story you are. Angela Carter is totally addictive!
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
A really worthwhile read
Carter writes fantastically here- devoid of the pretentious musings of "The Bloody Chamber", the narrative in this novel is a pleasure- flowing quietly and patiently, with... Read more
Published 14 months ago by oneleggedpig
Stunning Descriptive Powers
This is one of the most beautifully written books I have ever read. Angela Carter's powers of descriptiuon are immense. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Henry Winn
Realism with a dash of Fantasy
I read Angela Carter's The Magic Toyshop whilst on holiday and as I was not fully focused I had decided not to contribute a review to Amazon. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Herman Norford
Macabre and Magical
A coming of age tale with a twist - following the sudden death of her parents, our protagonist, Melanie, finds herself and her two younger siblings shunted off to stay with a... Read more
Published on 14 April 2010 by Lovely Treez
Magical
The Magic Toyshop is classic Angela Carter. This coming of age story of a Victorian girl who becomes a puppet is a striking allegory about the passage to womanhood. Read more
Published on 6 Mar 2010 by Oracle
Like magical realism? You'll love this!
This is not the sort of book I would usually pick up, however after studying Wise Children for the modern novel module in my English Literature A Level I decided to read another... Read more
Published on 1 Aug 2009 by L. N. Wright
Good but confusing
I read this novel in one night as it is extremelhy well written. At the end however, I felt slightly cheated, and then decided that this book should simply not be taken seriously... Read more
Published on 29 Dec 2008 by Tamara
Magic Realism and Angela Carter at their best
As far as I'm concerned this is Angela Carter's masterpiece. A very disturbing and sometimes strangely erotic, gothic fairytale set in a London toyshop. Read more
Published on 11 Dec 2008 by Nobody Famous
A Magic Novel
...and a novel that will win you over if you have a heart.
Carter uses 'magic realism' to great effect and this novel is heavy with it. Read more
Carter uses 'magic realism' to great effect and this novel is heavy with it. Read more
Published on 1 Nov 2008 by G. Lyon
Horrid text
I have read this book from a reader's point of view and an analytical point. This book is grossly grotesque in every sense. Read more
Published on 16 Sep 2008 by Himynameis
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
