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Wise Children (Vintage Classics)
 
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Wise Children (Vintage Classics) (Paperback)

by Angela Carter (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
Price: £4.79 & eligible for Free UK delivery on orders over £5 with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Frequently Bought Together

Wise Children (Vintage Classics) + Nights at the Circus + The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
Price For All Three: £14.77

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Product details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage Classics; New edition edition (3 Jan 1998)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0099981106
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099981107
  • Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 1.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 4,451 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

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"

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.

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Wise Children (Vintage Classics)
91% buy the item featured on this page:
Wise Children (Vintage Classics) 3.8 out of 5 stars (32)
£4.79
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
3% buy
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories 4.4 out of 5 stars (16)
£4.79
Angela Carter's Book of Fairy Tales
2% buy
Angela Carter's Book of Fairy Tales 5.0 out of 5 stars (3)
£9.09
Nights at the Circus
2% buy
Nights at the Circus 4.4 out of 5 stars (13)
£5.19
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Customer Reviews

32 Reviews
5 star:
 (14)
4 star:
 (8)
3 star:
 (4)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
 (5)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (32 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful, complex, funny work of art., 20 Jul 1999
By A Customer
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.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A love or hate sort of book, 10 Nov 2006
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.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Just a bawdy romp?, 31 Oct 2001
By A Customer
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.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars This was bought for a present but the person who I bought it fo really enjoyed it
this was bought for a present but the person I bought it for really enjoyed it.
Published 2 months ago by Mrs. Patricia smith

2.0 out of 5 stars Too clever by half . . .
So replete with Shakespearian references is this book, I've no doubt a knowledge of the great bard's work would make this a completely different read. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Lifelongdagger

5.0 out of 5 stars Wise Children - Angela Carter
I'd not have thought I'd read anything better by Angela Carter than The Magic Toyshop, but here it is, in the shape of this remarkable novel. Read more
Published 5 months ago by RachelWalker

5.0 out of 5 stars go with the flow
A friend gave me this to read, i'd never read any angela carter but felt that i should. I'm so glad I read this, you need to suspend your disbelief at the beginning and just flow... Read more
Published 5 months ago by jo

5.0 out of 5 stars My favourite Angela Carter book
If you've always fancied reading an Angela Carter book - try this first. It's funny, beautifully written and a joy from start to finish.
Published 8 months ago by Jenny

4.0 out of 5 stars Great fun
Wise Children is a bawdy, hilarious romp through the history of the Hazard family. The irrepressible narrator, Dora Chance, one of identical twins and half of the Lucky Chances,... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Ingaborga

4.0 out of 5 stars "It's every woman's tragedy that after a certain age, she looks like female impersonator."
Originally published in 1991 and newly released in paperback, this final novel by Angela Carter (1940 - 1992) is a riotous, non-stop farce, as filled with twists, turns,... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Mary Whipple

1.0 out of 5 stars A sick, unintresting and overall a poor book
At time now of having to read through it for my English Lit A-level exam in January, and i have to say at first by the sounds of it i thought it would be boring, and well my... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Angela Carter Brrrlgh

1.0 out of 5 stars A book you should avoid.
Along with thousands of others, i was forced into the arduous task of wading through this mess of a book at A-level English Literature. Read more
Published 19 months ago by TheEmperor

5.0 out of 5 stars Best read for pure pleasure.
A beautiful, charming book. Angela Carter gently takes you on an exquisite journey into the nature of human desires and familial relationships.
Published on 4 April 2007 by Happy_Cloud

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