The Magic Toyshop (Student's Virago)

by Angela Carter

Carmen Callil (Introduction)

'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

'She can glide from ancient to modern, from darkness to luminosity, from depravity to comedy without any hint of strain and without losing the elusive power of the original tales' THE TIMES

'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.'

One night Melanie walks through the garden in her mother's wedding dress. The next morning her world is shattered. Forced to leave her rural home, she is sent to London to live with relatives she has never met: gentle Aunt Margaret, mute since her wedding day; and her brothers, Francie, whose graceful music belies his clumsy nature, and the volatile Finn. Brooding over all is Uncle Philip, who loves only the puppets he creates in his workshop, which are life-sized - and uncannily lifelike.

• ISBN10: 1844085236
• ISBN13: 9781844085231
• Publish Date: 3 July 2008 (first published December 1967)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
• Imprint: Virago Press Ltd
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 240
• Language: English

Reviews

[celinenyx]

This review should be prefaced with the statement that I know absolutely nothing about the author Angela Carter, nor anything about the context in which this was published. I came across The Magic Toyshop because it was recommended to me by a guy when I went book-swapping at a university event. He said it was good. I gave it a shot, completely blind - a rare thing for me nowadays.

Melanie lives a comfortable life with her parents, her nurse, and her two siblings. One night, she pulls on her mother's wedding dress and wanders through the garden. This event is the beginning of a series of events Melanie sees as her expulsion from Eden.

The Magic Toyshop is a story of a budding sexuality, of growing up, and of sexual sin. The imagery is occasionally heavily biblical; motifs include Eve's seduction and Noah's arc. Truth be told, I have very little knowledge of the bible and its mythology. As such, the nuances of this story and its implications for Melanie's sexuality went past me. I could only read it at its surface, and there was little enjoyment for me there. The synopsis on the back of the book practically covers the entire book, leaving little to the imagination of what direction the story will take. Melanie lives in an imagined world of extremes yet of little emotion. A great book to study, I'm sure - not a particularly nice one to read.

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Trigger warnings: incest between siblings, sexual assault of a minor by someone who is described as her future lover, severe emotional and physical abuse, references to and intended rape.