Synopses & Reviews
Wise Children follows the fortunes of the Chance twins, Dora and Nora, taking in the story of their show business family the Hazards over the past century. Born illegitimately, spurned by their father Melchior and brought up by their landlady, Mrs Chance, Dora and Nora learn to dance, and begin to forge a career, "two girls pounding the boards". After the post-war decline of their careers they are reduced to performing in nude revues, while the latest generation of Hazards rise to fame as stars of television. Angela Carter's witty and bawdy new novel celebrates the magic of over a century of show business.
Review
"Dazzling....The culmination of Angela Carter's prolific and inventive career." Michiko Kakutami, The New York Times
Review
"[A]ll the world's a stage for Angela Carter's new novel, which bursts with the lusty ebullience of a Shakespeare comedy....Wise Cihldren is vintage Carter." The Village Voice
Review
"Carter has created her most exuberant entertainment, a slapstick family chronicle filled to overflowing with shiftless fathers, scheming (or long-suffering) mothers, fractious siblings, and fivecount 'em, fivesets of twins." Entertainment Weekly
Review
"Wise Children inhabits its own manic universe and would probably translate into a spirited, bawdy musical comedy-farce of the kind in which the Chance sisters themselves performed, long ago." Joyce Carol Oates, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"A fine, fierce, incandescent talent." Tom Adair, Scotland on Sunday
Review
"She was a great writer and a great feminist, and will be read for illumination and entertainment for many years to come." New Statesman
Synopsis
The bewitching last novel from the heralded Angela Carter a tale as bawdy, tender, unpredictable, and magical as its main characters, the song-and-dance twam of twin sisters, Dora and Nora Chance.
About the Author
Angela Carter (1940 -1992) wrote nine novels and numerous short stories, as well as nonfiction, radio plays, and the screenplay for Neil Jordan's 1984 movie The Company of Wolves, based on her story. She won numerous literary awards, traveled and taught widely in the United States, and lived in London.