Nights at the Circus

This is a bizarre but nonetheless a very imaginative and original work. Nights at the Circus was the penultimate novel of Angela's Carter's career, her longest, and the one that really brought her to public attention.

The story is set in 1899 and is split into three parts. The first part concerns American journalist interviewing the main protagonist Sophie Fevvers in her dressing room following a successful show, which she performs as aerialiste the 'Cockney Venus', and with her wings she dazzles the Victorian world - including Walser.

After telling Walser her backstory (born from an egg, left in a basket with a foster parent and raised under the Madame 'Nelson' in her brothel), the journalist decides to tag along with the circus for his story and learn more about Fevvers.

This is what makes up parts 2 and 3, and all sorts of chaotic and farcical hilarity ensues, as Walser joins the clown troupe, fights tigers and helps Mignon - the suffering spouse of 'the Ape-Man' - all under the management of circus master Colonel Kearney and the fortune-telling pet pig called Sybil.

There is a post-feminist idea running through this novel which rears its head most prominently at the novel's conclusion, which coincides with the turn of the century when 1899 becomes 1900. As the story nears its close, Fevvers begins to lose her wings and the blonde from her hair, laughing as she tells Walser he has been 'fooled' and the pair complete their romantic bond.

My interpretation of this is that Fevvers no longer needs her 'wings' - which had previously only ensured her use as something to exhibit for entertainment - now she has chosen her future for herself and to be with Walser. That this comes as the 20th Century dawns and women's suffrage looms on the horizon is no coincidence or accident and as, shortly before, Fevvers voices that she indeed never asked to be fostered, suggesting her lack of autonomy up till now.

The pacing of this book is strange because despite it being of a respectable length (350 pages) things happen very quickly, which can make it easy to miss things or lose track of what's going on. The vocabulary is colourful and the prose florid in such a way it can sometimes veer into being purple, but pairing it with the novel's setting - height of Empire, cusp of the Edwardian age, excess, luxury etc - thematically, it somewhat fits. Carter was also upfront about her "purple" prose in interviews and made no apologies for it; her background in writing variations of fairy tales also likely plays a part in her using this style.

Very inventive, fun, and full of meaning.