Wise Children

Angela Carter

Language: English

Publisher: Penguin

Published: Jan 1, 1991

Description:

A richly comic tale of the tangled fortunes of two theatrical families, the Hazards and the Chances, Angela Carter's witty and bawdy 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.

**

From Publishers Weekly

Carter, who died this year, delivers comic writing of the highest order in this giddy tale of a highly eccentric British theatrical family.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

On their 75th birthday, we meet Dora and Nora Chance, former dancers and illegitimate twin daughters of one of Britain's leading theatrical actors. They relate their colorful and amusing family history as the novel unfolds, describing their often strained relations with the legitimate branch of the family. Carter writes in a dry, comic, British style reminiscent of Fay Weldon. There is a good deal of theater chatter and a raucous Hollywood tour the girls undertake with father Melchior and his twin, Uncle Peregrine. Still, while there is much imaginative fun, the insider humor may be too parochial for American tastes. Libraries can probably skip this one.
- Ann H. Fisher, Radford P.L., Va.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.