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Home > Books > Fiction > Romance Books > W Romance Books > Wise Children - Angela Carter

User Reviews

for Wise Children - Angela Carter

Rating Summary based on 9 reviews

  • 5 Stars
    		3
  • 4 Stars
    		3
  • 3 Stars
    		3
  • 2 Stars
    		0
  • 1 Star
    		0

Detailed rating

  • Characters
  • How does it compare to other works by the same author?
  • How does it compare to similar books?
  • Readability
  • Story
  		• 4.7
  		• 1.4
  		• 3.7
  		• 4.4
  		• 4.4
Previous page Next page Page 1 of 1 | 1 to 9 out of 9 Review(s)
  • 31 of 31 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of No_name

    No_name

    5 Stars Not only for the wise 19/10/2005
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages A joyful celebreation of life

    Disadvantages Disadvantages It ends...

    Wise Children, like all Angela Carter's novels, is very, very, very hard to quantify. The novel itself is a minefield of clichés, stock characters and contrived situations waiting to happen. My point being: this never happens. Ever. Not at all. This does not seem possible. Contextualisation: knowing the name and not much else I picked up the novel second hand, having read the first few pages in the shop. I was enjoying it but there was the niggling thought in the back of my mind: this book could get annoying. But I knew it would take 30 or forty pages to find out and so what was there to lose ... more
  • 46 of 46 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of sakura42

    sakura42

    3 Stars Wise children read this book (run out of puns) 16/08/2006
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages Funny, scandalous, happy ending

    Disadvantages Disadvantages Structure leaves a lot to be desired - you might get lost

    I bought this book '3 for £1' from a charity shop having only vaguely heard of Angela Carter, but when faced with a bunch of books I have no idea how to choose from, I usually go for the prettiest cover, or the author with the nicest name. In this case, having found 2 books, and faced with a shelf of unknown authors, I went with the one who shared a name with my mother. Awh. The Author Wise Children was Angela Carter's last novel before she died of cancer, aged 51. It is full of references to the works of Shakespeare that surrounded her childhood, introduced by her mother, and the Hollywood ... more
  • 12 of 13 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of BeckieWolf

    BeckieWolf

    3 Stars Wise Children by Angela Carter 27/08/2007
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages A Colourful, vibrant, rich novel

    Disadvantages Disadvantages the author's lack of moral conduct

    Angela Carter's Wise Children is the life story of show businesses Chance Sisters. Dora Chance, twin sister of Nora, narrates throughout the story. She tells their colourful life tale upon the commencement of the twin's seventy- fifth birthdays. The story is set mainly in England. The twins spend a great deal of their lives based at their childhood home in Brixton, South London. I think Angela Chance has chosen this setting to exaggerate and highlight the twin's illegitimacy. The North and South divide of social London were very clear at the time of the books setting. The "Right side of the ... more
  • 16 of 16 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of lisaleahjack

    lisaleahjack

    5 Stars Pick up and don't put down! 28/10/2004
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages Funny, heart felt, sad and entertaining!

    Disadvantages Disadvantages Not one!

    This is the first novel by Angela Carter that I have read and I will certainly be reading more! Having found this book when I moved house it sat on my bookcase until I was thoroughly bored and itching for print! From the first paragraph I was hooked and can honestly say that I did not put this book down from start to finish, much to the annoyance of my kids and boyfriend! The story is a journey through the lives of illegitmate twins Dora and Leonora Chance, beginning on the morning of their 75th birthday. The book is not in chronological order and jumps through various stages of their lives ... more
  • 11 of 11 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of aimzxx

    aimzxx

    4 Stars a novel to love 23/10/2007
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages great ensight to carters own veiws

    Disadvantages Disadvantages changing of time fames can be quite heavy

    Angela Carters narrative Wise Children novels explores many themes and expresses many of her veiws. It is clear through her writting that she was a feminst thgouh the dominance of the male characters. Without giving away the novels main theme, the text explores, carnivalesque, magic realism, feminism, illegitimacy and legitimacy and the decline of the british empire through the characters. It amazes me hoe Carter can express so much in so little pages! The novel is written in so much depth and there is so much to be analysed from the text, that it gives the reader so much detail about Carter ... more
  • 25 of 26 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of warandpeace

    Level 4 warandpeace

    Member since 23/08/2006

    Reviews written: 83

    4 Stars The curse of the set text 11/01/2007
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages Has the odd enjoyable moment

    Disadvantages Disadvantages Sometimes seems to be written with the intent of being a set text

    I have to be honest with you if I had just picked this book up off the shelf and read it I would almost certainly have enjoyed it far more than I did. This is alas the course of A level English, or at least in my opinion, that by the end of the course you will almost certainly hate the set text. However the book itself is an interesting one, and an odd concept, the novel is narrated by Dora Chance and seems a kind of mish mash, of autobiography, family history, and a recount of current events. As well as covering Nora and Dora Chance on their Birthday itself, it also goes into detail about the ... more
  • 11 of 21 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of quiche_nufc

    quiche_nufc

    3 Stars twists and turns 18/12/2007
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages great plot

    Disadvantages Disadvantages confusing

    This book can be very confusing at first glance although when you have read the whole book everything ties to an end and all makes sense. the main plot of illigetimacy is very cleever indeed. and the way that carter presents the characters is very clever. i certinaly enjoyed this book and would read it again. the plot focuses on a fmaily life which you can compare to your own and see that things are not so complicated. it is a good book to get into and you won't want to put it down. The story has some very emotional parts to it and you are made to feel very sorry for them with carters style of ... more
  • 0 of 8 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of gbninet

    gbninet

    5 Stars Wise Children By Angela Carter 10/06/2008
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages Everything, all outstanding!

    Disadvantages Disadvantages Eventually, like everything else. It comes to an end.

    One of the best books I have read! I still re-read it again and again when bored. I studied this book for my English literature AS levels with the majority of the class enjoying the book as much as I did. Yes I am a male and this book will be moreover seen to be targeted towards the women. However, personally as a student with many other males in the classroom it proved that the male's would enjoy this as much as the females. The novel starts of with two twins waking up on their 75th birthday, and well... the rest is for you to find out out! I won't spoil the novel for you guys! Angela ... more
  • 0 of 16 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of d4u04

    d4u04

    4 Stars Wise Children 07/12/2004
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages warm, entertaining, ammusing

    Disadvantages Disadvantages confusing

    this is the first book i have read by Angela carter and didn't quite know what to make of it, it catches you by surprise because the way its set out, like a play, when main character Dora introduces herself in a conversational way, she and twin Nora take us through a highly ammusing detailed recollection of their long lives, starting with their birthday (75 today!) they take us back in time and introduce all their aquantances, many now dead, the book reads like a soap opera with enough material to keep coronation street in business for another 40 years! the only problem with this otherwise ... more
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