''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.'' Melanie walks in the midnight garden,
wearing her mother''s wedding dress; naked she climbs the apple tree
in the black of the moon. Omens of disaster, swiftly following,
transport Melanie from rural comfort to London, to the Magic
Toyshop. To the red-haired, dancing Finn, the gentle Francie, dumb
Aunt Margaret and Uncle Phillip. Francie plays curious night music,
Finn kisses fifteen-year-old Melanie in the mysterious ruins of the
pleasure gardens. Brooding over all is Uncle Philip: Uncle Philip,
with blank eyes the colour of wet newspaper, making puppets the
size of men, and clockwork roses. He loves his magic puppets, but
hates the love of man for woman, boy for girl, brother for
sister...In this, her second novel, awarded the 1967 John
Llewellyn Rhys Prize Angela Carter''s brilliant imagination and
starting intensity of style explore and extend the nature and
boundaries of love.
關於作者:
Angela Carter was born in 1940. One of Britain''s most original
and disturbing writers, she died in 1992.