Nights at the Circus is a magical realist novel by English writer Angela Carter. It was first published 1984 and was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction that same year. The novel was the first of Carter's to receive both critical and popular acclaim. Though criticized by some second-wave feminists for its radical politics and post-modern treatment of women's liberation, Nights at the Circus has been embraced as a seminal text by many contemporary feminist scholars and writers for precisely the same reasons. Nights at the Circus has also been adapted into a successful stage play.
Key Aspects of Nights at the Circus
Tone
Mysterious, folkloric, tender, wistful,...
