Nights at the Circus

A strange, delightfully dark Gothic novel set in 1899, Nights At The Circus is the story of Sophie Fevvers, aerialiste extraordinaire and the toast of Europe. Fevvers is no ordinary woman though. She is part swan. Yes, she has wings. This is the premise of Carter's beguiling novel, which begins in London's theatres as the young American journalist, Jack Walser, interviews Fevvers and her foster mother/friend/protector Lizzie (who may or may not be a witch), before moving to Russia and a final act in the frozen wastes of Siberia.

Walser falls under her spell and, over the course of a long night, the three drink champagne and Walser hears the story of Fevvers life. Fevvers tells of her childhood amongst the houses of ill repute, where her wings make her a living statue, to be admired but not touched. There are dark fantastical elements at work here, but Carter makes her creation larger than life, a not necessarily likeable or beautiful woman, who nevertheless has a way of getting what she wants.

But Walser isn't sure he's got the whole story, so his editor persuades him to literally run away with the circus, to which Fevvers is contracted to travel across Europe, Russia and finally to Japan. He signs on as a clown and soon finds himself in St Petersburg embroiled in the waifs, strays and damaged souls of Colonel Kearney's circus. Here Carter's story reaches the likeness of a fever dream, with lugubrious clowns, violent strong men, psychic pigs (no, really), damaged young women and an air of dark magic. It is brilliantly written.

The final part of the novel moves our cast to Siberia, where their train is derailed and they find even more strangeness amongst the snowy wastes. Walser loses his memory and is adopted by the Shaman of a Mongolian tribe, Fevvers breaks a wing, characters lose seemingly everything and find.....themselves?

It's a wonderful novel, probably not to everyone's taste but well worth persevering with.

I guess you can't do a story about a circus or a carnival without it being weird, quirky, and a bit dangerous. This story has all those things. Also it's taking place in turn-of-the century Europe when life was much harder for everyone.

The main story is a romance between Fevver, a woman with swan wings, headliner of the circus and former orphaned ward of a whore house and Walser, journalist and war correspondent. He's looking for a less dangerous occupation; she loves to be a star.

There isn't a strong driving plot. Most of this is incidents or episodes that take place as the circus visits various cities in Europe. A lot of the content is backstory about the various members in the circus troupe.

Carter sets up overarching themes of feminism, mostly showing various women who are better off without the men in their lives. At one point, readers meet a prison full of women who have all poisoned their husbands and probably for good reason.

The lead character, though, suffers a breakdown of her ego and doubt in her ability to defend herself so I'm unclear how that fits into the overall feminist “women don't need men” themes. I do see that the same thing happens to her male counterpart who loses his dignity, his mind, and his identity before he is finished with the circus and ready to join Fevver in love and partnership.

There is a lot of humor and I found the backstories of the characters very engaging. The writing style is very dense, despite the deceptively short length. It's also a bit uneven. Each part of the book has a different style, from one character telling a story to another, to third-person omniscient, to first person.