
The Magic Toyshop
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $25.52
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Fiona Shaw
-
By:
-
Angela Carter
About this listen
This Audible Exclusive adaptation of Angela Carter's The Magic Toyshop, is brought expertly to life by multi-award winning actress, Fiona Shaw.
A coming of age tale which extends the nature and boundaries of love, as seen through the eyes of the youthful and naïve Melanie, The Magic Toyshop was enormously successful and cemented Angela Carter's status as one of England's greatest and most daring writers.
About the book
'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.'
When tragedy strikes, young Melanie and her two siblings are forced to abandon their family home and sent to live in London with their aunt Margaret, a kindly and beautiful mute, and their abusive and highly manipulative uncle, Philip.
Standing on the cusp of womanhood and threatened by her perilous new surroundings, this classic gothic novel follows Melanie as she interacts with a host of colourful characters and becomes increasingly aware of her own morality and sexuality.
About the author
Angela Carter was born in 1940, in Sussex. She grew up in the shabbily respectable south London district of Balham, the second child of an eccentric journalist father and a neurotic housewife mother.
She studied English at Bristol University before travelling extensively, teaching and writing numerous best-selling novels. They have all received considerable critical acclaim and remain firm favourites of modern English literature.
Angela was a devout feminist throughout her life, wrote for Spare Rib magazine and voted Labour. Her novels are wholly reflective of her world views and continue to inspire new generations of men and women worldwide.
About the narrator
Fiona Shaw, CBE, is an Irish actress and opera director, best known for her role as Petunia Dursley in the Harry Potter films.
Having graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Fiona has worked extensively with the Royal Shakespeare Company, as well as the National Theatre. Her most memorable stage credits include The Taming of the Shrew, Hedda Gabler, Medea, As You Like It and Les Liaisons Dangereuses. She has twice been awarded the prestigious Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress for her performances in Electra and Machinal.
©1967 Angela Carter (P)2018 Audible, LtdListeners also enjoyed...
-
Kafka on the Shore
- By: Haruki Murakami
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett, Oliver Le Sueur
- Length: 19 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami gives us a novel every bit as ambitious and expansive as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which has been acclaimed both here and around the world for its uncommon ambition and achievement, and whose still-growing popularity suggests that it will be read and admired for decades to come.
-
-
What's better than Murakami? More Murakami
- By Dr. Curmudgeon on 04-11-14
By: Haruki Murakami
-
Nights at the Circus
- By: Angela Carter
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This Audible Exclusive recording of Angela Carter's iconic novel, Nights at the Circus, is brought to you by celebrated actress and voice artist, Adjoa Andoh. It is described by Carter herself as a 'psychedelic Dickens.' A compelling and thought provoking novel which heralds a new age, we're introduced to the unique and mesmerizing character of Sophi Fevvers and her illustrious wings....
-
-
acid trip
- By Adrienne Lewis on 04-19-21
By: Angela Carter
-
Wise Children
- By: Angela Carter
- Narrated by: Tracey Ullman
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Angela Carter's last book, Wise Children, was written and published whilst she was dying from cancer, in 1991. Transcending her physical deterioration in admirable fashion, Carter made this a most life-affirming novel, in support of the vitality of 'otherness.' This Audible exclusive production, expertly read by Tracey Ullman, stands in celebration of a legendary author known for the richness of her imagination, wit and feminist insight.
-
-
Brilliant
- By Anonymous User on 10-15-20
By: Angela Carter
-
Shadow Dance
- By: Angela Carter
- Narrated by: Kris Dyer
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
'The scar drew her whole face sideways, and even in profile, with the hideous thing turned away, her face was horribly lopsided, skin, features and all, dragged away from the bone. She was a beautiful girl, a white and golden girl, like moonlight on daisies, a month ago.' And yet the men still hover around her, more out of curiosity than lust, and none more so than the wildly seductive, dangerous funny man Honeybuzzard; lithe as a stick of liquorice, he is the demonic puppet master at the swirling centre of the tale.
By: Angela Carter
-
The Passion of New Eve
- By: Angela Carter
- Narrated by: Piers Hampton
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
I know nothing. I am a tabula rasa, a blank sheet of paper, an unhatched egg. I have not yet become a woman, although I possess a woman's shape. Not a woman, no: both more and less than a real woman. Now I am a being as mythic and monstrous as Mother herself.... New York has become the City of Dreadful Night where dissolute Leilah performs a dance of chaos for Evelyn.
-
-
Excellent
- By Robin H. on 01-29-20
By: Angela Carter
-
Fireworks
- By: Angela Carter
- Narrated by: Clare Corbett, Toby Longworth
- Length: 3 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
'I started to write short pieces when I was living in a room too small to write a novel in.' So says Angela Carter of this collection, written during a period living in Toyko. These exotic, sensuous stories represent Carter's first major achievement in the short story form. Lush imaginary forests, a murderous puppet show and an expressionistic vision of Japan: each one instantly conjures an atmosphere, dark and luminous in turn, and from the recognisably daring imagination of one of the great 20th-century stylists.
-
-
Brilliant short story collection, but they are not titles in the chapter list
- By cristobal on 05-16-24
By: Angela Carter
-
Kafka on the Shore
- By: Haruki Murakami
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett, Oliver Le Sueur
- Length: 19 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami gives us a novel every bit as ambitious and expansive as The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which has been acclaimed both here and around the world for its uncommon ambition and achievement, and whose still-growing popularity suggests that it will be read and admired for decades to come.
-
-
What's better than Murakami? More Murakami
- By Dr. Curmudgeon on 04-11-14
By: Haruki Murakami
-
Nights at the Circus
- By: Angela Carter
- Narrated by: Adjoa Andoh
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This Audible Exclusive recording of Angela Carter's iconic novel, Nights at the Circus, is brought to you by celebrated actress and voice artist, Adjoa Andoh. It is described by Carter herself as a 'psychedelic Dickens.' A compelling and thought provoking novel which heralds a new age, we're introduced to the unique and mesmerizing character of Sophi Fevvers and her illustrious wings....
-
-
acid trip
- By Adrienne Lewis on 04-19-21
By: Angela Carter
-
Wise Children
- By: Angela Carter
- Narrated by: Tracey Ullman
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Angela Carter's last book, Wise Children, was written and published whilst she was dying from cancer, in 1991. Transcending her physical deterioration in admirable fashion, Carter made this a most life-affirming novel, in support of the vitality of 'otherness.' This Audible exclusive production, expertly read by Tracey Ullman, stands in celebration of a legendary author known for the richness of her imagination, wit and feminist insight.
-
-
Brilliant
- By Anonymous User on 10-15-20
By: Angela Carter
-
Shadow Dance
- By: Angela Carter
- Narrated by: Kris Dyer
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
'The scar drew her whole face sideways, and even in profile, with the hideous thing turned away, her face was horribly lopsided, skin, features and all, dragged away from the bone. She was a beautiful girl, a white and golden girl, like moonlight on daisies, a month ago.' And yet the men still hover around her, more out of curiosity than lust, and none more so than the wildly seductive, dangerous funny man Honeybuzzard; lithe as a stick of liquorice, he is the demonic puppet master at the swirling centre of the tale.
By: Angela Carter
-
The Passion of New Eve
- By: Angela Carter
- Narrated by: Piers Hampton
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
I know nothing. I am a tabula rasa, a blank sheet of paper, an unhatched egg. I have not yet become a woman, although I possess a woman's shape. Not a woman, no: both more and less than a real woman. Now I am a being as mythic and monstrous as Mother herself.... New York has become the City of Dreadful Night where dissolute Leilah performs a dance of chaos for Evelyn.
-
-
Excellent
- By Robin H. on 01-29-20
By: Angela Carter
-
Fireworks
- By: Angela Carter
- Narrated by: Clare Corbett, Toby Longworth
- Length: 3 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
'I started to write short pieces when I was living in a room too small to write a novel in.' So says Angela Carter of this collection, written during a period living in Toyko. These exotic, sensuous stories represent Carter's first major achievement in the short story form. Lush imaginary forests, a murderous puppet show and an expressionistic vision of Japan: each one instantly conjures an atmosphere, dark and luminous in turn, and from the recognisably daring imagination of one of the great 20th-century stylists.
-
-
Brilliant short story collection, but they are not titles in the chapter list
- By cristobal on 05-16-24
By: Angela Carter
-
Black Venus
- By: Angela Carter
- Narrated by: Clare Corbett, Toby Longworth
- Length: 4 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Extraordinary and diverse people inhabit this rich, ripe, occasionally raucous collection of short stories. Some are based on real people - Jeanne Duval, Baudelaire's handsome and reluctant muse who never asked to be called the Black Venus, trapped in the terminal ennui of the poet's passion, snatching at a little lifesaving respectability against all odds....
-
-
Brilliant book, BUT they don’t name the short stories in the chapter list
- By cristobal on 05-16-24
By: Angela Carter
-
Shaking a Leg
- By: Angela Carter
- Narrated by: Antonia Beamish
- Length: 34 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Listening to Shaking a Leg is like spending time with the funniest, wisest friend you've ever had - a person whose breadth of interest ranges from food to feminism to science fiction and everything in between. Bursting with ideas, culturally astute and sparklingly witty, this comprehensive volume of Angela Carter's journalism is the most down-to-earth and entertaining companion to latter 20th-century thought you'll ever need.
By: Angela Carter
-
As I Lay Dying
- By: William Faulkner, Jesmyn Ward - introduction
- Narrated by: Marc Cashman, Robertson Dean, Lina Patel, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of William Faulkner’s finest novels, As I Lay Dying, originally published in 1930, remains a captivating and stylistically innovative work. The story revolves around a grim yet darkly humorous pilgrimage, as Addie Bundren’s family sets out to fulfill her last wish: to be buried in her native Jefferson, Mississippi, far from the miserable backwater surroundings of her married life.
-
-
Faulkner's As I Lay Dying review
- By Kristina on 11-12-08
By: William Faulkner, and others
-
The End of the Affair
- By: Graham Greene
- Narrated by: Colin Firth
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Graham Greene’s evocative analysis of the love of self, the love of another, and the love of God is an English classic that has been translated for the stage, the screen, and even the opera house. Academy Award-winning actor Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, A Single Man) turns in an authentic and stirring performance for this distinguished audio release.
-
-
Colin Firth Kills It
- By Em on 05-09-12
By: Graham Greene
-
Midnight Riot
- Rivers of London, Book 1
- By: Ben Aaronovitch
- Narrated by: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Probationary constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London's Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he'll face is a paper cut. But Peter's prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter's ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale....
-
-
I LOVE this Book!
- By Nancy J on 02-26-13
By: Ben Aaronovitch
-
Brideshead Revisited
- By: Evelyn Waugh
- Narrated by: Jeremy Irons
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Evelyn Waugh's most celebrated work is a memory drama about the intense entanglement of the narrator, Charles Ryder, with a great Anglo-Catholic family. Written during World War II, the story mourns the passing of the aristocratic world Waugh knew in his youth and vividly recalls the sensuous pleasures denied him by wartime austerities; in so doing it also provides a profound study of the conflict between the demands of religion and the desires of the flesh.
-
-
Extraordinary
- By Vieux Carré Blonde on 12-12-12
By: Evelyn Waugh
-
Haroun and the Sea of Stories
- By: Salman Rushdie
- Narrated by: Neil Shah
- Length: 4 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Discover Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Salman Rushdie's classic fantasy novel. Set in an exotic eastern landscape peopled by magicians and fantastic talking animals, Salman Rushdie's classic children's novel Haroun and the Sea of Stories inhabits the same imaginative space as The Lord of the Rings, The Alchemist, and The Wizard of Oz.
-
-
Great story and great story teller
- By marce on 05-22-18
By: Salman Rushdie
-
Excellent Women
- By: Barbara Pym
- Narrated by: Jayne Entwistle
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mildred Lathbury is a clergyman's daughter and a mild-mannered spinster in 1950s England. She is one of those excellent women - the smart, supportive, repressed women whom men take for granted. As Mildred gets embroiled in the lives of her new neighbors - anthropologist Helena Napier; Helen's handsome, dashing husband, Rocky; and Julian Malory, the vicar next door - the novel presents a series of snapshots of human life as actually, and pluckily, lived.
-
-
Still Waters Run Deep
- By Sara on 04-13-16
By: Barbara Pym
-
Thistlefoot
- A Novel
- By: GennaRose Nethercott
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 14 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Yaga siblings—Bellatine, a young woodworker, and Isaac, a wayfaring street performer and con artist—have been estranged since childhood, separated both by resentment and by wide miles of American highway. But when they learn that they are to receive an inheritance, the siblings agree to meet—only to discover that their bequest isn’t land or money, but something far stranger: a sentient house on chicken legs.
-
-
I can't decide if I liked it
- By Lorraine Cannon on 11-03-22
-
Interior Chinatown
- A Novel
- By: Charles Yu
- Narrated by: Joel de la Fuente
- Length: 4 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Willis Wu doesn’t perceive himself as a protagonist even in his own life: He’s merely Generic Asian man. Sometimes he gets to be Background Oriental Making a Weird Face or even Disgraced Son, but he is always relegated to a prop. Yet every day he leaves his tiny room in a Chinatown SRO and enters the Golden Palace restaurant, where Black and White, a procedural cop show, is in perpetual production. He’s a bit player here, too, but he dreams of being Kung Fu Guy - the most respected role that anyone who looks like him can attain. At least that’s what he has been told.
-
-
Kong Fu Guy
- By JCY on 01-30-20
By: Charles Yu
-
Piranesi
- By: Susanna Clarke
- Narrated by: Chiwetel Ejiofor
- Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Piranesi lives in the House. Perhaps he always has. In his notebooks, day after day, he makes a clear and careful record of its wonders: the labyrinth of halls, the thousands upon thousands of statues, the tides that thunder up staircases, the clouds that move in slow procession through the upper halls. On Tuesdays and Fridays Piranesi sees his friend, the Other. At other times he brings tributes of food to the Dead. But mostly, he is alone.
-
-
Fascinating Social Study
- By Henry V on 02-26-21
By: Susanna Clarke
-
The Wine Dark Sea
- By: Robert Aickman
- Narrated by: Reece Shearsmith
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First published in the US in 1988 and in the UK in 1990, The Wine-Dark Sea contains eight unsettling stories that explore protagonists' fears and desires, at once illogical and terrifying, and culminate in a disturbing and enigmatic ending. Aickman's "strange stories" (his preferred term for them) are a subtle exploration of psychological displacement and paranoia; his characters ordinary people that are gradually drawn into the darker recesses of their own minds. For fans of the horror genre, Robert Aickman is a must read.
-
-
Not for me
- By Susie on 01-26-23
By: Robert Aickman
What listeners say about The Magic Toyshop
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Patrick Zircher
- 06-12-24
Great reading by Fiona Shaw.
Orphaned Melanie, and her siblings, are forced to live with her mad Uncle Philip, a puppet master/toymaker, and his adoptees.
Carter writes like a fiend. She's also frank, honest, provocative--and breaks taboos that will make some readers uncomfortable.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Cate F.
- 05-14-24
Magical
How have I lived so long without reading a book by Angela Carter? Looking forward to devouring more of her writing.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!