Uncorrected Proof Copy.

CARTER, Angela ~ Wise Children. Signed by the author.

UNCORRECTED PROOF. Chatto & Windus, London: 1991.

8vo., soft card wraps with photograph in purple to upper cover; THE BOOK with some scuff marks to edges and one scratch to upper cover; else a clean, near-fine copy. The book is protected in a removable Brodart sleeve. Uncorrected proof, signed by the author to a 'Wise Children' bookplate affixed to p. [v]. With a provisional publication date of June 1991 printed to the lower cover. Carter was terminally ill when the book was published, passing away in February 1992 from lung cancer. Her final novel returns to themes present in many other aspects of her work - that of the surreal, the bizarre, and the magic. Strongly influenced by Shakespeare, she noted, in one interview at the time, that she wanted 'Wise Children' to "have a transparent prose that just ran, I wanted it to be very funny, and at the same time I wanted the complex ideas about paternity and the idea of Shakespeare as a cultural ideology." The plot follows two theatrical families, the Hazards and the Chances, as they battle mistaken identities, coincidences and romance. Covering the history of theatre over the last century, 'Wise Children' remains a humorous if somewhat overwhelming work, with some 40 characters contained within its 232 pages. "There was nothing so stuffy as the lives of small-time theatricals, in those days, and south London was a ghetto of chorus girls and boys...girls with big thighs in tights and men in crepe hair signed with Xs galore and framed colour reproductions on the walls of scenes depicting red-nosed monks eating big meals of venison and boar..." Proof copies are scarce.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Near Fine