Angela Carter`s classic The Magic Toyshop is a story of discovery, dramatic growth and sexual awakening. Melanie ventures in the midnight garden wearing her mother`s wedding dress; having closed herself out of the house, she climbs the apple tree in front of her window in the black of the moon, naked, in an attempt to go back to her room. Omens of disaster swiftly follow, transporting Melanie from rural comfort to London, to her uncle`s mysterious Toyshop.A story that uses magic, myth and constant reference to fairy tales to drags you into a dark enchanted London, where everything seems to governed by fear, lust and danger. A London that is smoky, dichensian and truce, populated by her Uncle Phillips` uncannily life-sized puppets and by darkness, which surrounds all things and eats away their colours. Angela Carter`s writing is pyrotechnic, fuelled with ideas, packed with images and spangling the night with her starry language. and The Magic Toyshop established her as one of the most imaginative and original writers of the twentieth century.