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Introduction

Wise Children (1991) was the last novel written by Angela Carter.^[1] The novel follows the fortunes of twin chorus girls, Dora and Nora Chance,^[2] and their bizarre theatrical family. It explores the subversive nature of fatherhood, the denying of which leads Nora and Dora to frivolous "illegitimate" lechery. The novel plays on Carter's admiration of Shakespeare and her love of fairy tales and the surreal, incorporating a large amount of magical realism and elements of the carnivalesque that probes and twists our expectations of reality and society.