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Top 10 books about circuses and spectacle | Elizabeth Macneal

These dazzling shows and their dark flipside have inspired novelists from Dickens to Angela Carter – and the true stories are no less outlandish, writes Elizabeth Macneal

The illusion. The tawdry glamour. The delicate balance between illusion and reality, a glittering spectacle and its dark underbelly. And above all, the wonder. It’s little surprise that novelists have been inspired by the circus since it first rolled into town, from Charles Dickens in Hard Times and The Old Curiosity Shop (“Dear, dear, what a place it looked, that Astley’s; with all the paint, gilding, and looking-glass”) to Angela Carter and her magnificent and bawdy invention, Sophie Fevvers.

Related: Circus of Wonders by Elizabeth Macneal review – atmospheric Victoriana

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