Book: Paperback | 5.15 x 7.71in | 224 pages | ISBN 9780140235197 | 04 Mar 1986 | Penguin | 18 - AND UP
A reluctant knight errant. A beguiling princess. A magician of truly godlike powers. And a picaresque adventure tale that only Anglea Carter could tell.
The transformation of Desiderio's city into a mysterious kingdom is instantaneous: Hallucination flows with magical speed in every brain; avenues and plazas are suddenly as fertile as fairy-book forests. And the evil comes, too, as imaginary massacres fill the streets with blood, the dead return to question the living, and profound anxiety drives hundreds to suicide.
Behind it all stands Doctor Hoffman, whose gigantic generators crack the immutable surfaces of time and space and plunge civilization into a world without the chains – or structures – of reason. Only Desiderio, immune to mirages and fantasy, can defeat him. But Desiderio's battle will take him to the very brink of undeniable, irresistible desire.
The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman
Introduction
1. The City Under Siege
2. The Mansion of Midnight
3. The River People
4. The Acrobats of Desire
5. The Erotic Traveller
6. The Coast of Africa
7. Lost in Nebulous Time
8. The Castle
"Angela Carter may well be the best British writer of her generation."
—Mirabella
"Combines exquisite craft win an apparently boundless reach."
—Ian McEwan
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