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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN num: 9780140235197
ISBN number: 0140235191
Label: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 224
Printing Date: March 04, 1986
Publishing house: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Sale Popularity Level: 129558
Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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Rated by buyers 
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This is the second novel I've read by Angela Carter (the very first being The Magic Toyshop) and I have noticed that whenever she makes a reference to a person of Afrikan descent, it is always something negative, rude, or condescending. Carter isn't half the writer that AS Byatt is. Save your money and buy yourself some real literature.
Rated by buyers 
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My friend Susan introduced me to "Heros and Villians" by Angela Carter back when I was 17 or 18. I didn't quite know what to do it. I was still young enough that reading anything transgressive was both alluring and deeply embarrassing. The experience reminded me then of how I felt reading "Flowers in the Attic" when I was 12 -except the material was disquieting and powerful enough that I didn't rush out to read every Angela Carter book I could get my hands on. In fact, I didn't read anything by Carter till more than a decade later.
I read "The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman" while I was traveling alone in Eastern Europe. I ended up leaving my copy with a fellow traveler I met in Budapest. I think he and his girlfriend were Australian. In any case, they were such icons of the classic eco-friendly, organic eating, and occassional pot smoking back-packers I couldn't help myself. I wanted them to experience the imagery that was rich enough, lush enough, and dizzyingly enough to force some awe into their complacency.
Interestingly enough, when I read the Amazon reviews for "The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman," I was surprised by the comments about the book's explicit sexuality. I'm sure it's there, but I don't recall any of it other than the premise that Doctor Hoffman's machine was powered by the orgasms of coupling lovers. The artistry of Carter's language neutered the scenes of physical penetration so all that I was left with was a phantasmagorical quest fueled by love.
Rated by buyers 
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This is by far the most bizarre book I have ever attempted to read. I absolutely loved the very first chapter. This book does have literary merit. However, the amount of sexual content was too overwhelming for me, and I could not bring myself to finish the book. Had it not been for that, I would have been able to finish and give the book 5 stars. If you ever just want a taste of the book and avoid the sex, read the very first chapter, but stop there.
Rated by buyers -
This novel was my introduction to Angela Carter, and what an introduction it was! The novel was originally published (I believe) in the early 80's, and smacks of magical realism as well as profound dollops of surrealism and eroto-psychedelia. Carter's prose is dense and precise, intensive rather than expansive, but the images keep coming, and if anything, one can feel swamped in the flood of dreams, but in a satisfying way. Really, to say Carter evokes Burroughs or any other author may convey a reader's subjective impression, but Carter is on her own trip, a protracted journey through history and psyche, and an examination of the sensual magic of words and imagination made manifest in miraculous ambiguity and ambivalent sexuality. Her highly original prose style often feels like a good translation from another language - most of the action takes place in Latin America, and at times I was hard pressed to remember that I was not reading a Latin American author. This book is recommended, though not an easy read due to the density of Carter's prose and the depth of her philosophical examination of the roots of dream and imagination. But she takes you on a journey that within a few pages becomes irresistible, and takes you to places that surprise, delight, and disturb, and that you will not soon forget.
Rated by buyers -
As an Englsih major with a facination with cyberpunk, I think that this novel is fabulous!! In many ways the situations that Deserdio gets into remind me of the pratfalls and accidents of William Burrough's finest. Both share a vague sense of cause and effect--the reader in never sure how the character got into his situation or what he will have to do in order to get out of it. In many ways, I think Dr. Hoffman is a mix of ETA Hoffman and William Burroughs. Hoffman contributes the gothic surreality and Burroughs contributes the theme of escaping. Good luck! This is great. I love it so much I have two copies of it...one is sort of beat up.
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