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Circus of Dr. Lao
Circus of Dr. Lao | Charles G Finney
9 posts | 9 read | 5 to read
The Circus of Dr. Lao is an irreverent, licentious, insolent and most amusing book. For sardonic gaiety under fire, for the relief of a good guffaw, here is a circus of legendary creatures (with illustrations by Boris Artzybasheff) which is at once a play, a dream (if not a nightmare), a fantasy of science fiction that is horrifying, disgusting, intriguing, scintillating. And between the lines of its imaginative orgies, you will find food for thought in its satirical comment on civilization. Charles Finney is the actual creator of the genre of "dark fantasy." Not being a particularly prolific writer, he wrote the novel that became the most famous and popular in his oeuvre. Finney by himself became a significant representative of the pre-war fantasy and horror literature. The world renowned Satanist philosopher - the "Black Pope" - Anton Szandor LaVey was quoted in an interview with the line of The Circus of Dr. Lao, calling it one of the favorite "Satanic novels."
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blurb
johncadams
Circus of Dr. Lao | Charles G Finney
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The Circus of Dr Lao by Charles G Finney is one of the oddest fantasy novels I‘ve ever read. It‘s truly unique.

#fantasy

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johncadams
Circus of Dr. Lao | Charles G Finney
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blurb
johncadams
The Circus of Dr. Lao | Charles G. Finney
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johncadams
The Circus of Dr. Lao | Charles G. Finney
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review
MadCatRamble
The Circus of Dr. Lao | Charles G. Finney
Pickpick

This books was absolutely nuts. It was almost as if H. Ryder Haggard and James Thurber has a baby and fostered it out to Sherwood Anderson. There are definitely problematic elements (the kind you‘d expect from a book written in the 30‘s) but they are contextually reflective of the period it was written in, for better or worse. A quick, entertaining, weird little read.

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BooksAtNight
The Circus of Dr. Lao | Charles G. Finney
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Pickpick

1 book completed from my TBR! I can see why this is a Gollancz Fantasy Masterwork pick. There were racist stereotypes about the Chinese that were difficult to read but overall an excellent example in how to create a cast of characters with a few words each. The book ends up being not about the circus but really about human nature. And the Appendix cracked me up. It's really somewhere between Pick and So-So for me, but I rounded up.

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BooksAtNight
The Circus of Dr. Lao | Charles G. Finney
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One of the best descriptions of cockroaches I've read. Almost makes these critters tolerable and majestic 😆 but they are still my least favorite animals in existence. Just ugh 😖

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BooksAtNight
The Circus of Dr. Lao | Charles G. Finney
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#readjanuary day 2: #thismonthstbr
I make overly ambitious TBRs, so I decided to focus only on books that I know I can get to. Okay, I cheated because I don't have the Lumberjanes yet. But everything else is on my nightstand so I will get to them. Maybe. 😝

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Kirstin
The Circus of Dr. Lao | Charles G. Finney
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Pickpick

This one deserves to be much more than a forgotten classic. I recommend all of these books! #Recommendsday

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