Search
Log in
  • Home

  • Categories

  • Audiobooks

  • E-books

  • For kids

  • Top lists

  • Help

  • Download app

  • Use campaign code

  • Redeem gift card

  • Try free now
  • Log in
  • Language

    🇫🇮 Suomi

    • FI
    • EN

    🇧🇪 Belgique

    • FR
    • EN

    🇩🇰 Danmark

    • DK
    • EN

    🇩🇪 Deutschland

    • DE
    • EN

    🇪🇸 España

    • ES
    • EN

    🇫🇷 France

    • FR
    • EN

    🇳🇱 Nederland

    • NL
    • EN

    🇳🇴 Norge

    • NO
    • EN

    🇦🇹 Österreich

    • AT
    • EN

    🇨🇭 Schweiz

    • DE
    • EN

    🇸🇪 Sverige

    • SE
    • EN
  1. Books
  2. Fiction
  3. Contemporary fiction

Read and listen for free for 14 days!

Cancel anytime

Try free now
4.0(2)

Circus of Wonders : A Novel

From the #1 internationally bestselling author of the “lush, evocative Gothic” (The New York Times Book Review) The Doll Factory comes an atmospheric and spectacular novel about a woman transformed by the arrival of a Victorian circus of wonders—“as moving as it is deeply entertaining” (Daniel Mason, New York Times bestselling author).

Step up, step up! In 1860s England, circus mania is sweeping the nation. Crowds jostle for a glimpse of the lion-tamers, the dazzling trapeze artists and, most thrilling of all, the so-called “human wonders.”

When Jasper Jupiter’s Circus of Wonders pitches its tent in a poor coastal town, the life of one young girl changes forever. Sold to the ringmaster as a “leopard girl” because of the birthmarks that cover her body, Nell is utterly devastated. But as she grows close to the other performers, she finds herself enchanted by the glittering freedom of the circus, and by her own role as the Queen of the Moon and Stars.

Before long, Nell’s fame spreads across the world—and with it, a chance for Jasper Jupiter to grow his own name and fortune. But what happens when her fame begins to eclipse his own, when even Jasper’s loyal brother Toby becomes captivated by Nell? No longer the quiet flower-picker, Nell knows her own place in the world, and she will fight for it.

Circus of Wonders is a beautiful story about the “complex dance between exploitation and empowerment, and the question of what it really means to have control over your own life” (Naomi Ishiguro, author of Escape Routes).


Author:

  • Elizabeth Macneal

Narrator:

  • Tuppence Middleton

Format:

  • Audiobook
  • E-book

Duration:

  • 11 h 39 min
  • 256 pages

Language:

English

Categories:

  • Fiction
  • Contemporary fiction
  • Historic and folklore novels
  • Historic novels

More by Elizabeth Macneal

Skip the list
  1. The Burial Plot : The bewitching, seductive gothic thriller from the author of The Doll Factory

    Elizabeth Macneal

    audiobook
  2. Det forunderlige cirkus

    Elizabeth Macneal

    audiobookbook
  3. The Haunting Season

    Bridget Collins, Imogen Hermes Gower, Kiran Millwood Hargrave, Andrew Michael Hurley, Jess Kidd, Elizabeth Macneal, Natasha Pulley, Laura Purcell

    audiobook
  4. The Doll Factory

    Elizabeth Macneal

    audiobookbook
  5. Dockmakerskan

    Elizabeth Macneal

    audiobookbook
  6. Dukkeværkstedet

    Elizabeth Macneal

    audiobookbook
  7. The Doll Factory : The Sunday Times Bestseller, BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick and BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime

    Elizabeth Macneal

    audiobook

Others have also read

Skip the list
  1. The Glass Virgin: A Novel

    Catherine Cookson

    book
  2. Marvelous : A Novel

    Molly Greeley

    audiobook
  3. The Lace Reader

    Brunonia Barry

    audiobook
  4. The Weightless World

    Anthony Trevelyan

    audiobookbook
  5. This Perfect World

    Suzanne Bugler

    audiobook
  6. Something Like Breathing

    Angela Readman

    audiobook
  7. The Half Sister

    Catherine Chanter

    audiobook
  8. Kate Hannigan : A Novel

    Catherine Cookson

    book
  9. The Three Day Rule

    Emlyn Rees, Josie Lloyd, Multiple Authors

    audiobook
  10. An Almond for a Parrot

    Wray Delaney

    audiobook
  11. Gallows Thief

    Bernard Cornwell

    audiobook
  12. Peculiar Ground

    audiobook

  • 8 books

    Elizabeth Macneal

    Born in Scotland, Elizabeth Macneal is a writer and potter based in London. The Doll Factory, Elizabeth’s debut novel, was an international bestseller, has been translated into twenty-nine languages, and has been optioned for a major television series. It won the Caledonia Novel Award 2018. Circus of Wonders is her second novel. Visit her online at ElizabethMacneal.com, on Twitter @AsMacneal, or on Instagram @ElizabethMacneal.

    Read more

Help and contact


About us

  • Our story
  • Career
  • Press
  • Accessibility
  • Partner with us
  • Investor relations
  • Instagram
  • Facebook

Explore

  • Categories
  • Audiobooks
  • E-books
  • Magazines
  • For kids
  • Top lists

Popular categories

  • Crime
  • Biographies and reportage
  • Fiction
  • Feel-good and romance
  • Personal development
  • Children's books
  • True stories
  • Sleep and relaxation

Nextory

Copyright © 2025 Nextory AB

Privacy Policy · Terms ·
Excellent4.3 out of 5