The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
In Carter’s renowned collection of horrifying tales based on fairy tales, The Bloody Chamber, Beauty is transformed into a Beast and Little Red Riding’s grandmother is stoned to death as a witch; a young music student is taken in by a middle-aged aristocrat in Paris and brought to his ancestral home to retell the tale of Bluebeard against a sumptuous fin de siècle backdrop; a British soldier on a cycling vacation in Transyl In contrast, the humorous, the bawdy, and the life-enriching rule in Carter’s final book, Wise Children.
The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
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An unflappable old woman recalls the many exciting decades she and her sister had as vaudeville artists. This story features twins and misidentifications just like any other Shake- spearman narrative. Carter makes her initial attempts at the amazing prose that would become her indelible legacy in the early collection Fireworks. The Everyman’s Library omnibus compiles Angela Carter’s best works in one astounding volume.
Carter introduces us to nonconformist heroines who take control of their own fate. Whether they escape harm’s way or fall from grace, it was entirely their choice in each instance and a triumphant one at that. She shows us these dark corners of the female psyche, the horror mixed with pleasure, the voices in the dark, and more. The PG-rated version of these folktales, which we were exposed to throughout our entire lives, was always telling women to rely on their virtue and beauty, to hope for an impossibly charming prince, to be saved, and to be passive and subservient.
Carter alters every notion that is ingrained in our minds—even as mature women—and completely flips the roles; those who choose to transform into beasts and fall in love savagely do so on their own terms and in their own sweet time; those who choose darkness are redeemed; those who choose light act solely for their own satisfaction. Aside from all of that, reading it was a lot of fun because of how sensual and inviting parts of her tales’ exuberance were.
