The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories (Vintage Classics)

Angela Carter was an extraordinary writer. A staunch feminist, she was acutely aware of how misogyny and stereotyping has existence for as long as humans have walked the earth. Some inequality is easy to spot, others, less so. This is a collection of Fairy Tales, written with a clear focus on how women and girls are portrayed in them. It’s important to understand that Fairy Tales were not solely designed to entertain. They are in fact, fables and were used to explain, for example, the dangers of children (frequently with a focus on girls) wandering alone into forests inhabited with wolves and to reinforce the belief that girls should remain at home, helping their mothers to cook and clean. Similarly, Beauty and the Beast focuses on the value girls can be (to their parents) if they marry wealthy husbands, whether by choice, or not. The stories within this collection are familiar and recognisable, but it’s easier to see what the subtext is. Angela Carter’s writing is very descriptive, she relies far less on actual conversation between the characters. Her imagery is fantastic and it’s easy to feel connected to the characters, particularly because I am a woman. The female characters may initially be in a very weak position, but Carter allows them to see their quandary and to make decisions about themselves, which in turn strengthens their position, something that’s rare in traditional Fairy Tales. It’s important to note that these are not merely ‘feminist literature’, nor indeed an ‘attack on men’, as I am certain would be the conclusion immediately jumped to by some people.They are each stand alone stories, with humour, some black, others fairly racy. Puss in Boots is particularly bawdy and highly entertaining. Puss is a phenomenal character and anyone whose had a cat will recognise his bravado. Of course, Puss in Boots is also male, so his extreme confidence and never ending self esteem, is instantly recognisable as akin to the behaviour of some younger males, out on a Saturday night, drenched in aftershave and chatting up girls in a macho fashion! It’s a fantastic book, enjoyable as simply stories, with the extra level providing the ability to see how women have been viewed and treated since time immemorial. But, Angela Carter would not be viewed as the genius she was, had she not crafted each tale carefully. They are more about women being empowered, than an attack on men. I cannot recommend this book enough.

Firstly, I don't usually do lots of short stories or anthologies of any kind, but I had to read this one for school and surprise me it did. I enjoyed it immensely with its dark, twisted take on the fairy tales meaning Carter makes something very unique. The collection is made up of The Bloody Chamber, The Courtship of Mr Lyon, The Tiger's Bride, Puss-In-Boots, The Erl-King, The Snow Child, The Lady of The House of Love, The Werewolf, The Company of Wolves and Wolf-Alice. One thing to be highly aware of throughout all the short stories is that they are highly explicit on sexual and violent terms. Here are a selection of short reviews for a few of the short stories within. The Bloody Chamber `The Bloody Chamber' was probably my least favourite of the short stories that make up Carter's short stories even though it's the title and the first one. It's a modern retelling of Bluebeard which I honestly didn't know anything about before picking up `The Bloody Chamber' is interesting to say the least. However I found its protagonist weak and naive and very much deluded and she frustrated me. She depended upon other people to save her and whilst this is all part of the meanings behind `The Bloody Chamber' I wanted to throw something at the girl. "Then, slowly yet teasingly, as if he were giving a child a great, mysterious treat," The plot is engaging and I found it slightly disturbing but all the little foreshadowing moments and twists and turns kept the pace moving. The Marquis is a despicable man and he's truly wicked. He's the embodiment of a villain and a cradle snatcher. There is nothing to like about the man and he's probably the main reason I didn't appreciate `The Bloody Chamber' as a short story. "He was older than I. He was much older than I; there were streaks of pure silver in his dark mane. But his strange, heavy, almost waxen face was not lined by experience." The Tiger's Bride Without a doubt, this was my favourite story of the selections. This is an adaption of Beauty and the Beast and the better of the two that Carter attempted. The other one, The Courtship of Mr Lyon wasn't nearly as engaging. Carter looks at a Beast as a Lord and whether he's human or animal and I found this really interesting and the whole dynamic of his character was exciting. It was added to by his servant who is supposed to be an animal too that I didn't quite pick up on in my first reading and this contrast between humans and animals is interesting. "And then he moved; he buried his cardboard carnival head with its ribboned weight of false hair in, I would say, his arms; he withdrew his, I might say hands from his sleeves and I saw his furred pads, his excoriating claws." I liked Belle as a character. She wasn't very strong to start with, but she built herself up as a character and she was pretty smart. I liked her ability to think on her feet and move with the direction of the novel rather than oppose it. Puss-in-Boots `Puss-in-Boots' probably doesn't require a genius to figure out what it's a retelling off. I found this one to be more humorous and entertaining than Carter's other additions to the stories because it wasn't quite as dark and twisted and it made a refreshing addition to the collection with something a little different. Puss was quite the enigmatic character and I took a shinning to him immediately. He was clever and oozing charm, especially around the lady felines, but that only added to his character to make him entertaining. "So Puss got his post at the same time as his boots and I dare say the Master and I have much in common for he's proud as the devil, touchy as tin-tacks, lecherous as liquorice and, though I say it as loves him, as quick-witted a rascal as ever put on clean linen." Overall, I really enjoyed `Puss-in-Boots' more for Puss as a character than his master who was a little foolish and blinded by love, but the extravagance of that made it all the more amusing. The Company of Wolves This makes for an interesting read as a modern adaption to Little Red Riding Hood because this Little Red Riding Hood is incredibly far from the version I remember as a child so it may very well change your opinion entirely on Little Red Riding Hood, be warned! Carter gathers together lots of mythology about wolves and tales and uses them as a warning from the Grandmother who is an old crone. I didn't like her one bit and I was glad we got her out of the way. That sounds really mean, but she isn't a character you can like. "There is no winter's night the cottager does not fear to see a lean, grey, famished snout questing under the door, and there was a woman once bitten in her own kitchen as she was straining the macaroni." Little Red Riding Hood isn't silly or naive, but she uses her brain and other parts of herself to get what she wants and to secure her safety and you can clearly see the wave of feminism that Carter was writing through coming out in `The Company of Wolves' in embracing freedom and sexuality and it's something I quite liked. I liked the werewolf aspect to `The Company of Wolves' and all the elements of wolves and magic. The film however is rather dire, they use great big Alsatians and German Shepards to play wolves so it doesn't quite reflect the wolves as it could and things change a little, so if you've seen the film which is humorous for how bad it is, then do read the short story because it's so much better! Do be aware that Carter likes to take things overboard and it makes for an interesting read to say the least! "She stands and moves within the invisible pentacle of her own virginity. She is an unbroken egg; she is a sealed vessel; she has inside her a magic space the entrance to which is shut tight with a plug of membrane; she is a closed system; she does not know how to shiver. She has her knife and she is afraid of nothing." Be warned, stepping into the world of Carter is entering a completely different realm! So beware.

Love Angela Carter. Read her book of fairy tales back in the 90s now read this one and am reading 'Wise Children' her last book before she died. I will certainly read more of her work.

Angela Carter's work is always in a class of its own, and this, perhaps her most iconic collection of stories is no different. They are beautifully written - crafted even - with every single word a delight to read. I learned so many new words reading it: "apercu" "deliquescent"... I could go on. The title work is the longest and the best I feel. The heroine is spirited and yet vulnerable having sold herself into a marriage for a title and a choker which makes her look like her throat has been slit. Then I loved "The Company of Wolves", "The Tiger's Bride" and "The Courtship of Mr Lyon". If you like your fairy tales (and who doesn't?) you'll recognise these stories as reworkings of those types of tales, although they are definitely not written for children. They are now dark, gothic, and very sexy. They are also incredibly wise. "...since her fear did her no good, she ceased to be afraid" (p. 117)is always good advice. This is a great book. If I had one criticism it would be that some of them seem a little "over-written" if that's even possible - "The Lady of the House of Love" was so elaborate it started to make me feel irritated with it in the end. I could say the same of "The Erl-King" where the autumnal/wintry descriptions go overboard. Still this is a great book. Angela Carter was one of Britain's finest writers of the twentieth century, in my opinion - her work makes you just want to be as gifted as she was - not to be missed.

I first encountered “The Company of Wolves” in this collection for a class on adaptation I took some years ago. I enjoyed it very much and had been raring to read the rest of the stories but just never got round to it. So, I must say I felt a little underwhelmed by this much acclaimed collection. While the stories are inventive and I can see the strong feminist themes in them, I was, like some other reviewers, a bit put off by Carter’s overly verbose and turgid prose. These “tales” are not retellings so much as transformed stories. As Helen Simpson in the introduction reminds us, Carter’s “intention was… to extract the latent content from the traditional stories and use it as the beginnings of new stories.” And for that, it must be allowed that Carter does succeed, for the stories are brilliant and inventive, and besides the aforementioned “The Company of Wolves,” I felt most engaged by the titular story that opens the collection. However, the lengthy descriptive passages that labour over every minute detail of, for instance the setting or the furnishings, and the accompanying flowery vocabulary, only serve to alienate rather than to impress the reader. I would rate this book no more than three-and-a-half stars for the extra labour required of the reader.

I feel like I am very late to the party having only just discovered Angela Carter but in case I’m not here is my review of The Bloody Chamber. Firstly, wow! The writing in this book is incredible. Here is a brief extract to show you what I mean: “When they saw the white bride leap out of the tombstones and scamper off toward the castle with the werewolf stumbling after, the peasants thought the Duke’s dearest victim had come back to take matters into her own hands. They ran screaming from the presence of a ghostly vengeance on him. Poor, wounded thing.” Powerful stuff in just a few short lines. Angela Carter has a really unique writing style that makes the words appear both like a great literature piece that you feel smart reading and at the same time quite humble and absorbing so that the stories are approachable to the everyday reader. Anyway, back to the book itself. It is split into ten short stories. Several of these are re-tellings of recognised classics. If anyone has ever read the “original” Grimm stories (for example in the original Grimm version Cinderella’s sisters cut off their toes to try to make them fit the slipper), Carters tales are like this only much much darker. The Snow Child (re-telling of Snow White) was particularly shocking and striking and stuck with me long after I finished the book (not quite giving me nightmares, but not far from it). I know this isn’t a part of a normal review (never judge a book by its cover and all that) but I must add the cover of this book is particularly beautiful. It feels like an old-fashioned storybook and the black and red imagery really draw the eye. If you are intrigued by all the hype around Angela Carter then this really is a fantastic book to get you going. Although not for the faint-hearted. This really is a smart, intriguing and beguiling collection of stories. Enjoy! :) Please leave a like if you think my review/feedback of the item was helpful to you. Alternatively, please contact me if you want me to clarify something in my review.

This book has been on my shelf for a while waiting to be read, but I have always found a reason to read something else instead. Recently I friend recommended independently and I remembered it. I picked it up and a few breathless hours later had finished it. A collection of short stories that are linked thematically and have common threads that run between them, The Bloody Chamber has been described as a re-imagining of classic fairy tales with a feminist slant. But they are so much more than that. The stories throughout go back to the original purpose of fairy tales and rather than rewriting fairy tales in a modern manner Carter has returned to their original dark roots and weaved in modern concerns. They are dark and erotic and often very disturbing. Familiar tropes are there, werewolves and hidden rooms and beauty and the beast, but there is a real sense of malicious glee in the writing. These are not the anodyne tales of our childhood, they are wild and imaginative. Much is made of Carter's writing style, but the truth is her writing varies wildly throughout the collection, the title story is reminiscent of Poe, Company of Wolves is oblique and teasing, whereas Puss in Boots strays close to bawdy farce. Familiar as these tales may be, they are not the fairy tales we know from our childhood. They are new ones, taking old stories as a starting point and creating something new and exciting from them.

I MEAN IT when I said Don't call it a Feminist retelling. I appreciate the Book includes the author interview in which she explains the problem she had with that label being struck to her thanks to the American Press. IF you wish to spare yourself of my Tangent jump to Product. Setting aside any issues found outside the Book, I Gave it a 5 Star because for me it shows a Dark retelling that is not an act of shame, some authors take it upon themselves to take revenge on some other via victimising a TALE. Two paragraphs and yet no review of its contents blamed on the fact: Dark versions of childrens properties and POV Switches on them are curse more than a blessing.Besides they are so prevalent that I can't believe someone still thinks its breaking new ground. PRODUCT: This Anthology is an exercise done by the author.The purpose is the creation of Dark versions of Fairytales narrated entirely from the Female Character Point of view. The tales presented try to keep the plot points of the original only discarded to archive a Downer ending, THAT being the Lost of Innocence OR the Dead of the Main Character.

I first heard of Angela Carter when I was maybe 12 and saw the movie The Company of Wolves, I loved that movie so much and wanted to read the book but never found it, and as I grew up, I forgot about it... until I got Kindle and could basically read anything I wanted from around the world. Recently I remembered the book and it was best to have read it now as a grown up for I would have missed so much of the hidden references and the erotic atmosphere that surrounds these tales. Genius reinvention of folk tales and fairy tales, my favorite one is the Erl King. Carter shows us theses secret places of a woman psyche, the horror mixed with pleasure, the voices in the dark, and presents us with nonconformist heroines who take their destiny in their own hands, whether they fall from grace or walk out safe, it was entirely a choice of each one of them, a triumphant choice in every case. These folk tales we heard all of our lives, the pg rated version anyway, were always telling women to rely on beauty and virtue, to expect an impossible prince charming, to be rescued, be passive and submissive. Carter changes all those ideas which are imprinted in our minds even as grown up women, and changes the roles entirely; those who chose to become beasts and love savagely do on their own terms and in their own sweet time; those who choose darkness are redeemed and those who chose light do it to please no other than themselves. Besides all of that it was very entertaining to read, the exuberance of her words in some tales was very sensual and inviting.

"The Bloody Chamber and other Stories" is my first Angela Carter .It is an anthology of ten mesmerising feminist themed stories based on popular characters from fairy tales ,fables and myth.So ,we have Blue Beard ,the Erl King,Snow White,Puss in Boots ,Werewolves and Vampires all jostling with each other in the pages of this slim and fascinating volume. ✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨ I was left with the realization that Carter is probably one of the best feminist writers of this century , next to Virginia Wolfe.Carter does not hold anything back in these stories.Her stories are raw ,sensual and explore the themes of female sexuality and it's awakening ,how our menstruation plays a great deal in our lives ,the desire men blatantly have for women ("Some eyes can eat you up" ,as she writes in the Erl King),the objectification of women ,the idealization men have for the perfect woman (does she even exist?),and the roles of women as victimizers and victims in a continuous cycle of persecution from others and also from themselves . ✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨ I have often felt that the hand that delivers the most cruel cut to a woman is generally from the hands of another woman (even our mothers ,though no one wants to discuss this possibility.After all,motherhood is supposed to be sacrosanct !!!)and this idea is explored in "Child of Snow " and "The Werewolf".The most disturbing story was "The Tigers Bride ",where she establishes the fact that in order to be really happy ,women need to shed their inhibitions and live away from the rules and norms of traditional society.We are after all dolls in the hands of men because very often we are capable of taking decisions wholly knowing the implications just because we are forced to and there is no other escape route ."The Lady in the House of Love" "was most frightening and "Puss in Boots "was humorous enough to show us that you can never underestimate a woman however quiet and demure she may be.😂 ✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨ Carter's writing has rich vocabulary ,lush ,dense and exquisite prose and powerful imagery that you will find difficult to erase from your mind .A wonderful collection that protrays the enigma a woman really is in all her glorious shades .

The Bloody Chamber, ovvero "La Camera di Sangue", rappresenta secondo alcuni una mera trascrizione in chiave "femminista" delle più note storie per bambini: nulla di più parziale. La stessa Angela Carter conferma infatti in più interviste che la sua sia stata piuttosto un'opera incentrata sul riportare alla luce le dinamiche che sino ad allora erano rimaste "latenti" in quelle che, comunque, risultano essere storie piuttosto tradizionali, e che la stessa Angela Carter stava traducendo proprio nel periodo immediatamente precedente alla scrittura del suo libro. In termini di consegna, a proposito, questo è arrivato in poco più di una settimana, nonostante il venditore abiti nel regno unito. Il libro è arrivato in buone condizioni (Giusto qualche sottolineatura qua e là), e tutto considerato anche ad un buon prezzo. Non è presente una traduzione in italiano, ma chi acquista il testo originale ne sarà sicuramente consapevole. La prefazione è scritta da Helen Simpson, che affronta i nodi principali della narrazione, permettendoci di avere una prima idea di ciò che ci aspetta in quello che personalmente ho interpretato come un lungo viaggio verso la decolonizzazione della sessualità femminile. Consiglio la lettura a un pubblico adulto, come del resto aveva inizialmente pensato di consigliare la stessa Angela Carter: The Bloody Chamber non vuole infatti essere un libro per bambini!

Angela Carter’s devilishly descriptive take on classic fairytales is a macabre delight. Stories are short enough but written with such flair and precision that you end each one wishing there were more. Favorite take was ‘The Company of Wolves” Red Riding Hood story. Menacing and delightful to the degree one can almost hear the cackling of crones in the background. Carter’s magic is evident throughout and well worth the read.

Meine Rezension bezieht sich auf genau dieses englischsprachige TB, aber ich rezensiere trotzdem mal auf Deutsch ;) Miss Carter hat mit diesen Geschichten etwas geschafft, was viele Autoren immer wieder versuchen, und nicht immer erfolgreich: Die altbekannten Märchen von außen nach innen gekehrt, in ihnen Falltüren aufgerissen und die Schattenseiten an die Oberfläche gezerrt. Ihre Geschichten sind Schauermärchen für Erwachsene, düster und poetisch, oft originell und sehr bildgewaltig. Ihre sehr bildhafte Sprache zieht den Leser in ihren Bann, auch wenn man tiefenpsychologische Betrachtungen oder reinigende Emotionen wie Trauer, Angst oder Mitgefühl hier nicht vorfinden wird. Aber das ist gut. Denn diese Geschichten wollen vor allem eines: In eine magische Welt voller Märchengefahren entführen - und unterhalten. Das Buch ist für nicht-lernwillige ;) mit nur Grundkenntnissen im Englischen nicht so gut geeignet.