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Summary: a collection of "grown-up" fairytales
Review: I first read this book in college and it has become one of my all-time favorites. In this collection of short stories, Angela Carter takes the fairytales, nursery rhymes, and the images and themes they contain and perverts/illuminates them. What is most striking about this collection is Carter's writing style. Her language is simultaneously poetic and profane. The stories are heavy with her purple language, which is what makes them so satisfying to read. In additon to the exquisite language, Carter's re-telling of classic tales such as "Snow White," "Red Riding Hood," "Puss in Boots," etc., never fails to pay off. Carter creates a world in which Red Riding hood is the savvy hunter, not the innocent hunted. These stories make us focus on the overly simplistic (and often slanted) messages we were taught as children when these tales were first presented to us. In particular, Carter makes us question what fairytales have taught us about gender roles, marriage, and sex. For a trip into the fantasic that will make you laugh and make you really THINK, read this book!
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Summary: fantastic and lurid. Sumptuous prose.
Review: I'm writing this because I don't want the fool in line behind me to have the last word. I know nothing about the factual aspects of Carter's life and could care less- I'm in it for the stories, the tales, the language. These are excellent reworkings of classic stories, boldy reworked to highlight and examine the feminine elements at play in the tale. I'm not gonna get all lit jargony on your ass. The stories themselves are taut, well-paced, superbly detailed and all atound marvelous to read (though the first one- the reworking of the Bluebeard story- is my least favorite). These stories inspired me to attempt my own reworkings of various tales. I'm not soliciting here- I'm just demonstrating that this book is an inspiring little collection of polished gems. Reasonably priced too. Also, as a final tempt- If you know a young woman who is imaginative and literary minded, and you want to reinforce those qulaities (quite task in this day and age) you should get her this. It will be a step up from Anne Rice novels and the lyric sheets to those Cure CDs. Pick up 'The Sadean Woman,' too. It's an interesting feminist appraisal of the infamous Marquis and an illuminating read.
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Summary: The best book I have read in years
Review: If my review simply consisted of the words "BUY THIS BOOK" it would be consise and convey the urgency of my plea, but it would not be convincing. So let me say I am a tough critic, a difficult-to-please reader; a book must not only be on a tremendous subject but it must also be intellectual, engaging and the language must convey muscular, towering talent. I found everything I so desperately seek and so seldom find in this book. Let me offer up the beginning lines of this book to give you a sample: "I remember how, that night, I lay awake in the wagon-lit in a tender, delicious ecstasy of excitement, my burning cheek pressed against the impeccable linen of the pillow and the pounding of my heart mimicking that of the great pistons ceaselessly thrusting the train that bore me through the night, away from Paris, away from girlhood, away from the white, enclosed quietude of my mother's apartment, into the unguessable country of marriage." No, this is not a romance. This is the remade story of Bluebeard, who slaughters his wives. It is the story of a young innocent pulled into his world and remade in her new husband's eyes, remade into something she herself finds repellent. And if you can feel the sensations present in that opening line, the transition about to occur, and the intrigue of the surroundings, well, then, BUY THIS BOOK.
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Summary: A dazzling collection of reworked fairytales
Review: In this series of stories, Carter does not just change the perspective and mood of the fairytales --she turns them inside out. A must for any admirer of the late Angela Carter.
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Summary: Carter's Creations Are Carefully Crafted
Review: Listen up kiddies, Tanith Lee has NOTHING on Carter, neither does anyone else who supposedly writes in THE GENRE. Carter's tales are just so lucid, so oddly heavenly, so dark (yes), and so very......enchantingly lovely and seductive in a true Gothic sense. Carter doesn't mess around with making her stories appealing to the masses, her writing is rich and austere, her imagery haunting and will NEVER leave your mind. Who can forget the sad vampiress, in her chamber, who falls in love with the sun (the young and naive soldier)who's ancestors come "peeking" in and out her like their grim portraits on the wall? Who can forget the girl trapped by the Erl-King, who is reeled into the "vortex" of his green eye and his watery embraces (ouch, and the love bite!)? These are truly phantasmagoric, rich tales with class and heavy symbolism and very spooky little touches which will never stop enchanting you.
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Summary: A FRESH PERSPECTIVE FROM A GOTHIC STAGE
Review: Looking for a fresh perspective, Angela Carter takes us into "The Bloody Chamber" and offers us a refreshing look at the constraining underpinnings of conventional of stories such as Beauty and the Beast. Who can resist looking at the same thing in a different way, I know I can't. Over and above the finely tuned and seductive language, Carter compels us to rethink our tired conventionality. Read and Reread. 5 stars. Miguel Llora
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Summary: a great sensual novel of short stories
Review: nothing much to say about this except it's a must for anyone wanting an entertaining read.
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Summary: Rich, unexpected revisions of old stories...
Review: On hearing that the writing style of Tanith Lee, one of my favorite authors, had derived in part from that of Angela Carter, I hastened to find a good collection and explore the similarities. I read this book, and while I am not going to compare and contrast the two styles, I am going to rave about Angela Carter. In the collection "The Bloody Chamber" she reworks five familiar fairy tales as well as spinning myriad tales from the werewolf theme and a tragic love-story out of the vampire myth. Each of the stories has its own unique perspective that works both as a stylistic trick and as a function of the story, such as having Puss-in-Boots proudly recount his own exploits, or having Beauty lost to the Beast at a game of cards. The stories are written sensually, reveling in their lush usage of language; the opening of "The Erl-King" smells of rotted leaves in October, "The Lady of the House of Love" casts haunted shadows at the reader's feet. One or two read like deconstructions of familiar tales, such as the surreal "The Snow Child" or "The Werewolf," while others are the old stories, stripped to their framework and then refleshed with Angela Carter's rich prose. All are absorbing, seductive, to read; if words are food, then this is highly caloric chocolate of the finest quality. (The bittersweet tint only adds to the flavor.) Enough of my raving; read the book yourself. For my part, I will be scouring my library for more of Angela Carter's work. You can never get enough chocolate.
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Summary: Carter's Bloody, Pornographic Extravaganza
Review: Only after reading some of Carter's novels did I take a stab at this particular collection of stories. Of course, I expected her disturbingly-casual blend of fairy tale and contemporary setting, Christian and Pagan lore...and all the blood and gore that go with it. But I was completely taken by how I--my stomach, really--reacted to some of the passages in this book: my stomach literally "knotted up" and did somersaults at some instances (beginning with Carter's description of the Bluebeard's "bloody chamber," all the way through her werewolf sequence). In this collection, you'll find virgins fetishized and explicitly eroticized by beasts, and distraight daughters in full arms against their money-hungry fathers...all of this situated on a bloody canvas of pornographic imagery and poetic language. (If you want worse, by the way, pick up Bataille or Sade.) "The Bloody Chamber" continually provokes emotional, intellectual reactions of me, so I'm convinced it's to be considered a masterpiece. --By far, her most inventive work.
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Summary: Fairy Tales Spun with More Sex, More Pain
Review: Rich writing and evocative imagery bring this collection of short stories into a magical realm all its own. Tales like Beauty and the Beast, Bluebeard, and others are virtually engorged by Carter with heat, poetry, and imagination. It's great writing! Good gift for your favorite vampire fanatic, a favorite with college students.
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