http://www.themodernword.com/scriptorium/carter.

html
Angela Carter (May 7, 1940 February 16, 1992) was an English novelist and journalist,
known for her feminist, magical realism and science fiction works.

Contents
[hide] [hide]
1 Biography
2 Works as author
o 2.1 Novels
o 2.2 Short fiction
o 2.3 Poetry
o 2.4 Dramatic works
o 2.5 Children's books
o 2.6 Non-fiction
3 Works as editor
4 Works as translator
5 Film adaptations
6 Works on Angela Carter
7 References

8 External links

[edit] Biography
Born to Angela Olive Stalker in Eastbourne, in 1940, Carter was evacuated as a child to live
in Yorkshire with her maternal grandmother. As a teenager she battled anorexia. She began
work as a journalist on the Croydon Advertiser, following in the footsteps of her father. Carter
attended the University of Bristol where she studied English literature.
Carters writings are intertextual webs. This influence can be seen in her novel Wise Children,
which is notable for its many Shakespearean references. Carter was also interested in working
with writings by male authors, such as the Marquis de Sade (see The Sadeian Woman) and
Charles Baudelaire (see her short story 'Black Venus'), amongst other literary forefathers. But
she was also fascinated by the matriarchal, oral, storytelling tradition, rewriting several fairy
tales for her short story collection The Bloody Chamber, including "Little Red Riding Hood",
"Bluebeard," and two reworkings of "Beauty and the Beast."
She married twice, first in 1960 to Paul Carter. They divorced after twelve years. In 1969
Angela Carter used the proceeds of her Somerset Maugham Award to leave her husband and
travel to Japan, living in Tokyo for two years, where, she claims, she "learnt what it is to be a
woman and became radicalised" (Nothing Sacred (1982)). She wrote about her experiences
there in articles for New Society and a collection of short stories, Fireworks: Nine Profane
Pieces (1974), and evidence of her experiences in Japan can also be seen in The Infernal
Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman (1972). She was there at the same time as Roland
Barthes, who published his experiences in Empire of Signs (1970).

She then explored the United States, Asia and Europe, helped by her fluency in French and
German. She spent much of the late 1970s and 1980s as a writer in residence at universities,
including the University of Sheffield, Brown University, the University of Adelaide, and the
University of East Anglia. In 1977 Carter married Mark Pearce.
As well as being a prolific writer of fiction, Carter contributed many articles to The Guardian,
The Independent and New Statesman, collected in Shaking a Leg. She adapted a number of
her short stories for radio and wrote two original radio dramas on Richard Dadd and Ronald
Firbank. Two of her fictions have been adapted for the silver screen: The Company of Wolves
(1984) and The Magic Toyshop (1987). She was actively involved in both film adaptations,
her screenplays are published in the collected dramatic writings, The Curious Room, together
with her radio scripts, a libretto for an opera of Virginia Woolf's Orlando, an unproduced
screenplay entitled The Christchurch Murders (based on the same true story as Peter Jackson's
Heavenly Creatures) and other works. These neglected works, as well as her controversial
television documentary, The Holy Family Album, are discussed in Charlotte Crofts' book,
Anagrams of Desire (2003).
At the time of her death, Carter was embarking on a sequel to Bront's Jane Eyre based on the
later life of Jane's stepdaughter, Adle Varens. However, only a synopsis survives.[1]
Her novel Nights at the Circus won the 1984 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for literature.
Angela Carter died aged 51 in 1992 after developing cancer. Below is an extract from her
obituary published in The Observer:
"She was the opposite of parochial. Nothing, for her, was outside the pale: she wanted to
know about everything and everyone, and every place and every word. She relished life and
language hugely, and revelled in the diverse."

[edit] Works as author

[edit] Novels

Shadow Dance (1966) aka Honeybuzzard

The Magic Toyshop (1967)
Several Perceptions (1968)
Heroes and Villains (1969)
Love (1971)
The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman (1972) aka The War of
Dreams
The Passion of New Eve (1977)
Nights at the Circus (1984)
Wise Children (1991)

[edit] Short fiction

Fireworks: Nine Profane Pieces (1974) aka Fireworks: Nine Stories in Various
Disguises and Fireworks
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories (1979)

The Bridegroom (1979) Uncollected short story featured in Lands of Never ed.
Maxim Jakuboswi (1983)
Black Venus (1985) aka Saints and Strangers
American Ghosts and Old World Wonders (1993)
Burning Your Boats: The Collected Short Stories (1995)

[edit] Poetry

Five Quiet Shouters (1966)

Unicorn (1966)

[edit] Dramatic works

Come Unto These Yellow Sands: Four Radio Plays (1985)

The Curious Room: Plays, Film Scripts and an Opera (1996) (includes Carter's
screenplays for adaptations of The Company of Wolves and The Magic
Toyshop; also includes the contents of Come Unto These Golden Sands: Four
Radio Plays)
The Holy Family Album (1991)

[edit] Children's books

The Donkey Prince (1970) illustrated by Eros Keith

Miss Z, the Dark Young Lady (1970) illustrated by Eros Keith
Comic and Curious Cats (1979) illustrated by Martin Leman
The Music People (1980) with Leslie Carter
Moonshadow (1982) illustrated by Justin Todd
Sea-Cat and Dragon King (2000) illustrated by Eva Tatcheva

[edit] Non-fiction

The Sadeian Woman and the Ideology of Pornography (1978)

Nothing Sacred: Selected Writings (1982)
Expletives Deleted: Selected Writings (1992)
Shaking a Leg: Collected Journalism and Writing (1997)

[edit] Works as editor

Wayward Girls and Wicked Women: An Anthology of Subversive Stories (1986)

The Virago Book of Fairy Tales (1990) aka The Old Wives' Fairy Tale Book
The Second Virago Book of Fairy Tales (1992) aka Strange Things Still
Sometimes Happen: Fairy Tales From Around the World (1993)
Angela Carter's Book of Fairy Tales (2005) (collects the two Virago Books
above)

[edit] Works as translator

The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault (1977)

Sleeping Beauty and Other Favourite Fairy Tales (1982) (Perrault stories and
two Madame Leprince de Beaumont stories)

[edit] Film adaptations

Company of Wolves (1984) adapted by Carter with Neil Jordan from her short
story of the same name Wolf-Alice and The Werewolf
The Magic Toyshop (1987) adapted by Carter from her novel of the same name

[edit] Works on Angela Carter

Milne, Andrew (2006), The Bloody Chamber d'Angela Carter, Paris: Le

Manuscrit Universit
Milne, Andrew (2007), Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber: A Reader's
Guide, Paris: Le Manuscrit Universit

[edit] References
1. ^ Theatre: Nights at the Circus | Stage | The Observer

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Angela Carter

2009 Conference on The Fairy Tale After Angela Carter

The Angela Carter Site
IMDb
The Scriptorium: Angela Carter, by Jeff VanderMeer
A Very Good Wizard, a Very Dear Friend, a remembrance by Salman Rushdie
Angela Carter biography and selected bibliography
Angela Carter at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
Angela Carter Timeline
[hide][hide]

vde

Works by Angela Carter

Novels:

Shadow Dance The Magic Toyshop Several Perceptions Heroes and

Villains Love The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman The
Passion of New Eve Nights at the Circus Wise Children

Short
Fiction:

Fireworks: Nine Profane Pieces The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories The
Bridegroom Black Venus American Ghosts and Old World Wonders
Burning Your Boats: The Collected Short Stories

Poetry:

Five Quiet Shouters Unicorn

Dramatic
Works:

Come Unto These Golden Sands: Four Radio Plays The Curious Room:
Plays, Film Scripts and an Opera The Holy Family Album

Children's
Books:

The Donkey Prince Miss Z, the Dark Young Lady Comic and Curious Cats
The Music People Moonshadow Sea-Cat and Dragon King

The Sadeian Woman and the Ideology of Pornography Nothing Sacred:

Non-Fiction: Selected Writings Expletives Deleted: Selected Writings Shaking a Leg:
Collected Journalism and Writing
Wayward Girls and Wicked Women: An Anthology of Subversive Stories The
Virago Book of Fairy Tales The Second Virago Book of Fairy Tales Angela
Carter's Book of Fairy Tales

Works as
Editor:

Works as
The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault Sleeping Beauty and Other Favourite
Translator: Fairy Tales
Film
Adaptations:The Company of Wolves The Magic Toyshop

The Bloody Chamber

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The Bloody Chamber

Author

Angela Carter

Country

Great Britain

Language
Genre(s)

English
Magical realism, short story
anthology

Publisher

Vintage

Publication date 1979

Media type
ISBN

print (paperback)
ISBN 0 09 958811 0
(9780099588115 from January 2007)

The Bloody Chamber (or The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories) is an anthology of short
fiction by Angela Carter. It was first published in the United Kingdom in 1979 by Vintage and
won the Cheltenham Festival Literary Prize. All of the stories share a common theme of being
closely based upon fairytales or folk tales. However, Angela Carter has stated:
My intention was not to do 'versions' or, as the American edition of the book said, horribly,
'adult' fairy tales, but to extract the latent content from the traditional stories. [1]
The anthology contains ten stories: "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".
The tales vary greatly in length, with the novelette "The Bloody Chamber" being "more than
twice the length of any of the other stories, and more than thirty times the length of the
shortest [the vignette "The Snow Child"]." [2]
The anthology's contents are also reprinted in Carter's Burning Your Boats.

Contents
[hide]

1 Story summaries
o 1.1 The Bloody Chamber
o 1.2 The Courtship of Mr Lyon
o 1.3 The Tiger's Bride
o 1.4 Puss-in-Boots
o 1.5 The Erl-King
o 1.6 The Snow Child
o 1.7 The Lady of the House of Love
o 1.8 The Werewolf
o 1.9 The Company of Wolves
o 1.10 Wolf-Alice
2 Publication history
3 Style and themes
4 Reception
o 4.1 Awards
o 4.2 Critical reception
5 Adaptations
o 5.1 Radio
o 5.2 Film
o 5.3 Music video

5.4 Theatre
6 Footnotes
7 References

8 External links

[edit] Story summaries

The stories within "The Bloody Chamber" are explicitly based on fairytales. Carter was no
doubt inspired by the works of author and fairytale collector Charles Perrault, whose
fairytales she had translated shortly beforehand.

[edit] The Bloody Chamber

(based on Bluebeard)
A teenaged girl marries an older, wealthy French Marquis, whom she does not love. When he
takes her to his castle, she learns that he enjoys sadistic pornography and takes pleasure in her
embarrassment. She is a talented pianist, and a young man, a blind piano tuner, hears her
music and falls in love with her. The woman's husband tells her that he must leave on a
business trip and forbids her to enter one particular room while he is away. She enters the
room in his absence and discovers the full extent of his perverse and murderous tendencies
when she discovers the bodies of his previous wives. The brave piano tuner is willing to stay
with her even though he knows he will not be able to save her. She is saved at the end of the
story by her mother, who arrives and shoots the Marquis just as he is about to murder the girl.

[edit] The Courtship of Mr Lyon

(based on Beauty and the Beast the concept of the Beast as a lion-like figure is a popular
one, most notably in the French film version of 1946)
Beauty's father, after experiencing car trouble, takes advantage of a stranger's hospitality.
However, his benefactor the Beast takes umbrage when he steals a miraculous white
rose for his beloved daughter. Beauty becomes the guest of the leonine Beast, and the Beast
aids her father in getting his fortune back. Beauty later joins her father in London, where she
almost forgets the Beast, causing him to whither away from heartache. When Beauty learns
that he is dying, she returns, saving him. Beauty and the Beast disclose their love for one
another and the Beast's humanity is revealed.

The cover of the 1995 edition.

[edit] The Tiger's Bride

(also based on Beauty and the Beast)
A woman moves in with a mysterious, masked "Milord," the Beast, after her father loses her
to him in a game of cards. Milord is eventually revealed to be a tiger. In a reversal of the
ending of "The Courtship of Mr Lyon", the heroine transforms at the end into a glorious tiger
who is the proper mate to the Beast, who will from now on be true to his own nature and not
disguise himself as a human.

[edit] Puss-in-Boots
(based on Puss in Boots)
Figaro, a cat, moves in with a rakish young man who lives a happily debauched life. They live
a carefree existence, with the cat helping him to make money by cheating at cards, until the
young man actually falls in love (to the cat's disgust) with a young woman kept in a tower by
a miserly, older husband who treats her only as property. The cat, hoping his friend will tire of
the woman if he has her, helps the young man into the bed of his sweetheart by playing tricks
on the old husband and the young woman's keeper. Figaro himself finds love with the young
woman's cat, and the two cats arrange the fortunes of both themselves and the young man and
woman by arranging to trip the old man so that he will fall to his death.

[edit] The Erl-King

(an adaptation of the Erlking in folklore; a sort of goblin or spirit of the woodlands)
A maiden wanders into the woods and is seduced by the sinister Erl-King, a seeming
personification of the forest itself. However, she eventually realises that he plans to imprison
her and so she murders him.

[edit] The Snow Child

(based on an obscure variant of Snow White. [3])
A Count and Countess go riding in midwinter. The Count sees snow on the ground and wishes
for a child "as white as snow". Similar wishes are made when the Count sees a hole in the
snow containing a pool of blood, and a raven. As soon as he made his final wish a child of the
exact description appears at the side of the road. The Count pays immediate attention to the
child, much to the chagrin of the Countess. At the Countess' command, the girl picks a rose
but is pricked by a thorn and dies, after which the Count rapes her corpse. After this, her
corpse melts into the snow, leaving nothing but a bloodstain on the snow, a black feather and
the rose that she had picked.

[edit] The Lady of the House of Love

(loosely based upon Sleeping Beauty)

A virginal English soldier, travelling through Romania by bicycle, comes across a mansion
inhabited by a vampiress. She intends to feed on him, but his purity and virginity have a
curious effect on her.

[edit] The Werewolf

(based on Little Red Riding Hood)
A girl goes to visit her grandmother, but encounters a werewolf on the way, whose paw she
cuts off with a knife. When she reaches her grandmother's house, the paw has turned into a
hand with the grandmother's ring on it, and the grandmother is both delirious and missing her
hand. This reveals the girl's grandmother as the werewolf, and she is stoned to death. The girl
then inherits all of her grandmother's possessions.

[edit] The Company of Wolves

(closer adaptation of Little Red Riding Hood)
A girl meets an apparently charming young man whilst wandering through the forest towards
her grandmother's house. She arrives at her grandmother's home, unaware that the same
young man has got there before her and killed her grandmother. The young man, who is really
a wolf in disguise, instructs her to remove and burn her garments one by one as she makes
remarks reminiscent of those in the classic fairy tale, such as "What big teeth you have!"
When he replies, "All the better to eat you with," she laughs at him fearlessly. The story ends
with "See! sweet and sound she sleeps in granny's bed, between the paws of the tender wolf."

[edit] Wolf-Alice
(based on an obscure variant of Little Red Riding Hood [4] and with reference to Through the
Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, this tale explores the journey towards
subjectivity and self-awareness from the perspective of a feral child)
A feral child, whom some nuns have attempted to civilize, is left in the house of a monstrous,
vampiric Duke when she does not develop the appropriate social graces. She gradually comes
to realise her own identity as a young woman and even displays compassion for the Duke.

[edit] Publication history

The Bloody Chamber was first published in 1979, though many of the stories within the
collection are reprints from other sources, such as magazines, radio and other collections.
Only two are completely original to this collection, though many were revised or changed
slightly from their previously published versions for this collection.
The stories' various origins are listed below

"The Bloody Chamber" made its debut in The Bloody Chamber.

"The Courtship of Mr Lyon" originally appeared in the British version of Vogue

magazine. [5] It was revised for this collection. [6]
"The Tiger's Bride" made its debut in The Bloody Chamber.
"Puss-in-Boots" also appeared in the 1979 anthology The Straw and the Gold, edited
by Emma Tennant. [5]
"The Erl-King" originally appeared in Bananas. [5] It was revised for this collection. [6]
"The Snow Child" was originally broadcast on the BBC Radio 4 programme Not Now,
I'm Listening. [5] It was revised for this collection. [6]
"The Lady of the House of Love" originally appeared in print in The Iowa Review. [5]
However, this story was originally written as a radio play entitled Vampirella which
was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 1976. [7] The story was revised from the previous
printed version for this collection. [6]
"The Werewolf" originally appeared in South-West Arts Review. [5] It was revised for
this collection. [6]
"The Company of Wolves" originally appeared in Bananas. [5] It was revised for this
collection. [6]
"Wolf-Alice" originally appeared in Stand. [5] It was revised for this collection. [6]

[edit] Style and themes

Angela Carter's short stories challenge the way women are represented in fairy tales, yet
retain an air of tradition and convention through her voluptuously descriptive prose. For
example, in the opening tale "The Bloody Chamber" which is a retelling of Bluebeard, Carter
plays with the conventions of canonical fairy tales; instead of the heroine being rescued by the
stereotypical male hero, she is rescued by her mother. Carter explores her feminist views in
her omniscient third person narrative technique.
The stories deal with themes of women's roles in relationships and marriage, their sexuality,
coming of age and corruption. Stories such as "The Bloody Chamber" and "The Company of
Wolves" explicitly deal with the horrific or corrupting aspects of marriage and/or sex and the
balance of power within such relationships. Themes of female identity are explored in the
"Beauty and the Beast" stories such as "The Tiger's Bride". In one instance, Beauty: the story's
heroine, is described as removing the petals from a white rose as her father gambles her away,
a seeming representation of the stripping away of the false layers of her personality to find her
true identity; an image that finds a mirror in the story's fantastical conclusion.
The stories are updated to more modern settings. The exact time periods remains vague, but
they are clearly anchored rather intentionally. For example, in "The Bloody Chamber" the
existence of transatlantic telephone implies a date 1930 or later. On the other hand, the
mention of painters such as Gustave Moreau and Odilon Redon, and of fashion designer Paul
Poiret (who designs one of the heroine's gowns) all suggest a date before 1945. "The Lady of
the House of Love" is clearly set on the eve of the First World War, and the young man's
bicycle on which he arrives at the tradition-bound vampire's house is a symbol of the
encroaching modernity which fundamentally altered European society after 1914.

[edit] Reception
[edit] Awards

The Bloody Chamber won the Cheltenham Festival Literary Prize in 1979.

[edit] Critical reception

The Bloody Chamber has received heavy praise and attention from numerous critics such as
Jack Zipes (who called it a "remarkable collection" [8]) and Marina Warner (who, on its
inspirational nature, said it "turned the key for [her] as a writer" [9]).
Several critical works have been published that focus on Carter's use of fairytales in The
Bloody Chamber and her other works [10] and the anthology is also frequently taught and
studied in University literature courses. [11]
It has been used as part of the AQA English Literature and Edexcel English
Language/Literature syllabus for A-Levels in some schools in the United Kingdom.

[edit] Adaptations
[edit] Radio
Carter later adapted "The Company of Wolves" and "Puss-in-Boots" into radio plays which
were broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 1980 and 1982 respectively. The 1982 adaptation of "Puss
in Boots" (as it was retitled) starred Andrew Sachs in the title role.[7] The scripts for both of
these plays were published in Carter's Come Unto These Yellow Sands and later the
posthumous collection The Curious Room, which also included production notes.

[edit] Film
The 1984 film The Company of Wolves by Neil Jordan was based upon the werewolf stories in
this collection, in particular the Little Red Riding Hood analogue "The Company of Wolves".
Carter also directly contributed to the screenplay of this film, which bears close resemblance
to her 1980 radio play adaptation of "The Company of Wolves." Carter's original screenplay
for this film is published in The Curious Room. Jordan and Carter also discussed producing a
film adaptation of "Vampirella", the radio drama that became "The Lady of the House of
Love", but this project was never realised.[12]

[edit] Music video

Punk band Daisy Chainsaw adapted the story of "The Lady of the House of Love" for their
1992 music video for "Hope Your Dreams Come True" (from the EP of the same name and
also later the album Eleventeen).[4]

[edit] Theatre
The stories within The Bloody Chamber are a popular subject for theatrical adaptation. The
story "The Bloody Chamber" has been adapted for the theatre more than once, including a
performance by the "Zoo District" which was accompanied by an amateur film adaptation of
"Wolf-Alice".[5] "The Company of Wolves" is also a popular subject for adaptation by
amateur/student theatre groups (e.g. by this Welsh drama college).

[edit] Footnotes
1. ^ Angela Carter in John Haffenden's Novelists in Interview (New York: Methuen
Press, 1985), p 80 ISBN 978-0416376005.
2. ^ Helen Simpson, Introduction to Angela Carters The Bloody Chamber (London:
Vintage, 1979 (2006)), p viii.
3. ^ Helen Simpson, Introduction to Angela Carters The Bloody Chamber (London:
Vintage, 2006 (1979)), p xvi.
4. ^ Helen Simpson, Introduction to Angela Carters The Bloody Chamber (London:
Vintage, 2006 (1979)), p xviii.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber (Croydon: Vintage, 1979 (1995)), p 4
ISBN 0 09 958811 0.
6. ^ a b c d e f g [1]
7. ^ a b Mark Bell (ed.), production notes to Angela Carter's The Curious Room (London:
Vintage, 1997).
8. ^ Jack Zipes, "Crossing Boundaries with Wise Girls: Angela Carter's Fairy Tales for
Children" in Angela Carter and the Fairy Tale, ed. Danielle M. Roemer and Christina
Bacchilega (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1998), p 159.
9. ^ Marina Warner, "Ballerina: The Belled Girl Sends a Tape to an Impresario" in
Angela Carter and the Fairy Tale, ed. Danielle M. Roemer and Christina Bacchilega
(Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1998), p 250.
10. ^ e.g. Angela Carter and the Fairy Tale, ed. Danielle M. Roemer and Christina
Bacchilega (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1998).
11. ^ e.g. at Simon Fraser University[2], University of Essex[3]
12. ^ Neil Jordan quoted in the production notes to Angela Carter's The Curious Room
(London: Vintage, 1997), p 507.

[edit] References

Anonymous, "LS 819: Transformations: Freedom and Magic in Nineteenth Century

"Fairy Stories"", (n.d.).
Anonymous, "School of Theatre and Performance - Trinity College Carmarthen":
scroll down to Nick Evans for evidence of the production of "The Company of
Wolves".
Charles N. Brown & William G. Contento, 2007."The Locus Index to Science Fiction
(1984-1998); The Bloody Chamber and other stories", 2004: source for specific
contents details.
Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber (Croydon: Vintage, 1979 (1995)), ISBN 0 09
958811 0.
Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber (London: Vintage, 1979 (2006)), p 4 ISBN 0 09
958811 0: source for Helen Simpson quotations and references (in introduction).
Angela Carter, The Curious Room (London: Vintage, 1997), ISBN 0-09-958621-5:
source for Mark Bell's production notes, which include a quotation from Neil Jordan.
Daisy Chainsaw, "Hope Your Dreams Come True", 1992.
John Haffenden, Novelists in Interview (New York: Methuen Press, 1985), ISBN 9780416376005: source for Angela Carter quotation.
Danielle M. Roemer and Christina Bacchilega (ed.), Angela Carter and the Fairy Tale
(Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1998), ISBN 0-8143-2905-5: source for Jack
Zipes, "Crossing Boundaries with Wise Girls: Angela Carter's Fairy Tales for

Children" and Marina Warner, "Ballerina: The Belled Girl Sends a Tape to an
Impresario".
"Zoo District", "Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber; Adapted for the Stage and
Directed by Kara Feely", 2005.

[edit] External links

The Bloody Chamber reviewed at Guardian Unlimited Books

The Bloody Chamber reviewed at 'Pretty-Scary'
Information on the contents of a special edition of "Marvels & Tales: Journal of FairyTale Studies"
The Bloody Chamber contents list ('95 edition) and the sources for the stories
Full text of The Bloody Chamber
[hide]

vde

Works by Angela Carter

Novels:

Shadow Dance The Magic Toyshop Several Perceptions Heroes and

Villains Love The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman The
Passion of New Eve Nights at the Circus Wise Children

Short
Fiction:

Fireworks: Nine Profane Pieces The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
The Bridegroom Black Venus American Ghosts and Old World Wonders
Burning Your Boats: The Collected Short Stories

Poetry:

Five Quiet Shouters Unicorn

Dramatic
Works:

Come Unto These Golden Sands: Four Radio Plays The Curious Room:
Plays, Film Scripts and an Opera The Holy Family Album

Children's
Books:

The Donkey Prince Miss Z, the Dark Young Lady Comic and Curious Cats
The Music People Moonshadow Sea-Cat and Dragon King

The Sadeian Woman and the Ideology of Pornography Nothing Sacred:

Non-Fiction: Selected Writings Expletives Deleted: Selected Writings Shaking a Leg:
Collected Journalism and Writing
Works as
Editor:

Wayward Girls and Wicked Women: An Anthology of Subversive Stories The

Virago Book of Fairy Tales The Second Virago Book of Fairy Tales Angela
Carter's Book of Fairy Tales

Works as
The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault Sleeping Beauty and Other Favourite
Translator: Fairy Tales
Film
Adaptations:The Company of Wolves The Magic Toyshop
An impoverished 17-year-old Frenchwoman, a professional pianist, is betrothed to a much
older man. The much older man is an extremely wealthy Marquis, whose home is a castle in

Brittany, located on the ocean. The Marquis has been married three times to women of some
renown, all of whom have died. His most recent wife died only three months before he
became engagement to the Frenchwoman. The engagement ring is set with a fire opal the size
of a pigeon's egg, which had been; his mother's, his grandmother's, and his great
grandmother's. The ring had once been a gift to his family from Catherine de Medici. All of
his previous brides have worn the ring. The Marquis's wedding gift to the French woman is
his grandmother's two-inch wide choker of rubies which was created after the French
Revolution, as a gesture of defiance, to signify that she had escaped the guillotine
In the following excerpt, Lewallen offers her interpretation of Carter's "The Bloody
Chamber," particularly in regard to the themes of gender roles and sexuality. Lewallen also
examines Carter's use of symbolism and irony.
The Bloody Chamber is mostly a collection of fairy tales rewritten to incorporate props of the
Gothic and elements of a style designated 'magic realism', in which a realistic consciousness
operates within a surrealistic context. The characters are at once both abstractions and 'real'.
The heroine in 'The Tiger's Bride', for example, bemused by surreal events, comments, 'what
democracy of magic held this palace and fir forest in common? Or, should I be prepared to
accept it as proof of the axiom my father had drummed into me: that, if you have enough
money, anything is possible?' Symbolism is prevalent: white roses for.....
Kaiser teaches English at Jefferson State Community College in Birmingham, Alabama. In
the following excerpt, she examines Carter's use of intertextuality and the sexual symbolism
in "The Bloody Chamber."
As Carter suggests in her introduction to The Old Wives' Fairy Tale Book, intertextuality was
embedded into the history of the fairy tale when Charles Perrault, the Grimm Brothers, and
other compilers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries transposed oral folk tales into fairy
tales. This transfer involved what [Julia] Kristeva refers to as "a new articulation of the
thetic," as the politics, economics, fashions, and prejudices of a sophisticated culture replaced
the values of rural culture that form the context of oral folklore [Revolution in Poetic
Language, 1990]. Part of this transfer, Carter argues, was the transposing of an essentially
feminine form, the "old wives' tale,".....