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The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories

by Angela Carter

Other authors: See the other authors section.

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
5,3541471,855 (4.04)451
From familiar fairy tales and legends - Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, Puss-in-Boots, Beauty and the Beast, vampires, werewolves - Angela Carter has created an absorbing collection of dark, sensual, fantastic stories.
  1. 40
    There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbour's Baby: Scary Fairy Tales by Lyudmila Petrushevskaya (alalba)
  2. 41
    The Sandman: The Doll's House by Neil Gaiman (kraaivrouw)
  3. 30
    We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (sturlington)
  4. 31
    The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly (LizzieG)
    LizzieG: Dark reworkings of classic fairy tales
  5. 20
    Needles & Bones by Various (MinaKelly)
    MinaKelly: Grown up fairy tales, with a literary bent and an undeniable intensity
  6. 31
    Red as Blood; or, Tales from the Sisters Grimmer by Tanith Lee (guyalice)
    guyalice: Both are very dark collections of fairy tale retellings from master storytellers.
  7. 10
    The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington by Leonora Carrington (andomck)
    andomck: Angela Carter was influenced by Leonora Carrington
  8. 00
    The Odditorium: Stories by Melissa Pritchard (hairball)
  9. 00
    Night's Master by Tanith Lee (andomck)
    andomck: Dark, gothic fantasies
  10. 00
    Black-Winged Angels by Angela Slatter (AngelaJMaher)
  11. 00
    Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Carmen Maria Machado (mooingzelda)
    mooingzelda: Machado's stories also delve deeply into fairytale and myth, but put a very modern slant on these to examine what it is to be a woman and queer.
  12. 01
    Enchanted: Erotic Bedtime Stories for Women by Nancy Madore (MyriadBooks)
  13. 02
    The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault by Charles Perrault (edwinbcn)
1970s (39)
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» See also 451 mentions

English (147)  Spanish (2)  All languages (149)
Showing 1-5 of 147 (next | show all)
3.75 stars. Took me forever to read some stories. The writing and imagery was super lush and atmospheric. ( )
  Readings.of.a.Slinky | Nov 20, 2023 |
Just read the first story (The Bloody Chamber) itself but wow it's really powerful and scary and sinister with an incredible atmosphere of oppression and withheld violence and a lot of suspense even though it's likely you know what's going to happen from the start. What stood out to me was a bit in the middle which breaks open the suppressed violence when she opens the book of art showing sadistic, violent, murderous paintings - the description is suddenly very explicit. I feel deeply creeped out after reading it, it's really good

None of the others blew me away quite like the first one did (although to be fair it's the longest story in the collection) but I definitely enjoyed them a lot. They're either retellings of or strongly influenced by fairy tales - for most of them it's obvious what it's based on very quickly but it's either told very well bringing out undercurrents and ideas in the original stories you wouldn't have thought about before or with a different take on it. The only odd one is "The Courtship of Mr Lyon" which seems like a really straight version of Beauty and the Beast but I'm probably missing some stuff with that. The themes of misogyny, objectification of women, virginity, etc crop up a lot. The stories generally have a sinister/gothic/surreal vibe except for Puss in Boots which is humorous and bawdy. Her descriptions are really good at evoking an atmosphere although she uses a lot of really obscure words and I was glad to be reading on an ereader so I could look stuff up easily heh. Sorry for kind of shallow review but I liked it ( )
1 vote tombomp | Oct 31, 2023 |
I liked about half of the stories in the book, the ones that read more like Gothic horror. However, even in the stories I preferred they seemed to get bogged down with a tangle of language especially in the Erl-King. Considering the book's only about 150 pages long it took me quite a while to get through it though I'm glad I read it as some of the later stories in the book definitely had a grim-fairy-tale-dream type of atmosphere (particularly The Lady of the House of Love and the Company of Wolves). I can't say I'd recommend it to anyone but I would say it IS worth reading. ( )
  Ranjr | Jul 13, 2023 |
Angela Carter has a new fan in me. Amazing stuff and I can’t believe it took me this long to find her. ( )
  Andy5185 | Jul 9, 2023 |
I enjoy finding a foundational text for a subtype, a classic that would never have been included on the 'classics' lists from my college days. So while this wasn't my absolute favorite book, I enjoyed reading it. I really like how committed the author is to the style, atmosphere, story; it does very much set a type and never shies away from that. The most interesting part was thinking of all the authors who've been compared to Carter in reviews and marketing blurbs, and seeing how different they are. All that's needed is a woman examining stories, a woman who creates an atmosphere... a woman, writing. I'm not sure I've ever seen an author highlighted in a blurb that really makes sense as a comparison in a meaningful way, so no I'm not surprised. But it's gratifying to know that even within this delimited type, there is a great variety of voices. ( )
  Kiramke | Jun 27, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 147 (next | show all)
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» Add other authors (20 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Carter, Angelaprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Armitage, RichardNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Bassery, ChristineIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Bikadoroff, RoxannaCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Buckley, LynnCover designersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Fox, EmiliaNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Karash, IgorIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Konahin, AlexCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Lanati, BarbaraTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Link, KellyIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Marsh, JamesCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Simpson, HelenIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Warner, MarinaIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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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.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Don't combine with the short story.
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From familiar fairy tales and legends - Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, Puss-in-Boots, Beauty and the Beast, vampires, werewolves - Angela Carter has created an absorbing collection of dark, sensual, fantastic stories.

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From familiar fairy tales and legends -- Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, Puss-in-Boots, Beauty and the Beast, vampires, werewolves -- Angela Carter has created an absorbing collection of dark, sensual, fantastic stories. -- from the back of the book. Contents:
  • 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
  • Wolf-Alice
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