157 pages
English language
Published June 14, 1979 by Gollancz.
The Bloody Chamber—which includes the story that is the basis of Neil Jordan’s 1984 movie The Company of Wolves—she spins subversively dark and sensual versions of familiar fairy tales and legends like “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Bluebeard,” “Puss in Boots,” and “Beauty and the Beast,” giving them exhilarating new life in a style steeped in the romantic trappings of the gothic tradition.
So, like, a 5/5 for the prose--it is swooningly beautiful. I could read her sentences forever. But a 2/5 for the actual stories, which are not at all my thing.
Wolves, fairy tales, princesses, castles, beauties, beasts. That may sound like your thing or not at all (me more the latter) but Angela Carter is such a wizard with language and narrative that she seduces you into caring. Not always but better than just about anyone. I would totally read more of her stuff.
