Book Review: The Bloody Chamber

Title: The Bloody Chamber
Author: Angela Carter
Format: Trade Paper
Publisher: Penguin (Ink Series)
Pub Date: 1979; this edition: 2011
Read: Apr 2011
Purchased: Shakespeare & Co.
Why: I’d always wanted to read The Bloody Chamber but couldn’t get over the crappy font of the previous edition. I hoped Penguin would eventually release a new edition and they did! Naturally I had to buy it.
Fulfills Challenge? Yes
Notes: I first read Angela Carter’s short story “The Tiger Bride” in my Fairy Tales class in college. Then I read an essay about her in Tin House’s Fantastic Women (Issue #33). So I’m definitely familiar with her and what she does.

Review/Thoughts:
Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber is a collection of fairy tales with a feminist bent. As someone who loves fairy tales and feminism, you would think I would’ve read this a long time ago. But alas, I am a loser.

The collection opens with the eponymous story, a retelling of “Bluebeard” (a fairytale I’m unfamiliar with). I have to admit that when I first started reading it, the writing felt like a bit much. Beautiful for sure, but almost too much to handle especially having finished Ghost World (very colloquial) and Other People We Married (minimalist, simplistic) before it. But I eventually let myself be swept up in it as the first story got more interesting. That’s the other thing, it seemed to take a while for the first story to get to the point but once it did, I was completely taken in. It was thoroughly suspenseful and though I knew that these stories would have a feminist bent, I still wasn’t sure if I could breathe easy. I LOVED the ending, however, and though it started slow, “The Bloody Chamber” was my favorite story of the collection, hands down.

Both “The Courtship of Mr. Lyon” and “The Tiger’s Bride” are based on “Beauty and the Beast.” I did not choose to reread “The Tiger’s Bride” this time around, but I do remember it being very sensual. What I probably enjoyed most about the former story was the pun (Lyon/Lion). I enjoyed these but they didn’t stand out for me.

I almost got completely derailed in my efforts when I started reading “Puss-in-Boots.” The writing style, while entirely appropriate for the character annoyed me to no end and I found my attention drifting elsewhere. It took me days to realize that I needed to move on if I were to have any chance of finishing the collection and so I didn’t finish this one. Sorry!

In general, when a woman “comes to her senses” and realizes a man (or male creature) is actually out to destroy her then turns around and finishes him off, I’m pretty much A-OK with that. That’s all I gotta say about “The Erl-King.”

“The Snow Child,” based on “Snow White,” suffered from brevity. At a mere two pages (not even), it seemed finished before it even began. I know a lot of traditional fairy tales don’t belabor the point but this was short in a way that was detrimental to the overall story. Also I did not understand why, for the love of god, the father had sex his daughter’s corpse. A definite what the fuck? moment for me that had me rereading the story several times before I realized I didn’t care enough to continue wasting my time.

“The Lady of the House of Love” was apparently based off a radio play called “Vampirella.” I’ve never heard of this play but yes, the story is about a female vampire. It was surprisingly beautiful and I found myself jotting down so many quotes. Definitely a favorite in the collection.

“The Werewolf,” “The Company of Wolves,” and “Wolf-Alice” are all based on “Little Red Riding Hood” to some extent though the last also references “Alice in Wonderland.” I enjoyed all three stories though my favorite was “The Werewolf” because it came with an unexpected twist. I also loved the main character’s fearlessness in “The Company of Wolves.”

Overall I really enjoyed this collection (how many times have I used the word enjoyed? ugh). My biggest criticism, aside from the two stories I didn’t like (that seems more a matter of taste anyway), is that thematically the stories seemed a bit too similar. I mean, did we really need three variants of “Little Red Riding Hood” and two variants of “Beauty and the Beast?” And though Carter does make these stories her own, their ties back to their origins are undeniable, and so at times, the collection felt repetitive. It might not be a bad idea then to read the stories over a longer stretch of time. I think they can be better appreciated with a break in between (especially the three wolf stories back to back at the end).

Final Verdict: