Angela Carter – Page 2 – Cannonball Read 17

Why is London like Budapest?

Wise Children by Angela Carter

May 23, 2020 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

This is a fantastic novel and is Angela Carter’s final novel. It’s also the first novel of hers that I’ve read, having only read her short fiction (with mixed feelings) before this. Here we have the narration of Dora, who along with her identical twin sister Nora, find themselves on the 75th birthdays in about 1990 looking back on their life in the theater, the burlesque stage, and at their family history. The novel has a complicated structure, that if this were a class, we […]

“If you spy a naked man among the pines, you must run as if the Devil were after you.”

The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter

February 23, 2020 by andtheIToldYouSos Leave a Comment

Never have truer words been spoken! This collection of short stories crept around my periphery for some time, and I am both overjoyed to have finally given in to it and disappointed in myself for not biting earlier. I came across it originally on a list of fairy-tale retellings on Autostraddle, and when it popped up again in the employee recommendations section of one of my favorite booksellers (Crow Bookshop in Burlington, what’s up!) I knew that it was meant to be. Still, it sat […]

“Love is desire sustained by unfulfillment.”

The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter

December 28, 2019 by faintingviolet Leave a Comment

While I like to think of myself as generally well-read there are definite gaps in the more classic authors of certain genres. Authors I enjoy, including Neil Gaiman, have pointed to Angela Carter as an immense influence on their own work. Thankfully someone had gifted The Bloody Chamber & Other Stories to me a few years ago. The stories in the collection share a theme of being closely based upon fairytales or folk tales and Carter toys with Gothic fiction and gender, utilizing classic Gothic […]

Why oh Why

May 27, 2017 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

And still I persist. I really generally don’t like stories based on myth and fairy tales, unless! there is a full rendering of the ins and outs of the stories. I think The King Must Die is one of my favorite novels and just does such a satisfying retelling of the Theseus myth. It’s a very satisfying novel. And I read The Robber Bride earlier this year and it was great! And this one has satisfying stories: “The Bloody Chamber” and “The Company of Wolves” are both […]

A bird in a gilded cage

April 29, 2014 by bonnie 1 Comment

Oh, man. I really feel like I’ve been to the circus. A crazy, trippy sci-fi circus, but still. Enough to go around. I’ve heard Angela Carter’s name bandied about the contemporary British field/feminist literature field, and this work in particular, so I thought it would be good to know my field even better. The novel takes place in three parts, for the three major “stages” of the circus’s trip: London, St. Petersburg, and Siberia. In London, we become acquainted with Sophie Fevvers through journalist Jack […]

Fractured Fairy Tales: The Robber Bridegroom

April 18, 2014 by ElCicco Leave a Comment

This short novel is a delightful mix of fairy tale and tall tale, with a healthy sprinkling of both humor and the macabre in it. The cast of characters includes a doting father, a wicked stepmother, a lovely daughter, a dashing but deceitful suitor, Mike Fink, a band of thieves and a hick named Goat. If you enjoyed Helen Oyeyemi’s Boy, Snow, Bird or Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber, The Robber Bridegroom should be on your reading list. The tale begins in antebellum Louisiana with […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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