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Black Venus's Tale
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Black Venus's Tale
Otto storie d'amore. Otto racconti straordinari in cui si esprimono al meglio le doti camaleontiche e la corrosiva ironia di Angela Carter.
Paperback, Next editions 1 , 35 pages
Published
June 1st 1980
by Next Editions
(first published 1980)
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HA! I have not actually read this book, but one particularly angst-filled mid-90's summer of my adolescence I found myself next to a bonfire after, I believe, a particularly angst-filled mid-90's community production of "Little Shop of Horrors." Some girl or something was around the party somewhere, and I could only assume at the time that she was french-kissing madly with some lucky schmuck who (of course) was probably getting to touch her boobs.
(Tangent: what I would not give to have touched...more
(Tangent: what I would not give to have touched...more
9 likes · like · see review
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Saints and Strangers is actual literature, not popular fiction, and, as is the case with most literature, it can be hard work. This book is very, very intelligent, and I would be tempted to do what all literary critics do, and rate it highly because it is obscure, or because I don't understand vast swathes of it, but I won't, I'll be honest. I've given it a three because it's a mixed bag of the sublime and the dull, there are elements of utter obscurity in here that render the point of the tale...more
Angela Carter's prose is mesmerising... an absolute pleasure to read. She straddles the dreamworld between myth and reality, and her writing matches her imagination. Apart from that, all the eight "pieces" (one cannot call them stories, I think) in this slim volume are delightfully unconventional: subversive, if you like.
The title story, written from the POV of Baudelier's mistress, portrays her as a simple girl, out to make a living on the mean streets. Whatever persona the poet imposes on her...more
The title story, written from the POV of Baudelier's mistress, portrays her as a simple girl, out to make a living on the mean streets. Whatever persona the poet imposes on her...more
I adore Carter's The Bloody Chamber, and Black Venus has been sitting on my book shelf unread for nearly two years, so something had to be done. As with nearly all short stories I read, it was a bit hit-and-miss in terms of holding my interest. I think I would have appreciated the tale of Baudelaire's mistress if I had read more (read: any) Baudelaire before. The different take on "Peter and the Wolf" was fun, and highly reminiscent of "The Company of Wolves", while the set-up to Lizzie Borden's...more
Feb 16, 2013
Zee
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
booksread2013,
gothic-horror
I don't know why people don't enjoy the stories in this book; they are all strong, oblique narratives that carry startling revelations at the core. Personally I like short stories that give me a little jolt, and Carter is brilliant at slowly undressing her ideas from all the layers of language that she manages to put up around them.
However, I did get the feeling that she was holding back a bit with these stories. Angela Carter at full-speed is a force to be reckoned with. 'Black Venus' is a ver...more
However, I did get the feeling that she was holding back a bit with these stories. Angela Carter at full-speed is a force to be reckoned with. 'Black Venus' is a ver...more
I am accustomed to reading short stories a story at a time, but with these I often had to take it a paragraph, even sometimes a sentence, at a time, the prose is so rich, especially in "Overture and Incidental Music," a lush and decadent riff on A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Let's see, what were my favorites...
I was mesmerized by "The Fall River Axe Murders" (Carter makes the August heat palpable, as if it's been stuffed into your mouth, in this "prequel" to the notorious and grisly murders of Liz...more
Let's see, what were my favorites...
I was mesmerized by "The Fall River Axe Murders" (Carter makes the August heat palpable, as if it's been stuffed into your mouth, in this "prequel" to the notorious and grisly murders of Liz...more
My favorite collection of Angela Carter stories that includes the fantastic The Fall River Axe Murders, which brings the semi-conscious blood-dripping Lizzie Borden back to life and places her, axe in hand, in the decaying environment that will facilitate her meteoric rise as murderess extraordinaire. Angela Carter is one of the authors that made me fall in love with language and how it can be used to create remarkably vibrant exquisite set pieces that delve into our deepest joys and fears. Love...more
The only other Carter I'd read is Wise Children, so it was great to discover her short stories are just as good. These riff on existing fictional or historical figures: Lizzie Borden, Midsummer Night's Dream characters, Peter and the Wolf. Stellar writing and a great hand for atmosphere (although I felt there were some troubling racial connotations in "Black Venus," the story about Baudelaire's mistress).
There is a biblical ugliness to Carter's tales. A kind of whimsical evil that creeps into your head in such a clever way that it almost sneaks up on you and leaps. Hard to describe. It's the kind of darkness that might make you think that she is in cahoots with the devil (not that there is such a thing). Carter's writing is thick and smart and poetic. She surely must be the envy of many. She doesn't pretend to be brilliant, she just is. This will the first in a long string of her books for me, I...more
I have marked this book as read, despite the fact that I have 3 stories to go, simply because I so enjoyed the first several stories that I am certain the final three will be as pleasing. But why have I quit the book for now? Because of the lush text. I am used to (and prefer) reading straightforward text. Simple and right on target text. Carter's words are pure art! And I can only focus on a certain number of artworks at one time. I'm still digesting the first several and will indulge in the fi...more
Jan 22, 2012
Nomad
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
angela-carter,
retold-fairytales
I can never say enough good things about Angela Carter (who died in 1994 from cancer), her writing is surreal, superb and ALWAYS makes you think. Her short stories almost always take a fairy or folk tale and look at it from a fully new lens. She twists them and makes us look at the pulsating parts, the gooey stuff. All if it is good and all of it makes you think.
This volume is more focused on folktales and American ones at that. This is of note because Carter was English and while she did live...more
This volume is more focused on folktales and American ones at that. This is of note because Carter was English and while she did live...more
Question: What would happen if a mad scientist were to mix Shirley Jackson and Joyce Carol Oates' molecules in a test tube?
Answer: Angela Carter
...
I've never been able to read anything else she ever wrote. It was too disturbing.
Answer: Angela Carter
...
I've never been able to read anything else she ever wrote. It was too disturbing.
1 like · like · see review
A collection of modernised and/or real-ified fairy tales. (Wow I am eloquent early in the morning.) I really liked the story based on Peter and the Wolf. Incredible writing. Some of the stories were a bit boring, so only 4 stars.
This collection was my first exposure to Angela Carter's great stories, back in 1989. Since I'm teaching her this term, I will shortly get reacquainted with her work. My favorite story in this collection is "The Cabinet of Edgar Allan Poe," a metafictional trip into the mind of Poe. "Black Venus," which deals with Charles Baudelaire's black mistress Jeanne Duval, is also notable. Other stories are riffs on Lizzie Borden ("The Fall River Axe Murders") and Shakespeare ("Overture and Incidental Mus...more
Oct 15, 2007
Demisty Bellinger
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
everyone under the sun
Darling Angela,
Where have you been all my life? This is the short story collection I would have written were I British, white, blonde, and (sadly) dead. Carter is a so-called postmodern writer, but with a very traditionally sick way of writing, who takes on fairytales and historical oddities with a candid delicacy. Absolutely lovely.
Her version of Lizzie Borden and her world is so tactical I was stuck in soot-filled New England for a night, hardly able to breath and looking over my shoulder. And...more
Where have you been all my life? This is the short story collection I would have written were I British, white, blonde, and (sadly) dead. Carter is a so-called postmodern writer, but with a very traditionally sick way of writing, who takes on fairytales and historical oddities with a candid delicacy. Absolutely lovely.
Her version of Lizzie Borden and her world is so tactical I was stuck in soot-filled New England for a night, hardly able to breath and looking over my shoulder. And...more
Angela Carter is the darling of feminists and fans of the truly strange. Her retellings of fairy tales here will stay with you long after you close the pages.
And I have to ask myself: why did I wait so long to read Carter? Beautiful, beautiful prose, evocative not-quite-stories. I'm smitten.
mysterious,creepy short stories. British writer-too talented for my taste at this time.
Almost all of these stories serve as some indecent amendment to history that will forever be left out of textbooks. These are histories I want to believe. They seem to belong to another time, not the 20th Century, and they are all somewhat cruel, indeed making strangers out of saints and vice versa. I give five stars to the stories I loved the most--"Our Lady of the Massacre," "The Cabinet of Edgar Allan Poe," and "Black Venus" in particular. As a whole, this collection didn't read as cleanly fo...more
May 26, 2010
R.
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to R. by:
Misha
Shelves:
2010
Reminded muchly of Joyce Carol Oates' similar - but slightly inferior - exercise, Wild Nights!
"To rehearse the long part of dying." (!)
Ocho historias absorbentes. Resiliencia, carácter, orgullo y obsesión, narrados de forma magistral.
2 likes · like · see review
Angela Carter!!!!
.
The first story in this collection is one of the most atmospheric things I have ever read. An account of the events (and the setting) of (and a certain amount of background information leading up to) the day Lizzie Border's father and stepfather were---well, you know the story. Angela Carter. God knows what she would have written had she lived. Such a singular, brilliant mind.
December 21:
Last night I reread "Peter and the Wolf" and was again astounded by Carter's power.
December 21:
Last night I reread "Peter and the Wolf" and was again astounded by Carter's power.
I just love this woman. Need I say more?
dynamite.
Eight stories in this slim collection, and while you'll need to be in a bit of a fanciful mood to engage with some of them, the best showcase wonderful, sardonic wit in a prose style truly Carter's own. Go for "The Fall River Axe Murders," an interesting why-dunnit about Lizzie Borden, and "The Kitchen Child," in the voice of one funny bastard son.
Angela Carter is a dark god who simultaneously scares the crap out of me and makes me want to invite her over for tea. The first story, "The Fall River Axe-Murders" about Lizzie Borden and the stifling oppression of women (specifically "old maids") in a puritanical/ patriarchical society will make your head spin in fear and delight!
My reaction to this book was visceral. Carter has a tremendous ability to render scenes and settings in a manner that gets deep into a reader's subconscious. I actually awoke the night after I finished the book terrorized by her rendering of the oppressive heat, decay and stagnation in which middle class Victorian people lived.
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From Wikipedia: Born 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.
She married twice, first in 1960 to...more
More about Angela Carter...
She married twice, first in 1960 to...more
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