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Bluebeard
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'Curiosity is the most fleeting of pleasures; the moment is satisfied, it ceases to exist and it always proves very, very expensive.'
Angela Carter's playful and subversive retellings of Charles Perrault's classic fairy tales conjure up a world of resourceful women, black-hearted villains, wily animals and incredible transformations. In these seven stories, bristling with f ...more
Angela Carter's playful and subversive retellings of Charles Perrault's classic fairy tales conjure up a world of resourceful women, black-hearted villains, wily animals and incredible transformations. In these seven stories, bristling with f ...more
Paperback, Penguin Mini Modern Classics, 64 pages
Published
2011
by Penguin UK
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Showing 1-30
A funny little book - and it is very little (64 pages, each about half the size of a normal paperback page). It's not bad, but far, far better, is her feast of bloodier, darker tales, The Bloody Chamber, which I reviewed here
Angela Carter retells seven of Charles Perrault's classic fairytales - though two I'd never heard of. In fact, the telling is mostly traditional, but with an explicit moral or two appended, some of which have a more modern slant. I'm not really sure of its purpose or intende ...more
Angela Carter retells seven of Charles Perrault's classic fairytales - though two I'd never heard of. In fact, the telling is mostly traditional, but with an explicit moral or two appended, some of which have a more modern slant. I'm not really sure of its purpose or intende ...more
These short stories, headlined by Bluebeard , are retelling of classic fairy tales. In this short Penguin compendium there are five of them, all have the Carter trademark dry humour and a message, which she clearly lays out as “Moral” at the end of each one. Good, if not brief, entertainment.
Angela Carter reinterprets these classic fairytales with skilful brevity, elegance of language and sharpness of wit that stays true to Perrault’s narrative style and structure and doesn’t stray as far from the original versions as might be expected.
But be warned, if you read Bluebeard hoping for more of The Bloody Chamber it may feel a little like having to drink a beaker of cheap house red after enjoying a goblet of full bodied, rich Rioja.
(Excerpt from full review of Bluebeard by Angela Carter ...more
But be warned, if you read Bluebeard hoping for more of The Bloody Chamber it may feel a little like having to drink a beaker of cheap house red after enjoying a goblet of full bodied, rich Rioja.
(Excerpt from full review of Bluebeard by Angela Carter ...more
Someone should tell Penguin what the definition of the word "subversive" is.
Not what is on the tin as it were.
The book itself would be a pleasant 6.5/10 as it is solely a translation with a bit of a half-joke thrown in at the end. However, it is not sold as such. It is sold saying it is a subversive retelling which is a lie.
This work makes me think of a line from the Simpsons "Get some new oldies, Geniuses." this book is just that. When you are a company that makes your money off of classics your market is not going to be the greatest so create some new masterpieces and ...more
The book itself would be a pleasant 6.5/10 as it is solely a translation with a bit of a half-joke thrown in at the end. However, it is not sold as such. It is sold saying it is a subversive retelling which is a lie.
This work makes me think of a line from the Simpsons "Get some new oldies, Geniuses." this book is just that. When you are a company that makes your money off of classics your market is not going to be the greatest so create some new masterpieces and ...more
I was very much looking forward to reading a small collection of Angela Carter's dark fairy tales, and while it's an excellent collection of stories told with pace and precision, I was disappointed to realise the stories are, in essence, faithful translations of Perrault's tales.
So while the stories provide simple and unadulterated fun, that they're more Perrault than Angela Carter makes the book's attribution to Carter something of a mockery. Shame on Penguin for the immorality of their marketi ...more
So while the stories provide simple and unadulterated fun, that they're more Perrault than Angela Carter makes the book's attribution to Carter something of a mockery. Shame on Penguin for the immorality of their marketi ...more
Sep 28, 2016
Clare Holman-Hobbs
rated it
it was amazing
Shelves:
retellings,
owned,
fairy-tales,
2016,
2016-classics-challenge,
favorites,
short-stories,
5-stars,
feminism
I bloody (haha!) loved this! So enjoyable to read. Angela Carter made a wonderful (although liberal) translation of Charles Perrault's originals. I particularly enjoyed the classics: Bluebeard, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, all complete with morals. A must read for anyone who is studying fairy tales and their translation over time, interventions, and/or Angela Carter herself.
I picked this little book up excited to finally discover Angela Carter's writing – but Bluebeard, behind its promising title, is just a collection of Charles Perrault's original fairy tales, translated from French to English, with a handful of updated morals thrown in. The large-print name on the cover should be Charles Perrault!
I didn't get the point of this, at all. Trading on a name, perhaps? Trivial and a little mechanical.
I’m on a bit of a Bluebeard kick at the moment. I had not heard of Angela Carter until Neil Gaiman mentioned her as an influence in one of his Rarities stories. [I’m also trying to get through a humble bundle… I do keep buying them and forgetting I have them. Bad, AM]
In Puss in Boots, his master is the Marquis of Carabas; a name you’ll know from Neverwhere if you read Gaiman.
This book includes Bluebeard, Little Red Riding Hood, Puss in Boots, The Sleeping Beauty of the Wood, Cinderella: or, The ...more
In Puss in Boots, his master is the Marquis of Carabas; a name you’ll know from Neverwhere if you read Gaiman.
This book includes Bluebeard, Little Red Riding Hood, Puss in Boots, The Sleeping Beauty of the Wood, Cinderella: or, The ...more
an enjoyable collection of classic fairy stories retold - I was particularly fond of the "moral of the story" parts at the end, and found myself chuckling whilst reading them!
I love Carter's style and can't wait to read some of her longer pieces!!!
Just read The Bloody Chamber instead
Bluebeard-Angela Carter
ถามองมันในฐานะงานเลาใหมกอาจจะพูดไดวาไมมีอะไรใหมเลย Bluebeard นำนิทานหลายตอหลายเรืองของคุณชารลส (Charles Perrault) ทังซินเดอเรลลา หนูนอยหมวกแดง หนุมเคราฟา ฯลฯ มาเลาใหมดวยทวงทำนองใหม แตขอจำกัดของมันคือ เราเลนกับเนือหาไดไมมากนัก (คนไทยเรียกเคารพผูแตง?) นันทำใหแตละเรืองไมไดหวือหวาเปนพิเศษ เรารูกันอยูแลววาหนูนอยหมวกแดงจะเจออะไร และซินเดอเรลลาทำรองเทาแกวหลุดกีขาง กระนันสวนทีเพิมเติมมาคือบทจบทีวาดวย 'นิทานเรืองนีสอนใหรูวา' (Morals) ทีสะทอนความรวมสมัยของผูเขียน ความคิดเหนทีมีตอนิ ...more
ถามองมันในฐานะงานเลาใหมกอาจจะพูดไดวาไมมีอะไรใหมเลย Bluebeard นำนิทานหลายตอหลายเรืองของคุณชารลส (Charles Perrault) ทังซินเดอเรลลา หนูนอยหมวกแดง หนุมเคราฟา ฯลฯ มาเลาใหมดวยทวงทำนองใหม แตขอจำกัดของมันคือ เราเลนกับเนือหาไดไมมากนัก (คนไทยเรียกเคารพผูแตง?) นันทำใหแตละเรืองไมไดหวือหวาเปนพิเศษ เรารูกันอยูแลววาหนูนอยหมวกแดงจะเจออะไร และซินเดอเรลลาทำรองเทาแกวหลุดกีขาง กระนันสวนทีเพิมเติมมาคือบทจบทีวาดวย 'นิทานเรืองนีสอนใหรูวา' (Morals) ทีสะทอนความรวมสมัยของผูเขียน ความคิดเหนทีมีตอนิ ...more
I didn't hate this book, but I didn't like it either. I feel like Angela Carter doesn't add anything to the original fairytales (as far as I know at least), besides the moral of the story at the end. Since the back described this book to contain her retellings I thought she would actually have rewritten the stories so that they would be her own, maybe adding a flavor of kick-ass females or something more modern. They were just the same, but they didn't produce any special feelings in me and didn
...more
After reading The Bloody Chamber stories, this selection was a disappointment. Rehash of the same fairy tale (mostly if not all Perrault) stories that were rehashed in The Bloody Chamber, but with less imagination than demonstrated in the latter writings. I wanted to get something out the "morals" at the end of each of these stories, but even those rang a bit hollow and pat. I'd like to read more Carter but have had enough of the fairy tales.
This was... ok. It's my own fault, really, I am not into fairytales like everyone else seems to be at the moment. I didn't think there was anything unique or special about these retellings, which is what I was expecting from Carter. Very glad I read the little one, I won't be picking up her full collection of fairytales that these are taken from.
I am a big Angela Carter fan since studying her at university and something about it being December and feeling very festive made me really in the mood to read some fairytales. As always, I enjoyed Carter's modern twist on these and her morals at the end of each tale were generally pretty apt. Nice and enjoyable reading.
This was just what I needed right now: sitting in the sunshine reading these wonderfully re-told fairy tales. The author puts a lot if wit and humor into them and as all the books of the penguin mini modern classics series it is also beautifully designed.
A very interesting book of fairy tales as told through the words of Angela Carter, Bluebeard offers a number of short stories with Carter's personal views on their morals. An altogether enjoyable read.
Brief but charming. I think perhaps I expected a little bit more, somehow - a twist on the original Perrault, perhaps - there were glimpses of this in the moral of each tale but it was a bit too slight.
I do love Angela Carter. Everything she writes is wonderful. But I feel like this collection is just a literal translation of Perrault's fairy tales? Maybe this should be credited to him rather than Carter?
These are cute
Beautiful descriptive writing...
So terribly let down by the blurb.
Lovely little time filler. I feel better for having read it.
they are just the classic fairies tales ... nothing more, no new consideration about them, no clever approach, no criticism, no anything, the tales and nothing else. Useless book!
Well written, good if you like fairytales.
Witty, subversive re-telling of fairy tales.
lovely collection that makes me want to read her full book of fairy tales.
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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 Paul Carter. Th ...more
She married twice, first in 1960 to Paul Carter. Th ...more
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“Curiosity is the most fleeting of pleasures; the moment is satisfied, it ceases to exist and it always proves very, very expensive.”
—
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