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Bluebeard
'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 frank, earthy humour and gothic imagination, nothing is as it seems.This book includes Bluebeard, Little Red Riding Hood, Puss in Boots, The Sleeping Beauty of the Wood, or, The Glass Slipper, Ricky with the Tuft and The Foolish Wishes.
80 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2011
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About the author
Angela Carter
213 books3,747 followersBorn 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. They divorced after twelve years. In 1969 Angela Carter used the proceeds of her Somerset Maugham Award to leave her husband and relocate for two years to Tokyo, Japan, where she claims in Nothing Sacred (1982) that she "learnt what it is to be a woman and became radicalised." She wrote about her experiences there in articles for New Society and a collection of short stories, Fireworks: Nine Profane Pieces (1974), and evidence of her experiences in Japan can also be seen in The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman (1972). She was there at the same time as Roland Barthes, who published his experiences in Empire of Signs (1970).
She then explored the United States, Asia, and Europe, helped by her fluency in French and German. She spent much of the late 1970s and 1980s as a writer in residence at universities, including the University of Sheffield, Brown University, the University of Adelaide, and the University of East Anglia. In 1977 Carter married Mark Pearce, with whom she had one son.
As well as being a prolific writer of fiction, Carter contributed many articles to The Guardian, The Independent and New Statesman, collected in Shaking a Leg. She adapted a number of her short stories for radio and wrote two original radio dramas on Richard Dadd and Ronald Firbank. Two of her fictions have been adapted for the silver screen: The Company of Wolves (1984) and The Magic Toyshop (1987). She was actively involved in both film adaptations, her screenplays are published in the collected dramatic writings, The Curious Room, together with her radio scripts, a libretto for an opera of Virginia Wolf's Orlando, an unproduced screenplay entitled The Christchurch Murders (based on the same true story as Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures) and other works. These neglected works, as well as her controversial television documentary, The Holy Family Album, are discussed in Charlotte Crofts' book, Anagrams of Desire (2003).
At the time of her death, Carter was embarking on a sequel to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre based on the later life of Jane's stepdaughter, Adèle Varens. However, only a synopsis survives.
Her novel Nights at the Circus won the 1984 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for literature.
Angela Carter died aged 51 in 1992 at her home in London after developing lung cancer. Her obituary published in The Observer said, "She was the opposite of parochial. Nothing, for her, was outside the pale: she wanted to know about everything and everyone, and every place and every word. She relished life and language hugely, and reveled in the diverse."
She married twice, first in 1960 to Paul Carter. They divorced after twelve years. In 1969 Angela Carter used the proceeds of her Somerset Maugham Award to leave her husband and relocate for two years to Tokyo, Japan, where she claims in Nothing Sacred (1982) that she "learnt what it is to be a woman and became radicalised." She wrote about her experiences there in articles for New Society and a collection of short stories, Fireworks: Nine Profane Pieces (1974), and evidence of her experiences in Japan can also be seen in The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman (1972). She was there at the same time as Roland Barthes, who published his experiences in Empire of Signs (1970).
She then explored the United States, Asia, and Europe, helped by her fluency in French and German. She spent much of the late 1970s and 1980s as a writer in residence at universities, including the University of Sheffield, Brown University, the University of Adelaide, and the University of East Anglia. In 1977 Carter married Mark Pearce, with whom she had one son.
As well as being a prolific writer of fiction, Carter contributed many articles to The Guardian, The Independent and New Statesman, collected in Shaking a Leg. She adapted a number of her short stories for radio and wrote two original radio dramas on Richard Dadd and Ronald Firbank. Two of her fictions have been adapted for the silver screen: The Company of Wolves (1984) and The Magic Toyshop (1987). She was actively involved in both film adaptations, her screenplays are published in the collected dramatic writings, The Curious Room, together with her radio scripts, a libretto for an opera of Virginia Wolf's Orlando, an unproduced screenplay entitled The Christchurch Murders (based on the same true story as Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures) and other works. These neglected works, as well as her controversial television documentary, The Holy Family Album, are discussed in Charlotte Crofts' book, Anagrams of Desire (2003).
At the time of her death, Carter was embarking on a sequel to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre based on the later life of Jane's stepdaughter, Adèle Varens. However, only a synopsis survives.
Her novel Nights at the Circus won the 1984 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for literature.
Angela Carter died aged 51 in 1992 at her home in London after developing lung cancer. Her obituary published in The Observer said, "She was the opposite of parochial. Nothing, for her, was outside the pale: she wanted to know about everything and everyone, and every place and every word. She relished life and language hugely, and reveled in the diverse."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
September 21, 2018
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 intended audience, as it's slightly too knowing (and unillustrated) for small children, but not really subversive enough for real adult enjoyment. Some of the "morals" are dubious, and surprising coming from a female author, yet they're not witty enough to be taken as jokes. Or maybe I've missed the point.
My reason for reading it was to get a version of Bluebeard, because it relates to Jane Eyre, which I reviewed HERE. I will now read Vonnegut's weirder take on the story.
Bluebeard
Bluebeard is worse than Rochester, and his beard is literally blue. He marries, despite the fact he "had been married several times before and nobody knew what became of his wives", and a short while after, goes away on business. He gives his wife all the keys and tells her to have the run of the house and its riches, invite her friends and do whatever makes her happy. His only stipulation is that she must not use the tiniest key, and that the consequences will be dire if she does. Just as with the apple in Eden, what is forbidden proves irresistible, despite the lusher alternatives. In this case, the room contains the bloodied bodies of murdered former wives. However, the real problem is that, like Lady Macbeth's hands, the blood won't wash off the key, so she is found out.
Morals: "Curiosity is a charming passion but may only be satisfied at the price of a thousand regrets... [it] is the most fleeting of pleasures... and it always proves very, very expensive." The other moral is an odd observation that modern husbands wouldn't try to restrict a wife's curiosity because women rule.
Compare and contrast with a rather different novel of the same name, Kurt Vonnegut's Bluebeard, which I reviewed HERE.
Image: Bluebeard and wife/wives. (Source.)
Little Red Riding Hood
A completely traditional telling.
Morals: Don't talk to strangers (fine) but if you do, don't be surprised if it ends badly (sounds like victim blaming). It then warns of real-life men who sweet-talk young girls, but are really "the most dangerous beasts of all".
Puss in Boots
A completely traditional telling.
Morals are quirkier: Hard work and ingenuity trump inherited wealth. Also "clothes, bearing and youth speedily inspire affection; and the means to achieve them are not always entirely commendable."
Sleeping Beauty
This is a traditional telling until the marriage, after which, the prince leaves Beauty behind in her castle, and keeps her (and their subsequent children) secret for two years because his mother is half ogre and he fears she may still have "ogrish tastes" and eat his children! A few twists and turns follow (all new to me), but of course, it all ends happily and justly.
Morals: It's good to wait for the right man, but 100 years is too long, and "long engagements make for happy marriages, but young girls these days [written in 1977!] want so much to be married I do not have the heart to press the moral."
Cinderella
Another traditional telling.
Morals - these are odd: Charm trumps beauty - except that doesn't fit the story, despite Carter's claim that "When her godmother dressed Cinderella up and told her how to behave at the ball, she instructed her in charm." Even odder, "It is certainly a great advantage to be intelligent, brave, well-born, sensible... But however great may be your god-given store, they will never help you get on in the world unless you have either a godfather or godmother to put them to work for you"!
Ricky with the Tuft
I've never heard of this, so had no idea if Carter has changed it at all, though Petra's excellent review implies not. The question is, which is better: beauty or brains? (I have a relative who hoped her girls would be pretty rather than clever - as if they're mutually exclusive.) Anyway, Ricky is an extraordinarily ugly baby prince, but blessed with wit and brains. In a nearby kingdom, twin princesses are born: one beautiful but stupid, and the other, clever but ugly. The fairytale twist is that whoever Ricky falls in love with will attain his level of intelligence, and whoever the pretty princess falls in love with will attain (or appear to her to attain) her level of attractiveness. The other sister is rather irrelevant, so the worrying message seems to be that beauty matters more than brains.
Moral: Ying and yang and love is blind - or at least, armed with rose-tinted specs.
The Foolish Wishes
People being granted wishes and using them stupidly is a fairytale staple, but I'd not heard this version before. It's just a short and slightly amusing example of how people waste opportunities.
Moral: People are stupid. Or, as Carter prefers to put it, "Greedy, short-sighted, careless, thoughtless, changeable people don't really know how to make sensible decisions; and few of us are capable of using well the gifts God gave us, anyway."
Here's a more radical approach to retelling fairytales:
From http://www.upworthy.com/my-favorite-c...
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 intended audience, as it's slightly too knowing (and unillustrated) for small children, but not really subversive enough for real adult enjoyment. Some of the "morals" are dubious, and surprising coming from a female author, yet they're not witty enough to be taken as jokes. Or maybe I've missed the point.
My reason for reading it was to get a version of Bluebeard, because it relates to Jane Eyre, which I reviewed HERE. I will now read Vonnegut's weirder take on the story.
Bluebeard
Bluebeard is worse than Rochester, and his beard is literally blue. He marries, despite the fact he "had been married several times before and nobody knew what became of his wives", and a short while after, goes away on business. He gives his wife all the keys and tells her to have the run of the house and its riches, invite her friends and do whatever makes her happy. His only stipulation is that she must not use the tiniest key, and that the consequences will be dire if she does. Just as with the apple in Eden, what is forbidden proves irresistible, despite the lusher alternatives. In this case, the room contains the bloodied bodies of murdered former wives. However, the real problem is that, like Lady Macbeth's hands, the blood won't wash off the key, so she is found out.
Morals: "Curiosity is a charming passion but may only be satisfied at the price of a thousand regrets... [it] is the most fleeting of pleasures... and it always proves very, very expensive." The other moral is an odd observation that modern husbands wouldn't try to restrict a wife's curiosity because women rule.
Compare and contrast with a rather different novel of the same name, Kurt Vonnegut's Bluebeard, which I reviewed HERE.
Image: Bluebeard and wife/wives. (Source.)
Little Red Riding Hood
A completely traditional telling.
Morals: Don't talk to strangers (fine) but if you do, don't be surprised if it ends badly (sounds like victim blaming). It then warns of real-life men who sweet-talk young girls, but are really "the most dangerous beasts of all".
Puss in Boots
A completely traditional telling.
Morals are quirkier: Hard work and ingenuity trump inherited wealth. Also "clothes, bearing and youth speedily inspire affection; and the means to achieve them are not always entirely commendable."
Sleeping Beauty
This is a traditional telling until the marriage, after which, the prince leaves Beauty behind in her castle, and keeps her (and their subsequent children) secret for two years because his mother is half ogre and he fears she may still have "ogrish tastes" and eat his children! A few twists and turns follow (all new to me), but of course, it all ends happily and justly.
Morals: It's good to wait for the right man, but 100 years is too long, and "long engagements make for happy marriages, but young girls these days [written in 1977!] want so much to be married I do not have the heart to press the moral."
Cinderella
Another traditional telling.
Morals - these are odd: Charm trumps beauty - except that doesn't fit the story, despite Carter's claim that "When her godmother dressed Cinderella up and told her how to behave at the ball, she instructed her in charm." Even odder, "It is certainly a great advantage to be intelligent, brave, well-born, sensible... But however great may be your god-given store, they will never help you get on in the world unless you have either a godfather or godmother to put them to work for you"!
Ricky with the Tuft
I've never heard of this, so had no idea if Carter has changed it at all, though Petra's excellent review implies not. The question is, which is better: beauty or brains? (I have a relative who hoped her girls would be pretty rather than clever - as if they're mutually exclusive.) Anyway, Ricky is an extraordinarily ugly baby prince, but blessed with wit and brains. In a nearby kingdom, twin princesses are born: one beautiful but stupid, and the other, clever but ugly. The fairytale twist is that whoever Ricky falls in love with will attain his level of intelligence, and whoever the pretty princess falls in love with will attain (or appear to her to attain) her level of attractiveness. The other sister is rather irrelevant, so the worrying message seems to be that beauty matters more than brains.
Moral: Ying and yang and love is blind - or at least, armed with rose-tinted specs.
The Foolish Wishes
People being granted wishes and using them stupidly is a fairytale staple, but I'd not heard this version before. It's just a short and slightly amusing example of how people waste opportunities.
Moral: People are stupid. Or, as Carter prefers to put it, "Greedy, short-sighted, careless, thoughtless, changeable people don't really know how to make sensible decisions; and few of us are capable of using well the gifts God gave us, anyway."
Here's a more radical approach to retelling fairytales:
From http://www.upworthy.com/my-favorite-c...
September 6, 2024
I enjoyed most of these fairy tale retellings, although while reading these I wasn't aware that they are translations from the french and originally by Charles Perrault. That's a bit odd for Penguin not to mention that anywhere in the book.
January 26, 2025
This book is such a vibe for roasting fairy tales—100% reading it to my nieces.
I’ll hopefully update this later with my fave stories from the collection.
I’ll hopefully update this later with my fave stories from the collection.
June 26, 2018
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.
November 10, 2025
"Curiosity is the most fleeting of pleasures; the moment is satisfied, it ceases to exist and it always proves very, very expensive."
Somehow I expected these to be Carter's own stories, but I enjoyed every reinterpretation regardless! This collection was palatable and easy for figuring out if I enjoy her writing voice or not. (I do!) I thought it was cute that she included the morals of each story, too.
“This is not a fairy tale but the plain, unvarnished truth; every feature of the face of the one we love is beautiful, every word the beloved says is wise.”
Somehow I expected these to be Carter's own stories, but I enjoyed every reinterpretation regardless! This collection was palatable and easy for figuring out if I enjoy her writing voice or not. (I do!) I thought it was cute that she included the morals of each story, too.
“This is not a fairy tale but the plain, unvarnished truth; every feature of the face of the one we love is beautiful, every word the beloved says is wise.”
August 26, 2013
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 marketing department.
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 marketing department.
September 30, 2016
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.
January 3, 2025
Greedy, short-sighted, careless, thoughtless, changeable people don't know how to make sensible decisions; and few of us are capable of using well the gifts God gave us, anyway.
Angela Carter translates (and retells, according to the marketing of this book) 7 of Charles Perrault's fairy tales. By all means this should be a match made in heaven - but I really didn't expect her to include explicit morals at the end of each tale in this book. Though sometimes these are added onto by the addition of "Another moral", in which we see Carter's distinctive tongue-in-cheek wit come out either to comment on the datedness of the tale and how a man's foolish actions would never do in our modern day, it just doesn't seem that strong of a gimmick here after one reads the tales. Also, when you come into this knowing just what she's capable of *cough cough* The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories *cough*, this will either be a steady prep leading into it or a mild letdown - because this is still Angela Carter's writing after all.
But even so, is it fair to rate this book, given that this is, all in all, meant to be a translation of Perrault instead of Carter's own carte blanche? It's with this rule I thought of rating this based on how much I liked the writing of each tale instead of the content, but even so it's unfair as I had never come across the sixth tale "Ricky and the Tuft" before now. So I think instead that perhaps I shall just go ahead and bring both writing and content into consideration in the name of fairness.
Bluebeard: the time-old tale of curiosity killing the cat, or in this case the new wife. You can actually feel Carter's ache to embellish the descriptions. So which is why one should definitely read the title story of The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories after this.
Little Red Riding Hood: completely straightforward, with no hunters or woodsmen to save Little Red nor her grandmother. Carter includes the moral warning of being smooth-talked by charming men as a young woman, which I wanna say is more up her alley, but other than that it's exactly what it says on the tin.
Puss in Boots: also completely straightforward. Bold of Carter to include "hard work" in the moral when it might be really ingenuity that takes our young man far. And even then it's not even his OWN ingenuity, which she acknowledges in the subsequent "Another moral".
The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood: this is the version of Sleeping Beauty in which her prince wakes her just by falling at her feet (no rape) and after they marry she discovers that her mother-in-law is a terrible beast of some sorts who wants to eat her and her children after her prince wakes her. Now I've personally always thought of the second part of this story as an extremely odd tangent ("what happened to the original plot of the movie??") and it's just eh. The accompanying moral is kind of sad, though: "A brave, rich, handsome husband is a prize well worth waiting for; but no modern woman would think it was worth waiting for a hundred years. The tale of the Sleeping Beauty shows how long engagements make for happy marriages, but young girls these days want so much to be married I do not have the heart to press the moral.
Cinderella: or, The Little Glass Slipper: this is the clean predecessor of the Grimms' Aschenputtel in which the stepsisters are just nasty to Cinderella and no one ends up cutting off bits of their foot. The morals of this are weird: the another even more so as Carter literally writes "It is certainly a great advantage to be intelligent, brave, well-born, sensible and have other similar talents given only by heaven. But however great may be your god-given store, they will never help you to get on in the world unless you have either a godfather or a godmother to put them to work for you." ?????
Ricky with the Tuft: this is the first I have ever heard of this tale. Ricky, an exceedingly ugly but clever prince is born under the eye of a fairy midwife, who later supervises the birth of twin princesses: one is extremely beautiful but dim, the other ugly as sin but bright in mind. Ricky falls in love with the first princess and agrees to get her hand in marriage... with the promise that if he loves her, she will rise to his level of intelligence and he to the level of her beauty. The end. What of the other princess? That's it??? This infuriates me to no end. There's some incredible story waiting to be born out of this, but this is just not it. Not even the moral with the "every feature of the face of the one we love is beautiful, every word the beloved says is wise" makes much sense in this, which just makes me so mad because now I feel the need to tell this story better.
The Foolish Wishes: this is my favourite story in the book. The moral is essentially to be careful with your opportunities because if you fuck up you're gonna have to live with the consequences or give up everything just to fix it. Which is the realest things are ever gonna get.
All in all. Angela Carter is of course, the wordsmith of my heart. I love her lush language; her larger-than-life style. Here she is held back because of the very nature of this book being something she's translating, so it's understandable that she's got to sacrifice some of her big bangs for the sake of accuracy. But this is not entirely without its merits, because I love how her words stir me. It's that powerful. Perhaps some of this comes from the all-encompassing feeling of "because it's her", but this is the woman who wrote, once again, The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories after all.
Angela Carter translates (and retells, according to the marketing of this book) 7 of Charles Perrault's fairy tales. By all means this should be a match made in heaven - but I really didn't expect her to include explicit morals at the end of each tale in this book. Though sometimes these are added onto by the addition of "Another moral", in which we see Carter's distinctive tongue-in-cheek wit come out either to comment on the datedness of the tale and how a man's foolish actions would never do in our modern day, it just doesn't seem that strong of a gimmick here after one reads the tales. Also, when you come into this knowing just what she's capable of *cough cough* The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories *cough*, this will either be a steady prep leading into it or a mild letdown - because this is still Angela Carter's writing after all.
But even so, is it fair to rate this book, given that this is, all in all, meant to be a translation of Perrault instead of Carter's own carte blanche? It's with this rule I thought of rating this based on how much I liked the writing of each tale instead of the content, but even so it's unfair as I had never come across the sixth tale "Ricky and the Tuft" before now. So I think instead that perhaps I shall just go ahead and bring both writing and content into consideration in the name of fairness.
Bluebeard: the time-old tale of curiosity killing the cat, or in this case the new wife. You can actually feel Carter's ache to embellish the descriptions. So which is why one should definitely read the title story of The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories after this.
Little Red Riding Hood: completely straightforward, with no hunters or woodsmen to save Little Red nor her grandmother. Carter includes the moral warning of being smooth-talked by charming men as a young woman, which I wanna say is more up her alley, but other than that it's exactly what it says on the tin.
Puss in Boots: also completely straightforward. Bold of Carter to include "hard work" in the moral when it might be really ingenuity that takes our young man far. And even then it's not even his OWN ingenuity, which she acknowledges in the subsequent "Another moral".
The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood: this is the version of Sleeping Beauty in which her prince wakes her just by falling at her feet (no rape) and after they marry she discovers that her mother-in-law is a terrible beast of some sorts who wants to eat her and her children after her prince wakes her. Now I've personally always thought of the second part of this story as an extremely odd tangent ("what happened to the original plot of the movie??") and it's just eh. The accompanying moral is kind of sad, though: "A brave, rich, handsome husband is a prize well worth waiting for; but no modern woman would think it was worth waiting for a hundred years. The tale of the Sleeping Beauty shows how long engagements make for happy marriages, but young girls these days want so much to be married I do not have the heart to press the moral.
Cinderella: or, The Little Glass Slipper: this is the clean predecessor of the Grimms' Aschenputtel in which the stepsisters are just nasty to Cinderella and no one ends up cutting off bits of their foot. The morals of this are weird: the another even more so as Carter literally writes "It is certainly a great advantage to be intelligent, brave, well-born, sensible and have other similar talents given only by heaven. But however great may be your god-given store, they will never help you to get on in the world unless you have either a godfather or a godmother to put them to work for you." ?????
Ricky with the Tuft: this is the first I have ever heard of this tale. Ricky, an exceedingly ugly but clever prince is born under the eye of a fairy midwife, who later supervises the birth of twin princesses: one is extremely beautiful but dim, the other ugly as sin but bright in mind. Ricky falls in love with the first princess and agrees to get her hand in marriage... with the promise that if he loves her, she will rise to his level of intelligence and he to the level of her beauty. The end. What of the other princess? That's it??? This infuriates me to no end. There's some incredible story waiting to be born out of this, but this is just not it. Not even the moral with the "every feature of the face of the one we love is beautiful, every word the beloved says is wise" makes much sense in this, which just makes me so mad because now I feel the need to tell this story better.
The Foolish Wishes: this is my favourite story in the book. The moral is essentially to be careful with your opportunities because if you fuck up you're gonna have to live with the consequences or give up everything just to fix it. Which is the realest things are ever gonna get.
All in all. Angela Carter is of course, the wordsmith of my heart. I love her lush language; her larger-than-life style. Here she is held back because of the very nature of this book being something she's translating, so it's understandable that she's got to sacrifice some of her big bangs for the sake of accuracy. But this is not entirely without its merits, because I love how her words stir me. It's that powerful. Perhaps some of this comes from the all-encompassing feeling of "because it's her", but this is the woman who wrote, once again, The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories after all.
February 18, 2011
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 at For Books' Sake)
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 at For Books' Sake)
March 17, 2021
Angela Carter's Bluebeard is a miniature collection of French fairytale retellings which comes with concise summaries of the central messages in each story. While I liked these moral sections, I found the retelling themselves to be quite lacking, i.e. they don't really add much from the original fairytales.
December 28, 2023
short & fine. nothing that special .. the only part of the whole thing that i particularly like is: ‘every feature of the face of the one we love is beautiful, every word the beloved says is wise. a beautiful soul is one thing, a beautiful face another. but love alone can touch the heart.’
February 17, 2019
Someone should tell Penguin what the definition of the word "subversive" is.
December 10, 2018
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 then spin a tale on the back cover to get the audience to purchase it.
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 then spin a tale on the back cover to get the audience to purchase it.
March 14, 2017
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!
April 25, 2013
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.
May 17, 2013
I didn't get the point of this, at all. Trading on a name, perhaps? Trivial and a little mechanical.
March 7, 2020
Loved the book but don't know if the morals Carter draws always match the stories. Are some tongue in cheek? Great collection of familiar fairy tales, retold.
December 29, 2018
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 Glass Slipper, Ricky with the Tuft and The Foolish Wishes.
But it’s a very trad version of Bluebeard. She just hides on the roof and waits to be rescued.
It is the ‘morals’ that are most amusing.
Check this one for Red Riding Hood.
Yep.
The library has ‘The Bloody Chamber’. I’ll try that next.
3 stars
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 Glass Slipper, Ricky with the Tuft and The Foolish Wishes.
But it’s a very trad version of Bluebeard. She just hides on the roof and waits to be rescued.
It is the ‘morals’ that are most amusing.
Check this one for Red Riding Hood.
Children, especially pretty, nicely brought-up young ladies, ought never to talk to strangers; if they are foolish enough to do so, they should not be surprised if some greedy wolf consumes them, elegant red riding hoods and all.
Now, there are real wolves, with hairy pelts and enormous teeth; but also wolves who seem perfectly charming, sweet-natured and obliging, who pursue young girls in the street and pay them the most flattering attentions. Unfortunately, these smooth-tongued, smooth-pelted wolves are the most dangerous beasts of all.
Yep.
The library has ‘The Bloody Chamber’. I’ll try that next.
3 stars
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January 20, 202563. Bluebeard, by Angela Carter. One part of a very slight book, small but perfectly formed, of little short story riffs on Charles Perrault's classic fairy tales of 1697. Each is of a feminist bent, this one kicking off her own collection some 302 years later. Bluebeard here isn't a pirate, he's some monster who gets through a lot of wives, bumping them off, before he comes a cropper after falling for a pair of sisters. There's not much of it but what there is, is fun 8/10 #SutherlandChallenge
January 15, 2023
This is a short extract from a larger collection. Here are a few well-known fairy tales retold for modern sensibilities, but a lot less subversively than I had expected. It’s beautifully written and witty, but I’m left wondering what the point was, as these retellings do not stray far from the originals. It’s all a bit bland.
May 31, 2022
A collection that is both dry and humorous. Carter had a unique ability for rich, poetic prose. I suppose she'd be akin to an oil painter, but a little more subversive than the conventional ones. Marvelous stories
February 28, 2025
I was disappointed in these stories. They were without the invention of other books by this author. .The stories were pedestrian and conventional.
Read "Nights at the circus". If you want to read inspired writing by Angela Carter.
Read "Nights at the circus". If you want to read inspired writing by Angela Carter.
May 12, 2017
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!
May 16, 2017
Just read The Bloody Chamber instead
June 3, 2023
This isn't a book, it is a collection of very short pieces. Bluebeard fell short of what I was expecting. A bit disappointing.
August 12, 2025
Love the little “Another Moral” at the end of each story
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December 26, 2025I thought this was going to be like a modern take on the philosophical meaning of the Bluebeard tale but no no, this is literally Bluebeard
December 7, 2011
Bluebeard-Angela Carter
ถ้ามองมันในฐานะงานเล่าใหม่ก็อาจจะพูดได้ว่าไม่มีอะไรใหม่เลย Bluebeard นำนิทานหลายต่อหลายเรื่องของคุณชาร์ลส์ (Charles Perrault) ทั้งซินเดอเรลล่า หนูน้อยหมวกแดง หนุ่มเคราฟ้า ฯลฯ มาเล่าใหม่ด้วยท่วงทำนองใหม่ แต่ข้อจำกัดของมันคือ เราเล่นกับเนื้อหาได้ไม่มากนัก (คนไทยเรียกเคารพผู้แต่ง?) นั่นทำให้แต่ละเรื่องไม่ได้หวือหวาเป็นพิเศษ เรารู้กันอยู่แล้วว่าหนูน้อยหมวกแดงจะเจออะไร และซินเดอเรลล่าทำรองเท้าแก้วหลุดกี่ข้าง กระนั้นส่วนที่เพิ่มเติมมาคือบทจบที่ว่าด้วย 'นิทานเรื่องนี้สอนให้รู้ว่า' (Morals) ที่สะท้อนความร่วมสมัยของผู้เขียน ความคิดเห็นที่มีต่อนิทานแต่ละเรื่อง ซึ่งน่าสนใจพอสมควร
กระนั้น เราคิดว่าการเขียนใหม่ เล่าใหม่ ไม่จำต้องไปเปรียบเทียบกับของเก่าเสมอไป ที่สำคัญ นี่คงไม่ใช่งานแปลนิทานฝรั่งเศสเป็นภาษาอังกฤษ ฉะนั้นถ้ามองมันในฐานะงานของ Angela Carter จริงๆ แต่ละเรื่องก็สนุกสนานและเรียบลื่นใช้ได้ทีเดียว เราไม่อาจคาดหวังความหวือหวา น่าแปลกใจได้จากนิทานจำพวกนี้เท่าไหร่ (เว้นแต่ว่าจะไปอ่านเจอต้นฉบับโหดๆจำพวก สโนวไวท์ถูกคนแคระข่มขืน และถูกฆ่าโดยแม่มด!) ยังไงก็ตาม มันอาจเรียกวันวานเก่าๆวัยเยาว์ของเราคืนมาได้ เว้นแต่ว่าเราไม่เคยฟังนิทานก่อนนอนเท่านั้นแหละ
ถ้ามองมันในฐานะงานเล่าใหม่ก็อาจจะพูดได้ว่าไม่มีอะไรใหม่เลย Bluebeard นำนิทานหลายต่อหลายเรื่องของคุณชาร์ลส์ (Charles Perrault) ทั้งซินเดอเรลล่า หนูน้อยหมวกแดง หนุ่มเคราฟ้า ฯลฯ มาเล่าใหม่ด้วยท่วงทำนองใหม่ แต่ข้อจำกัดของมันคือ เราเล่นกับเนื้อหาได้ไม่มากนัก (คนไทยเรียกเคารพผู้แต่ง?) นั่นทำให้แต่ละเรื่องไม่ได้หวือหวาเป็นพิเศษ เรารู้กันอยู่แล้วว่าหนูน้อยหมวกแดงจะเจออะไร และซินเดอเรลล่าทำรองเท้าแก้วหลุดกี่ข้าง กระนั้นส่วนที่เพิ่มเติมมาคือบทจบที่ว่าด้วย 'นิทานเรื่องนี้สอนให้รู้ว่า' (Morals) ที่สะท้อนความร่วมสมัยของผู้เขียน ความคิดเห็นที่มีต่อนิทานแต่ละเรื่อง ซึ่งน่าสนใจพอสมควร
กระนั้น เราคิดว่าการเขียนใหม่ เล่าใหม่ ไม่จำต้องไปเปรียบเทียบกับของเก่าเสมอไป ที่สำคัญ นี่คงไม่ใช่งานแปลนิทานฝรั่งเศสเป็นภาษาอังกฤษ ฉะนั้นถ้ามองมันในฐานะงานของ Angela Carter จริงๆ แต่ละเรื่องก็สนุกสนานและเรียบลื่นใช้ได้ทีเดียว เราไม่อาจคาดหวังความหวือหวา น่าแปลกใจได้จากนิทานจำพวกนี้เท่าไหร่ (เว้นแต่ว่าจะไปอ่านเจอต้นฉบับโหดๆจำพวก สโนวไวท์ถูกคนแคระข่มขืน และถูกฆ่าโดยแม่มด!) ยังไงก็ตาม มันอาจเรียกวันวานเก่าๆวัยเยาว์ของเราคืนมาได้ เว้นแต่ว่าเราไม่เคยฟังนิทานก่อนนอนเท่านั้นแหละ
April 28, 2011
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.
December 22, 2011
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.
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