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Strange Things Sometimes Still Happen: Fairy Tales from Around the World
Open up Strange Things Sometimes Still Happen and enter a fantastic world of fairy tales, a world of mischievous maids, wily women, enchantresses, midwives, and crones. Here is a treasure trove of tales that could only have been put together by the celebrated Angela Carter, whom Salman Rushdie called the "high sorceress" and the "benevolent witch queen" of English literature.
With an eye for the bizarre, an ear for the eccentric, and a longstanding fascination with the female dominated tradition of story telling, Carter has chosen forty-five tales from twenty-three cultures that revel in women's cunning and high spirits, wisdom and imagination.
Young women outwit men, magicians, even the devil himself. Old women bring enchantment, luck, and sound advice. Midwives talk to frogs, girls marry snakes, justice is almost always done, and things are not always what they seem in Strange Things Sometimes Still Happen.
Complemented by exquisite woodcuts by Corinna Sargood, this generous offering of wit, witchery, and old-fashioned common sense will delight Angela Carter's many fans, and thoroughly entrance anyone who knows that fairy tales were never meant just for children.
With an eye for the bizarre, an ear for the eccentric, and a longstanding fascination with the female dominated tradition of story telling, Carter has chosen forty-five tales from twenty-three cultures that revel in women's cunning and high spirits, wisdom and imagination.
Young women outwit men, magicians, even the devil himself. Old women bring enchantment, luck, and sound advice. Midwives talk to frogs, girls marry snakes, justice is almost always done, and things are not always what they seem in Strange Things Sometimes Still Happen.
Complemented by exquisite woodcuts by Corinna Sargood, this generous offering of wit, witchery, and old-fashioned common sense will delight Angela Carter's many fans, and thoroughly entrance anyone who knows that fairy tales were never meant just for children.
233 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1993
9 people are currently reading
407 people want to read
About the author
Angela Carter
212 books3,739 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 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 18, 2018
An excellent collection of fairytales centered on heroines. I read this for the Myths & Legends themed discussion (January-March) in one of my GoodReads groups, All About Books. The main book was supposed to be Angela Carter's Book of Fairy Tales but I couldn't get a copy of that one at the library, so I went with this one instead.
Almost all of these were new to me. My favorites were probably "Vasilissa the Fair" (Russian) and "Tunjur, Tunjur," (Palestinian Arab).
Almost all of these were new to me. My favorites were probably "Vasilissa the Fair" (Russian) and "Tunjur, Tunjur," (Palestinian Arab).
November 2, 2008
I both liked and disliked this book for the same reason: I have heard most of these stories before. What I like is that I am proud to have heard them before; I heard (or rather, “read”) them in my Myth and Fairy Tales class at Rochester, and in encountering so many of them again, I experienced a wave of nostalgia. Reading these stories reminded me of why I enjoyed that class so much: it was because in their foreignness, they take tales that seem so familiar and “American” and make you, the reader/listener, wonder whether or not the roots of the tales were from another time and another culture, or whether the roots of the tales are even more basic than that: whether they merely reflect lessons, morals, and basic human desires that are common across cultures and time. Or perhaps the different versions show how the lessons and morals change over time, or how their packaging changes. That was what I loved about that class, and reading this book took me straight back to that academic love of literature.
Of course, I couldn’t help but dislike the book for exactly the same reason: I had heard it all before. Perhaps if I had never taken that course at Rochester, I would be absolutely enthralled by this book. I do love fairy tales, and I love seeing different perspectives and different versions of the same fairy tale. Although these all had odd names and seemingly odd origins, many of them incorporated the fairy tales we know best: Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel; even Rumplestiltskin and Jack and the Beanstalk showed traces in these stories.
For those interested in foreign culture and fairy tales, this is definitely a worthwhile read. I can understand why an author such as Angela Carter would take it upon herself to edit such a novel. She is one to embrace the peculiar and the foreign. It will be a wonder if Margaret Atwood does not do something similar, in time.
Of course, I couldn’t help but dislike the book for exactly the same reason: I had heard it all before. Perhaps if I had never taken that course at Rochester, I would be absolutely enthralled by this book. I do love fairy tales, and I love seeing different perspectives and different versions of the same fairy tale. Although these all had odd names and seemingly odd origins, many of them incorporated the fairy tales we know best: Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel; even Rumplestiltskin and Jack and the Beanstalk showed traces in these stories.
For those interested in foreign culture and fairy tales, this is definitely a worthwhile read. I can understand why an author such as Angela Carter would take it upon herself to edit such a novel. She is one to embrace the peculiar and the foreign. It will be a wonder if Margaret Atwood does not do something similar, in time.
June 1, 2017
This has been one of my favorite folklore collections for a long long time. I got it at the tender age of nine, from an aunt who always got me unusual books. What's striking about this collection is that several of the stories aren't the kind you'd find in friendly normal folklore collection.
From a girl that turns into a pot (Tunjar, Tunjar) to outsmarting the devil, the range of stories is almost random. Even the headings for 'like' stories are charmingly different (like Strong Minds and Low Cunning). The diversity of cultures that the stories are derived from is also interesting. There's a Virginia Hillbilly tale, a Hungarian, African... the list goes on.
It's no surprise that with books like this, I became rather obsessed with folklore.
From a girl that turns into a pot (Tunjar, Tunjar) to outsmarting the devil, the range of stories is almost random. Even the headings for 'like' stories are charmingly different (like Strong Minds and Low Cunning). The diversity of cultures that the stories are derived from is also interesting. There's a Virginia Hillbilly tale, a Hungarian, African... the list goes on.
It's no surprise that with books like this, I became rather obsessed with folklore.
April 3, 2019
A fun collection of stories from across the world. Some of the tales do not age well (such as the ones hailing from USA, Hillbilly-yikes), but overall it is an enjoyable collection. Angela Carter has a way of bringing the stories to life that sound like they were recorded right off the corner of some familiar neighborhood where tall tales are still swapped for gossip and pleasure.
January 10, 2008
This book is filled with bloody magical fairy tales edited by Angela Carter, with gorgeous woodcuts by Corinna Sargood. Delicious.
September 29, 2012
A wonderful collection by the modern fairy tale master, Angela Carter. This book includes some really interesting selections, such as some "hillbilly" and post-colonial fairy tale interpretations.
June 7, 2015
My favs Tatterhood and Vasalisa.
October 15, 2017
Weird, enchanting
December 27, 2024
It's a great collection of fairy and folk tales. Some I read when I was much younger, and others I have never heard of. Overall, it's an interesting book that is well-referenced and cited.
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August 12, 2015Not all that interesting as far as fairy tales go. Some of the storie weren't even fairy tales but just silly jokes or short stories that were really about nothing.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews