The Bloody Chamber, Wise Children, Fireworks: Introduction by Joan Acocella [Hardcover]

An omnibus of works by the great British writer that showcases her hauntingly erotic fabulism and the subversive richness of her imagination.

InThe Bloody Chamber, Angela Carter's famous collection of deeply unsettling stories inspired by fairy tales, we see a Beauty who turns into a Beast, Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother stoned as a werewolf, and Bluebeard as a murderous, porn-addicted businessman. In the surreally delightful novelWise Children, an elderly woman recounts the colorful life she and her identical twin sister led as vaudeville performers. And the early story collectionFireworksreveals Carter taking her first forays into the fantastical writing that was to become her unforgettable legacy. As critic Laura Miller has argued, Most contemporary literary fiction with a touch of magic owes something to Angela Carter's trailblazing. This Everyman's Library omnibus gathers the best of Angela Carter in one astonishing volume.“Angela Carter was a great writer. . . She was that rare thing, a real one-off, nothing like her on the planet . . . Her books unshackle us, toppling the statues of the pompous, demolishing the temples and commissariats of righteousness . . . They are without equal, and without rival . . . With Angela Carter’s death English literature has lost its high sorceress, its benevolent witch-queen, a burlesque artist of genius and antic grace.”
—Salman Rushdie, THE NEW YORK TIMES
 
“She writes a prose that lends itself to magnificent set pieces . . . dreams, myths, fairy tales, metamorphoses, the unruly unconscious, epic journeys, and a highly sensual celebration of sexuality in both its most joyous and darkest manifestations.”
—Ian McEwan
 
“She was, among other things, a quirky, original, and baroque stylist, a trait especially marked inThe Bloody Chamber—her vocabulary a mix of finely tuned phrase, luscilS.