I Read Books: The Bloody Chamber
Angela Carter’s unparalleled collection of stories that riff off fairytales. I especially liked The Tiger’s Bride; having been won from her father at cards by the Beast the narrator refuses his request to see her naked, instead proudly demanding to be treated as a prostitute. The ending, of course, is not the classic one from Beauty and the Beast (unlike the other version, The Courtship of Mister Lyon).
The language is glorious, the twists and turns on well known stories fascinating, and the tendency to set them at the start of the twentieth century inspired. (The Lady Of The House Of Love perhaps says too much, noting the innocence of the soldier and comparing it to the imminence of World War One).
Read This: A set of excellent stories like no other, fairytales given new life and having old darkness restored
Don’t Read This: They’re still fairytales so if you aren’t up for that leave it.
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