I was long overdue to read this classic of feminist literature, but I can say it was worth the wait.

This book of short stories is absolutely lush, dark, erotic and unsettling. Carter’s prose is as elaborate as the miniature fairy-tale worlds she constructs in each chapter. Her descriptions of stark wintry landscapes and glittering lavish interiors alike are totally immersive, and she can have you chuckling with glee one minute (‘Puss-in-Boots’) and reeling with horror the next (‘The Snow Child’). The book is like a little jewelbox of gothic wonders, each story different and yet connected, each one seeming to have existed for centuries yet feel brand new at the same time. Deservedly a classic.

Addendum: I was startled reading the titular story, ‘The Bloody Chamber’, to find that one of my favorite Afghan Whigs songs, ‘When We Two Parted’, seems to make two references to this particular tale—and I’m not the only one to have noticed this.

Further reading…