Author:Angela Carter
Extraordinary and diverse people inhabit this rich, ripe, occasionally raucous collection of short stories. Some are based on real people - Jeanne Duval, Baudelaire's handsome and reluctant muse who never asked to be called the Black Venus, trapped in the terminal ennui of the poet's passion, snatching at a little lifesaving respectability against all odds...Edgar Allen Poe, with his face of a actor, demonstrating in every thought and deed how right his friends were when they said 'No man is safe who drinks before breakfast.'
And some of these people are totally imaginary. Such as the seventeenth century whore, transported to Virginia for thieving, who turns into a good woman in spite of herself among the Indians, who have nothing worth stealing. And a girl, suckled by wolves, strange and indifferent as nature, who will not tolerate returning to humanity.
Angela Carter wonderfully mingles history, fiction, invention, literary criticism, high drama and low comedy in a glorious collection of stories as full of contradictions and surprises as life itself.
Black Venus displays the superbly witchy Angela Carter at her best... Whatever her subject Miss Carter writes like a dream - sometimes a nightmare. And as the voices call out, the images blaze, one is saved from an excess of fantasy by earthy realism, a sudden bark of humour
—— Sunday TelegraphThe "radicalised" Carter tells her tales of terror ferociously, with black brilliance. Black Venus is shot with dazzling lightning. It is thunderous and magnetic; irresistible even when it seems most repellent
—— Courrier MailEarthy, bawdy and bizarre in turn, there is a fine intelligence at work here
—— Daily TelegraphShe was one of the century's finest writers, and her stories are among her finest works
—— Lucy Hughes-Hallett , Sunday TimesAngela Carter has language at her fingertips
—— New StatesmanAs for the other essays, they all represent Barnes at his most engaged and, in his way, passionate... When he cares about something, you know it.
—— Nicholas Lezard , GuardianThe parallels between Barnes's essays and his fiction run much deeper. The Sense of an Ending asks to be read twice, once to listen to what the narrator has to say, and a second time to hear what he is busily avoiding or repressing, and many of these essays work in a similar way… His collection is also full of unexpected pleasures… Even the index is brimming with jokes. Such local surprises are typical of the book as a whole, which encourages readers to dip and rewards them for lingering.
—— Robert Douglas-Fairhurst , TelegraphThere are many delightful biographical and bibliographical details among the literary criticism… Two recurring themes emerge from this anthology: France and death. Barnes is a keen observer of both lands.
—— Christian House , Independent on SundayA wonderfully learned and witty guide to how fiction operates.
—— Anthony Cummins , MetroMan Booker Winner’s essays on fellow writers – magnificent.
—— Sunday Times IrelandJulian Barnes is…punctilious. Collecting up here sundry reviews and introductions he has published since 1996 about writers who matter to him, he has unified them not just with a brief introduction asserting the priority of fiction.
—— Evening StandardThe index to Julian Barnes’s new collection of essays strikes a playful note, a whimsy meant to undercut any danger of pomposity in his writing.
—— Kate Webb , Times Literary SupplementJulian Barnes reminds us what an exhilarating experience it can be to read a really good critic.
—— Jane Shilling , Sunday TelegraphA compulsive page-turner.
—— Tim Adams , ObserverBarnes’s passion for his writers is infectious.
—— Ion Trewin , Sunday ExpressBlissfully intelligent.
—— Roger Lewis , Financial TimesThe temptation to turn away is powerful, but the rewards for resisting it are considerable. These essays combine a scholarly breadth of knowledge with a powerful sense of the absurdities of the creative life.
—— Jane Shilling , Sunday TelegraphThrough the Window is a wonderful and very interesting collection of essays that rewards close, and also measured, reading.
—— Brendan Wright , Nudge