Author:Ruth Rendell
In a house filled floor to ceiling with books, a lonely middle-aged man scrutinises new publications for editing errors. He is obsessive, writing angry letters to each author he finds fault with. Books are his life - and in an unexpected way have led a terrible guilt to fester inside him. Just when he thinks that all is buried and forgotten, a work of fiction with uncanny resemblances to his own story sends him back to the dark precipice.
Part of the Storycuts series, this short story was previously published in the collection Piranha To Scurfy.
Fairy tales reimagined for feminist times
—— GraziaShe was, among other things, a quirky, original, and baroque stylist, a trait especially marked in The Bloody Chamber - her vocabulary a mix of finely tuned phrase, luscious adjective, witty aphorism, and hearty, up-theirs vulgarity
—— Margaret Atwood , ObserverMagnificent set pieces of fastidious sensuality
—— Ian McEwanShe can glide from ancient to modern, from darkness to luminosity, from depravity to comedy without any hint of strain and without losing the elusive power of the original tales
—— The TimesThe Bloody Chamber is such an important book to me. Angela Carter, for me, is still the one who said: ‘You see these fairy stories, these things that are sitting at the back of the nursery shelves? Actually, each one of them is a loaded gun. Each of them is a bomb. Watch: if you turn it right it will blow up.’ And we all went: ‘Oh my gosh, she’s right—you can blow things up with these!’
—— Neil Gaiman , Daily TelegraphA wonderfully written book, ironical, cerebral, elegant . . . distinguished by bold, inflected language and ornate, indeed often bloody, imagery
—— Joyce Carol Oates , New York Times Book ReviewThe Bloody Chamber's interweaving of retold fairy tales demonstrates Angela Carter's narrative gift at its most mocking and seductive
—— ObserverExtraordinary and beautiful
—— Peter RedgroveThese stories are shored up with sentences and paragraphs that demand immediate re-reading for their cleverness and warmth…This party is well worth attending
—— IndependentThis collection shows a writer quietly growing in style, perception and grace. She conveys to the reader that rare ability to see completely into someone else’s head
—— SpectatorAccomplished ... confident
—— Sunday TimesThe ghost of Katherine Mansfield hovers lightly over these deceptively delicate snapshots which zero in on the much maligned territory of the domestic and make it new and vital again
—— Metro