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We
have always thought that writing a variation—a prequel, a
sequel, any sort of riff—on something literary that already
exists is exceedingly difficult to pull off. Few have
succeeded. Jean Rhys managed to do it with Wide Sargasso
Sea, her imagined prequel to Bronte’s Jane Eyre. And
Angela Carter did so brilliantly with her collection of short
stories—variations of classic fairy tales—The Bloody
Chamber. The main key to success seems to be in offering
up an entirely new language to talk about something familiar to us
already. In Wide Sargasso Sea Rhys brings us something original and wild, to talk about a character from
a novel that is as much a part of our literary unconscious as the
fairy tales of childhood. And in The Bloody Chamber,
this fantastic, fantastical collection, Angela Carter takes, with
each story, a thread from an old fairy tale and spins it into
something entirely new and all her own. This
collection of stories is a favorite book—one to curl up with
when reality is too much to bear. Perfect on a stormy
evening; all the better to imagine the howling of wolves outside
the door, believe that beasts turn into men, and that all kinds of
magic is
possible.
What
we particularly love is the very excess of the book—luxuriating
in the very grown-up pleasure of losing ourselves in the unabashed
lushness of language, in pure romance, in roses red and white, in
the old familiar tales of childhood transformed into something
completely new in such ornate and ornamental fashion. The
title story is a retelling of Bluebeard. There are fabulous
gothic variations of Beauty and the Beast, Puss-in-Boots, and Red
Riding Hood. And there is humor and eroticism lurking in the
dark lushness. Give in to excess; believe in fairy tales! |
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