I'm determined to do 60 books this year, and with slightly over a day left, this called for a very short book indeed.
This is a selection of fairy tales retold by Angela Carter. Her collection The Bloody Chamber is one of my favourite collections. Something about the prose in that and the Saints and Sinners collection (Saints and Sinners is also known as Black Venus with minor changes to a couple of the stories) almost makes me feel drunk if I read too much of it.
The stories in this are much more plainly written. they're almost completely straightfoward retellings of popular folk tales.
After her retelling of Bluebeard as the title story in The Bloody Chamber, this very very normal version seems almost a disappointment, although the little comic morals she inserts at the end of the story are witty and gave me a wry smile.
Similarly, the red Riding Hood version here pales compared to it's counterpoint - The Company of Wolves - in The Bloody Chamber collection. It's nice that the ending isn't the usual happy ending we expect in this story though.
Puss in Boots - another story also told far differently in TBC - is retold here completely straight, although the amorality of the cat in tricking or threatening everyone he meets into doing his will is amusingly highlighted.
The sleeping beauty in the wood - the first half of this is the entirely traditional version we all know, but this then gives us the Prince's half ogre mother who decides she wants to eat Beauty and her two children while the handsome prince (now king) is away in battle. Not the happy ever after we're used to.
Cinderella is a completely traditional telling with no surprises at all. Cinders is sickly sweet and nice in this version. It's only the second moral appended to this that gives any kind of subversion.
Ricky with The Tuft - I confess to not knowing this particular fairy tale. it's an interesting one, highlighting the diference between outer and inner beauty. I felt very sorry for the plain but clever sister once the beautiful sister became clever.
The Foolish Wishes - the woodcutter who is granted three wishes and loses them all without gaining anything except a black pudding... this has always been a favourite story of mine and this is a funny enough retelling.
I wish this collection had more of Carter's trademark intensity in the prose but I ain't got any ancient gods popping by to grant me that one.
A fun diversion, and good choice for a cheat read.
Only one book left now to get 60 for the year.
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