Books by Angela Carter
“Singletons are always instrumentalizing twins, for aesthetic and philosophical purposes, and also for entertainment and money. If people are going to exploit you, why not exploit the opportunity? That’s what twin chorus girls, Dora and Nora Chance, do in Carter’s bawdy carnival of a novel. Illegitimate daughters of a great Shakespearian actor, himself a twin, the Chance sisters monetize their twinhood at the lower levels of London’s theatrical community and have a grand old time doing it.” Read more...
Helena de Bres, Philosopher
“It’s a collection of her short stories. Reading Angela Carter for the first time was a revelation to me. I’d never read anything like that–just spellbinding use of language. Like all the other books I’ve selected it brings the most beautiful pictures to mind. As an illustrator I feel I crave this–other people’s ideas. With just a few words they can conjure whole worlds. So, it’s very inspiring for me to read work like this. I wouldn’t necessarily illustrate these but am in awe of her skillful use of language.” Read more...
Books Drawn From Myth and Fairy Tale
Alan Lee, Cartoonists & Illustrator
“The personal and the political is a theme that runs through all of these books, and this is exactly what Angela Carter was writing about, back in the 70s, in The Sadeian Woman. It’s partly polemic about pornography and prostitution, it’s partly literary history and history about the Marquis de Sade and his writings. She’s really exploring whether you can have sex that is divorced from politics and history and the power dynamics around you. People are still talking about that all the time, and I think that dilemma—that tension between the personal and political—is always central to feminism. This book was written long before the internet existed, but because of the widespread availability of pornography online, it’s absolutely fascinating to read now. It feels so resonant.” Read more...
The Best Feminist Books: 50 Years of Virago Press
Sarah Savitt, Publisher
“I did not know her writing until I came across The Bloody Chamber, and it struck me as particularly relevant to the ongoing gender struggles. She had a position and perspective on gender and feminism that I thought was much more sophisticated and nuanced than a lot of the other feminist writers of the time.” Read more...
Jack Zipes, Literary Scholar
Interviews where books by Angela Carter were recommended
Talismanic Tomes, recommended by Maria Tatar
The stories we read as children and as adults really do change us and how we see the world around us. Here Maria Tatar, Emerita Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures and of Folklore and Mythology at Harvard University, speaks about the power of five ‘talismanic tomes’ that had a meaningful influence on her life.
The best books on Fairy Tales, recommended by Jack Zipes
Fairy tales are as relevant today as ever, says Jack Zipes, a means of communicating about serious problems such as the abandonment of children or the self-sacrifice traditionally expected of women. He picks the best books to help us reflect on the meaning and significance of fairy tales.
The Best Feminist Books: 50 Years of Virago Press, recommended by Sarah Savitt
This week Virago Press celebrates its 50th anniversary. To mark the occasion, the international feminist publisher is reissuing one iconic book from each decade of its existence. Sarah Savitt, publisher of Virago Press, talks us through their ‘Five Gold Reads’ and explains why they remain important feminist books.
The best books on The Marquis de Sade, recommended by Will McMorran
The word ‘sadism’ derives from the Marquis de Sade, the infamous 18th century French aristocrat. His works such as Justine and The 120 Days of Sodom are profoundly disturbing, retaining the ability to shock, disgust, and unsettle. Will McMorran, Sade’s translator, looks at the way Sade destabilises the idea of benevolent narrators, and how we must remain ethically engaged when reading him
Books Drawn From Myth and Fairy Tale, recommended by Alan Lee
Alan Lee, illustrator of such classics as The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, talks to Five Books about his favourite stories drawn from myth and fairy tale, what they mean to him, and how important it is for young readers today to experience these ancient stories.
Marina Warner on Fairy Tales
‘It’s a long time since ogres have seemed so absolutely real,’ says Marina Warner, author and long-time scholar of fairy tales. Which makes now as good a time as any to immerse ourselves in the twisted truths of the fairy tale realm, with Warner’s selection of the best books of, or about, other-worldly tales of mischief and subversion, dreams and laughter, ‘hope against hope’
The best books on Twins, recommended by Helena de Bres
Twins are literary gold, but they also open the door to a host of fundamental questions about identity, freedom and even love, says Helena de Bres, a philosopher at Wellesley College and herself an identical twin. She recommends five philosophically evocative books involving twins, from YA romance to John Steinbeck, winner of the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature.
