Angela Carter
Books by Angela Carter
“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
“Carter is a fascinating writer in all sorts of ways. She was one of the first English writers to engage with Sade—who was a banned author in England at the time she was writing because of the moral panic that followed the Moors Murders (when it transpired that Ian Brady had read Sade’s Justine). It’s also a time when second wave feminism is starting to exert its influence on Anglo-American culture, and in fact Sade becomes a highly contested figure within feminism at this time.” Read more...
The best books on The Marquis de Sade
Will McMorran, Literary Scholar
“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 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’
