"The Bloody Chamber's interweaving of retold fairy tales demonstrates Angela Carter's narrative gift at its most mocking and seductive" Observer "Magnificent set pieces of fastidious sensuality" -- Ian McEwan "Angela Carter has extended the life and richness of the fable form itself partly through language that is both pellucid and sensual, but chiefly through imagination of such Ariel reach that she 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 Times "Extraordinary and beautiful" -- Peter Redgrove