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The Company of Wolves
The wolf is described as an evil thing. The first story is about a witch that turned a whole wedding ceremony into wolves. She likes them coming to her cabin and howling their misery for it soothes her. The following story is about a young lady and a man that are about to have sex on their wedding night. As they get ready, the husband says he needs to stop and relieve himself in the forest. The wife waits and he never returns. Off in the distance you can hear a wolf howling. She then figures her husband will never return and marries a new man. With her new husband she bears children. Her first husband comes back and sees his wife and the story unravels... Later we meet a girl walking in the woods. She was loved by everyone and feared nothing. She made a deal with a hunter; whoever can get to the grandmothers house first wins. If the hunter wins she owes him a kiss. She lets the hunter win because she wants to kiss him. The hunter arrives at the grandmothers house but she's frail and sick, holding a Bible for protection. The last thing she sees is the young man at the foot of her bed.... "See! sweet and sound she sleeps in granny's bed, between the paws of the tender wolf."
200 pages
First published January 1, 1981
About the author
Angela Carter
188 books3,406 followersBorn Angela Olive Stalker in Eastbourne, in 1940, Carter was evacuated as a child to live in Yorkshire with her maternal grandmother. As a teenager she battled anorexia. She began work as a journalist on the Croydon Advertiser, following in the footsteps of her father. Carter attended the University of Bristol where she studied English literature.
She married twice, first in 1960 to Paul Carter. They divorced after twelve years. In 1969 Angela Carter used the proceeds of her Somerset Maugham Award to leave her husband and relocate for two years to Tokyo, Japan, where she claims in Nothing Sacred (1982) that she "learnt what it is to be a woman and became radicalised." She wrote about her experiences there in articles for New Society and a collection of short stories, Fireworks: Nine Profane Pieces (1974), and evidence of her experiences in Japan can also be seen in The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman (1972). She was there at the same time as Roland Barthes, who published his experiences in Empire of Signs (1970).
She then explored the United States, Asia, and Europe, helped by her fluency in French and German. She spent much of the late 1970s and 1980s as a writer in residence at universities, including the University of Sheffield, Brown University, the University of Adelaide, and the University of East Anglia. In 1977 Carter married Mark Pearce, with whom she had one son.
As well as being a prolific writer of fiction, Carter contributed many articles to The Guardian, The Independent and New Statesman, collected in Shaking a Leg. She adapted a number of her short stories for radio and wrote two original radio dramas on Richard Dadd and Ronald Firbank. Two of her fictions have been adapted for the silver screen: The Company of Wolves (1984) and The Magic Toyshop (1987). She was actively involved in both film adaptations, her screenplays are published in the collected dramatic writings, The Curious Room, together with her radio scripts, a libretto for an opera of Virginia Wolf's Orlando, an unproduced screenplay entitled The Christchurch Murders (based on the same true story as Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures) and other works. These neglected works, as well as her controversial television documentary, The Holy Family Album, are discussed in Charlotte Crofts' book, Anagrams of Desire (2003).
At the time of her death, Carter was embarking on a sequel to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre based on the later life of Jane's stepdaughter, Adèle Varens. However, only a synopsis survives.
Her novel Nights at the Circus won the 1984 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for literature.
Angela Carter died aged 51 in 1992 at her home in London after developing lung cancer. Her obituary published in The Observer said, "She was the opposite of parochial. Nothing, for her, was outside the pale: she wanted to know about everything and everyone, and every place and every word. She relished life and language hugely, and reveled in the diverse."
She married twice, first in 1960 to Paul Carter. They divorced after twelve years. In 1969 Angela Carter used the proceeds of her Somerset Maugham Award to leave her husband and relocate for two years to Tokyo, Japan, where she claims in Nothing Sacred (1982) that she "learnt what it is to be a woman and became radicalised." She wrote about her experiences there in articles for New Society and a collection of short stories, Fireworks: Nine Profane Pieces (1974), and evidence of her experiences in Japan can also be seen in The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman (1972). She was there at the same time as Roland Barthes, who published his experiences in Empire of Signs (1970).
She then explored the United States, Asia, and Europe, helped by her fluency in French and German. She spent much of the late 1970s and 1980s as a writer in residence at universities, including the University of Sheffield, Brown University, the University of Adelaide, and the University of East Anglia. In 1977 Carter married Mark Pearce, with whom she had one son.
As well as being a prolific writer of fiction, Carter contributed many articles to The Guardian, The Independent and New Statesman, collected in Shaking a Leg. She adapted a number of her short stories for radio and wrote two original radio dramas on Richard Dadd and Ronald Firbank. Two of her fictions have been adapted for the silver screen: The Company of Wolves (1984) and The Magic Toyshop (1987). She was actively involved in both film adaptations, her screenplays are published in the collected dramatic writings, The Curious Room, together with her radio scripts, a libretto for an opera of Virginia Wolf's Orlando, an unproduced screenplay entitled The Christchurch Murders (based on the same true story as Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures) and other works. These neglected works, as well as her controversial television documentary, The Holy Family Album, are discussed in Charlotte Crofts' book, Anagrams of Desire (2003).
At the time of her death, Carter was embarking on a sequel to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre based on the later life of Jane's stepdaughter, Adèle Varens. However, only a synopsis survives.
Her novel Nights at the Circus won the 1984 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for literature.
Angela Carter died aged 51 in 1992 at her home in London after developing lung cancer. Her obituary published in The Observer said, "She was the opposite of parochial. Nothing, for her, was outside the pale: she wanted to know about everything and everyone, and every place and every word. She relished life and language hugely, and reveled in the diverse."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 68 reviews
April 13, 2018
Reading this made me wet in public. That 50 shades of grey author can go cry in a corner. Besides, the language is so good it makes you think that there is no point writing yourself if there were authors of that caliber around
May 17, 2023
my prof says it’s “sharply focalized in and through the perception, suffering, and melancholy of wolves even as it shifts radically to the perspective of a latter-day Riding Hood” so we’ll go with that
October 17, 2021
Read for uni
September 24, 2014
Absolutely beautifully rendered; rich language and really towed the line between fairytale fantasy and sexual exploration. I liked the style so much I purchased an Angela Carter anthology afterwards.
March 24, 2016
Hey, I know what will be fun. Since I'm such a lazy prick and I'm over writing about literature for one day, I'm just gonna copy and paste my tutorial notes on this shit.
"Unlike the Perrault and Grimm fairytales, Carter’s Company Of Wolves clearly establishes the wolves as predatory and dangerous, presenting them as monsters as in any gothic horror story - (“of all the teeming perils of the night and the forest, ghosts, hobgoblins, ogres that grill babies upon gridirons , witches that fatten their captives in cages, the wolf is the worst” - and it should be noted that even the children are well-learned in their need to be avoided. “Children of the sparse villages always carry knives with them”.
"Also contrary to the earlier fairytale versions, Carter’s story draws particular attention to the plight of the wolves, not only establishing their former human elements with the introduction of lycanthropy, but by also evoking a sense of tragedy and suffering amongst them. “Serenading her with their misery”. “Inherent sadness” in the sound of their howls. “They would love to be less beastly if only they knew how”. “Vast melancholy in the canticles of the wolf”.
"Two other small differences in Carter’s version is the strong-mindedness of Red Hiding Hood. She remains in control of the situation even at its most dire. And then, most notably, there are the various sexual overtones in this story, and the frequent references to human body parts like nipples, genitals, breasts, and menstruation. Red Riding Hood also shows a willingness to be lured and seduced by the wolf and she comes out better because of it".
It should also be noted that - ah fuck it, I'm going to bed.
"Unlike the Perrault and Grimm fairytales, Carter’s Company Of Wolves clearly establishes the wolves as predatory and dangerous, presenting them as monsters as in any gothic horror story - (“of all the teeming perils of the night and the forest, ghosts, hobgoblins, ogres that grill babies upon gridirons , witches that fatten their captives in cages, the wolf is the worst” - and it should be noted that even the children are well-learned in their need to be avoided. “Children of the sparse villages always carry knives with them”.
"Also contrary to the earlier fairytale versions, Carter’s story draws particular attention to the plight of the wolves, not only establishing their former human elements with the introduction of lycanthropy, but by also evoking a sense of tragedy and suffering amongst them. “Serenading her with their misery”. “Inherent sadness” in the sound of their howls. “They would love to be less beastly if only they knew how”. “Vast melancholy in the canticles of the wolf”.
"Two other small differences in Carter’s version is the strong-mindedness of Red Hiding Hood. She remains in control of the situation even at its most dire. And then, most notably, there are the various sexual overtones in this story, and the frequent references to human body parts like nipples, genitals, breasts, and menstruation. Red Riding Hood also shows a willingness to be lured and seduced by the wolf and she comes out better because of it".
It should also be noted that - ah fuck it, I'm going to bed.
February 18, 2016
Great adaptation of little red riding hood and beautifully written. The introductory paragraphs are some of the best writing I've ever read. The ending is unexpected and in a way quite confusing but over all a great story. I look forward to reading Carter's other stories.
September 4, 2020
Caperucita Roja de la forma más erótica que haya sido contada.
July 16, 2016
Very beautiful and imaginative. I have re-read it so many times. Women and wolves, the strenght in us all. Amazing treatment of folklore, twist of the fantastic.
February 21, 2023
will never reciver from the fact that i had to read a werewolf/little red ridinghood smut fanfiction for uni
July 22, 2018
En la oscuridad de la noche, los lobos aullan.
Una versión oscura y erótica sobre el cuento clásico La caperucita roja.
Este pequeño cuento comienza definiendonos como son en realidad los lobos, y como son también los hombres lobo. Nos cuenta la historia como la contaría un antepasado nuestro de un área rural. Le da un toque de misterio y crueldad a los lobos, capaces de lo que sea cuando el invierno llega y comienzan a sufrir hambre, ellos y los licántropos.
La prosa es estupenda. Tiene un vocabulario y unas oraciones fenomenales. También tiene un toque erótico muy sutil sin caer en lo vulgar. También nos demuestra una vez más porque no debemos confiar en los extraños y que tampoco debemos subestimar a alguien por el solo hecho de ser una adolescente.
Recomiendo este libro así como su adaptación cinematográfica. Ambos son misteriosos, escalofriantes y muy atrapantes.
Una versión oscura y erótica sobre el cuento clásico La caperucita roja.
Este pequeño cuento comienza definiendonos como son en realidad los lobos, y como son también los hombres lobo. Nos cuenta la historia como la contaría un antepasado nuestro de un área rural. Le da un toque de misterio y crueldad a los lobos, capaces de lo que sea cuando el invierno llega y comienzan a sufrir hambre, ellos y los licántropos.
La prosa es estupenda. Tiene un vocabulario y unas oraciones fenomenales. También tiene un toque erótico muy sutil sin caer en lo vulgar. También nos demuestra una vez más porque no debemos confiar en los extraños y que tampoco debemos subestimar a alguien por el solo hecho de ser una adolescente.
Recomiendo este libro así como su adaptación cinematográfica. Ambos son misteriosos, escalofriantes y muy atrapantes.
March 26, 2019
Really disturbing.
April 3, 2020
A breddy gud twist on the werewolf tale and the red riding hood folktale. I loved it, and I really need more shapeshifting monster stories
April 6, 2020
This is a very twisted version of “Red Riding Hood.” As shocking as the ending is, it has a much more modern message than the original fairy tale.
April 24, 2022
2.5 stars
The Company of Wolves is a retelling of the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale, but darker. I was a bit confused at first, because many people in my class (and on Goodreads) warned me that the story was weird. However, my copy was some sort of censored version, and I thus didn’t have those intensesex scenes. Kind of disappointing, not going to lie.
I had to get used to the writing style in my edition; the story jumped around and there was no clear point of view at first. The story starts of with a detailed account of why wolves suck, then we’re suddenly talking about a witch that turns a wedding party into wolves, then there’s a girl who marries a man who disappears, and then suddenly we’re thrown into the Little Red Riding Hood story. Very weird. I kind of liked the take on the story though – I’m a sucker for fairy tales turned adult with some dark twists. This was definitely good for that. I do feel like the censored version took a lot away from the story and made it less good, so I’d love to read the uncensored one. For some reason, I can’t seem to find it anywhere?Probably the wolf porn? The ending of the story was thus a bit off to me, quite sudden and weird? It would probably be weirder in the real version though.
Anyway, interesting take on the Little Red Riding Hood story. It was absolute chaos in writing at first, I definitely had to get used to the story. So yeah, is there anyone who can lend me the full version? ;)
“Fear and flee the wolf; for, worst of all, the wolf may be more than he seems.”
The Company of Wolves is a retelling of the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale, but darker. I was a bit confused at first, because many people in my class (and on Goodreads) warned me that the story was weird. However, my copy was some sort of censored version, and I thus didn’t have those intense
“If you spy a naked man among the pines, you must run as if the Devil were after you.”
I had to get used to the writing style in my edition; the story jumped around and there was no clear point of view at first. The story starts of with a detailed account of why wolves suck, then we’re suddenly talking about a witch that turns a wedding party into wolves, then there’s a girl who marries a man who disappears, and then suddenly we’re thrown into the Little Red Riding Hood story. Very weird. I kind of liked the take on the story though – I’m a sucker for fairy tales turned adult with some dark twists. This was definitely good for that. I do feel like the censored version took a lot away from the story and made it less good, so I’d love to read the uncensored one. For some reason, I can’t seem to find it anywhere?
Anyway, interesting take on the Little Red Riding Hood story. It was absolute chaos in writing at first, I definitely had to get used to the story. So yeah, is there anyone who can lend me the full version? ;)
November 27, 2023
Maybe you didn't take a Gothic literature class in college in which your very nutty professor went into excruciating detail about the Freudian sexual meanings behind every classic fairytale (Snow White's seven dwarves wore caps that signify foreskin because of course they are phallic symbols, for example), but even if you didn't, I'm sure similar thoughts have crossed your mind.
Angela Carter takes those thoughts and runs with them, then subverts them---turning predators into seductive liberators and victims into triumphant heroines.
Her language is just so lush and spellbinding it's impossible to avoid getting drawn into the deep dark woods without even your knife to protect you.
I highly recommend having these stories read to you (lots of audio versions available) while you close your eyes and take it all in. This particular story has been turned into a movie (which I have yet to see) and a BBC radio production (which I listened to on my walk to work, causing some very awkward moments 😳)
Be ready for her words to stick with you.
Angela Carter takes those thoughts and runs with them, then subverts them---turning predators into seductive liberators and victims into triumphant heroines.
Her language is just so lush and spellbinding it's impossible to avoid getting drawn into the deep dark woods without even your knife to protect you.
I highly recommend having these stories read to you (lots of audio versions available) while you close your eyes and take it all in. This particular story has been turned into a movie (which I have yet to see) and a BBC radio production (which I listened to on my walk to work, causing some very awkward moments 😳)
Be ready for her words to stick with you.
September 15, 2023
A different retelling of Little Red Riding Hood.
Read
October 3, 2020Fanfic furry de caperucita
December 18, 2015
This is a surreal piece of prose written by Carter, where Carter clearly intertwines the compassion and sorrow of the wolves with the supposed naïve innocence of Little Red Riding Hood. However, she fools the readers thinking the wolves are the sexual predators within society, when in fact it could the girl too, who accepts death and the loss of her virginity with a femme fatal attitude.
September 26, 2020
3/5 Stars (%64/100)
A postmodern look at Little Red Riding Hood. The language is absolutely beautiful and the way Carter tells the story is great. Though it is essentially the fairy tale that we all know and love, this feels very intimate, sexual, and also deeply psychological. At that time, it was nothing like I've read before and this is why I liked it.
A postmodern look at Little Red Riding Hood. The language is absolutely beautiful and the way Carter tells the story is great. Though it is essentially the fairy tale that we all know and love, this feels very intimate, sexual, and also deeply psychological. At that time, it was nothing like I've read before and this is why I liked it.
May 24, 2018
This book is one of my favourite things in the world. A mystical, violent, sexy, other-worldly book of stories that are more like folklore and fairy-tales collected by the Brothers Grimm and nothing like modern day Disney fantasies.
January 7, 2016
Feminist, powerful, and dark. The Company of Wolves is a twist on Little Red Riding Hood that reveals dynamics between men, desire, sex, rape, and other themes.
March 21, 2018
I saw the movie before I read the tale, both are amazing and I truly recommend them to literally everybody.
July 19, 2018
Read when alone. Really. When ALONE. Oh, and by the way, dear GOD! The language!!!! Beautiful, lush and lyrical!
February 21, 2023
furry fanfic
March 26, 2024
My essay for Women's Lit:
In Angela Carter’s 1976 story, “The Company of Wolves”, she inventively uses the symbol of the manipulative and dangerous wolf to represent a twisted and violent sort of male sexual desire. She calls him “carnivore incarnate.” He is an insatiable predator of the forest. Carter characterizes her story by using typical themes of gender and power dynamics. She even uses the direct comparison of a young girl “unwisely” walking through the woods late at night, which is the beginning of a timeless story that is all too familiar for any woman reading.
Foreshadowing is a common literary device used by authors to allude to the audience what is going to happen in the story. Carter relies on the fact that the audience knows the story of the red riding hood as well as the fact that the audience fears / is unsettled by this elevated version of the wolf villain that she has portrayed in her story. She also uses blood and violence as a motif in her story. In the end, she subverts the expectations she has given the audience by not letting the wolves kill the girl. Instead, the girl laughs in the face of the wolf, undresses, and hugs him, which somehow sedates his murderous intention. It is an old, but still engrained, idea about women that they should not enjoy sex. The notion that once her purity is lost, as is she. This is not the main conflict in “The Company of Wolves”, in fact, when the young girl embraces sexuality she gains power. However, in all the stories before, the wolf is usually able to kill his victims, and each scene of violence and murder is closely linked with sexuality, implying that the line between the two is blurred if even there at all. In her story, Angela Carter puts an arguably feminist spin on the classic Little Red Riding Hood story. She gives the wolf an identity to represent man and gives the little girl a prominent sexuality. This alters the typical folktale about the monster in the woods and gives it a much darker, more twisted political relevance. As stated in LitCharts, “Nakedness is emphasized again, as the werewolf must strip off his clothes to transform, and Carter mentions his genitals just before he kills the grandmother, again associating sex with violence.”
This age old myth of the werewolf, the focus on the physical body and genitalia, plus the concept of “transformation” all has implications beyond the cisgender sexual experience that most trans and gender-nonconforming people trained in subtext would quickly pick up on. In PBS Frontline’s “Growing Up Trans”, they document the lives of a few trans kids and their journeys. Trans people have found solace in cult movies, campy horrors, and folktales like the story of the werewolf that connect with the trans experience, if subliminally. As stated by 13 year old Ariel (the name Ariel itself being a direct reference to one of the most beloved queer and trans-coded stories in mainstream culture, The Little Mermaid), “The hormone blockers are my lifesaver. Me turning into a man is probably the most horrifying thing I could ever think of in the farthest reaches in my mind.” Developing into a male body is akin to a nightmare for a trans girl who experiences gender dysphoria. As Sally Jane Black, a prominent trans activist and film critic, writes about the 2000 cult classic horror film, “Ginger Snaps”, “The body hair horror, the obfuscating clothing, the conflict over sexuality, these things match my (and let me stress that we're none of us the same) experiences with dysphoria to a point where watching this was actively painful.” In our cisheteronormative society, much of the audience for these classic stories completely miss the subtext that is so apparent to trans people who have lived so much of their lives in the subtext. With this new lens, the story can take on a whole new meaning. The brutal transformation into this monster is only something that can be stopped by a feminine young girl exhibiting classically feminine traits. The metaphor now alludes to the possibility that the ultimate struggle connects to the body horror that trans girls endure when going through puberty.
As a progressive feminist analyzer of literature, you want to go as deep as possible into the implications the story has on cisgender femininity, childhood, or sexuality. However, many forget to include the connections to the transgender and gender-nonconforming experience in all of these same areas, which is unique but just as valid and just as prominent in literature if less explicit. This added lens widens the audience that can connect to the story, the interpretations that come out of it, and also opens up our minds to the vast diversity of the multifaceted human experience.
https://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-blo...
Growing Up Trans | FRONTLINE - PBShttps://www.pbs.org › Home › Documentaries
https://boxd.it/xaB9V
https://boxd.it/bxBK1
In Angela Carter’s 1976 story, “The Company of Wolves”, she inventively uses the symbol of the manipulative and dangerous wolf to represent a twisted and violent sort of male sexual desire. She calls him “carnivore incarnate.” He is an insatiable predator of the forest. Carter characterizes her story by using typical themes of gender and power dynamics. She even uses the direct comparison of a young girl “unwisely” walking through the woods late at night, which is the beginning of a timeless story that is all too familiar for any woman reading.
Foreshadowing is a common literary device used by authors to allude to the audience what is going to happen in the story. Carter relies on the fact that the audience knows the story of the red riding hood as well as the fact that the audience fears / is unsettled by this elevated version of the wolf villain that she has portrayed in her story. She also uses blood and violence as a motif in her story. In the end, she subverts the expectations she has given the audience by not letting the wolves kill the girl. Instead, the girl laughs in the face of the wolf, undresses, and hugs him, which somehow sedates his murderous intention. It is an old, but still engrained, idea about women that they should not enjoy sex. The notion that once her purity is lost, as is she. This is not the main conflict in “The Company of Wolves”, in fact, when the young girl embraces sexuality she gains power. However, in all the stories before, the wolf is usually able to kill his victims, and each scene of violence and murder is closely linked with sexuality, implying that the line between the two is blurred if even there at all. In her story, Angela Carter puts an arguably feminist spin on the classic Little Red Riding Hood story. She gives the wolf an identity to represent man and gives the little girl a prominent sexuality. This alters the typical folktale about the monster in the woods and gives it a much darker, more twisted political relevance. As stated in LitCharts, “Nakedness is emphasized again, as the werewolf must strip off his clothes to transform, and Carter mentions his genitals just before he kills the grandmother, again associating sex with violence.”
This age old myth of the werewolf, the focus on the physical body and genitalia, plus the concept of “transformation” all has implications beyond the cisgender sexual experience that most trans and gender-nonconforming people trained in subtext would quickly pick up on. In PBS Frontline’s “Growing Up Trans”, they document the lives of a few trans kids and their journeys. Trans people have found solace in cult movies, campy horrors, and folktales like the story of the werewolf that connect with the trans experience, if subliminally. As stated by 13 year old Ariel (the name Ariel itself being a direct reference to one of the most beloved queer and trans-coded stories in mainstream culture, The Little Mermaid), “The hormone blockers are my lifesaver. Me turning into a man is probably the most horrifying thing I could ever think of in the farthest reaches in my mind.” Developing into a male body is akin to a nightmare for a trans girl who experiences gender dysphoria. As Sally Jane Black, a prominent trans activist and film critic, writes about the 2000 cult classic horror film, “Ginger Snaps”, “The body hair horror, the obfuscating clothing, the conflict over sexuality, these things match my (and let me stress that we're none of us the same) experiences with dysphoria to a point where watching this was actively painful.” In our cisheteronormative society, much of the audience for these classic stories completely miss the subtext that is so apparent to trans people who have lived so much of their lives in the subtext. With this new lens, the story can take on a whole new meaning. The brutal transformation into this monster is only something that can be stopped by a feminine young girl exhibiting classically feminine traits. The metaphor now alludes to the possibility that the ultimate struggle connects to the body horror that trans girls endure when going through puberty.
As a progressive feminist analyzer of literature, you want to go as deep as possible into the implications the story has on cisgender femininity, childhood, or sexuality. However, many forget to include the connections to the transgender and gender-nonconforming experience in all of these same areas, which is unique but just as valid and just as prominent in literature if less explicit. This added lens widens the audience that can connect to the story, the interpretations that come out of it, and also opens up our minds to the vast diversity of the multifaceted human experience.
https://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-blo...
Growing Up Trans | FRONTLINE - PBShttps://www.pbs.org › Home › Documentaries
https://boxd.it/xaB9V
https://boxd.it/bxBK1
March 3, 2024
This is a gothic horror story that Angela Carter first published in her book The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories (1979). It was published in its own volume in 1981 to coincide with the feature film adaptation. The Company of Wolves is a reimagining of the ancient “Red Riding Hood” tale, and Angela Carter makes it dark, brutal, and strangely sensual. I love her style of storytelling.
Quotes:
“One beast and only one howls in the woods by night.
The wolf is carnivore incarnate and he’s as cunning as he is ferocious; once he’s had a taste of flesh then nothing else will do.”
*
“There is a vast melancholy in the canticles of the wolves, melancholy infinite as the forest, endless as these long nights of winter and yet that ghastly sadness, that mourning for their own, irremediable appetites, can never move the heart for not one phrase in it hints at the possibility of redemption; grace could not come to the world from its own despair, only through some external mediator, so that, sometimes, the beast will look as if he half welcomes the knife that despatches him.”
*
“Off with his disguise, that coat of forest-coloured cloth, the hat with the feather tucked into the ribbon; his matted hair streams down his white shirt and she can see the lice moving in it. The sticks in the hearth shift and hiss; night and the forest has come into the kitchen with darkness tangled in its hair.”
*
“The girl burst out laughing; she knew she was nobody's meat.”
*
**
[The poster of the 1981 movie, directed by Neil Jordan]
Citation:
Carter, A. (1981). The company of wolves. Harper & Row. (Original work published 1979)
Title: The Company of Wolves
Author(s): Angela Carter
Year: 1979
Genre: Fiction - Short story: Magic realism, dark fantasy, horror
Page count: 200 pages
Date(s) read: 3/2/24-3/3/24
Book #56 in 2024
**
Quotes:
“One beast and only one howls in the woods by night.
The wolf is carnivore incarnate and he’s as cunning as he is ferocious; once he’s had a taste of flesh then nothing else will do.”
*
“There is a vast melancholy in the canticles of the wolves, melancholy infinite as the forest, endless as these long nights of winter and yet that ghastly sadness, that mourning for their own, irremediable appetites, can never move the heart for not one phrase in it hints at the possibility of redemption; grace could not come to the world from its own despair, only through some external mediator, so that, sometimes, the beast will look as if he half welcomes the knife that despatches him.”
*
“Off with his disguise, that coat of forest-coloured cloth, the hat with the feather tucked into the ribbon; his matted hair streams down his white shirt and she can see the lice moving in it. The sticks in the hearth shift and hiss; night and the forest has come into the kitchen with darkness tangled in its hair.”
*
“The girl burst out laughing; she knew she was nobody's meat.”
*
**
[The poster of the 1981 movie, directed by Neil Jordan]
Citation:
Carter, A. (1981). The company of wolves. Harper & Row. (Original work published 1979)
Title: The Company of Wolves
Author(s): Angela Carter
Year: 1979
Genre: Fiction - Short story: Magic realism, dark fantasy, horror
Page count: 200 pages
Date(s) read: 3/2/24-3/3/24
Book #56 in 2024
**
February 12, 2024
‘And as they lie there together, we learn that “it is Christmas Day, the werewolves’ birthday”—that the werewolves and the Son of God share a birthday—and that, as for our heroine, “sweet and sound she sleeps in Granny’s bed, between the paws of the tender wolf.” Which is not a bad figure for where Carter’s work in general leaves us. The story’s over; the lights have gone out; we’re bathed in wonderment at what the world has to offer; and we’re aware, at the same time, of a new way in which we understand that we’re no longer safe…’ [On Keeping Company with Wolves – Jim Shepard]
This dark tale of role-reversal is one of the best pastiches I’ve read in some time. With starkly Freudian overtones and graphic sexual insinuations this tale recounts the coming of age of the meek Little Red Riding Hood, as she takes the front seat and drives the plot to its conclusuion. The startling brutality of the predator-prey relations are turned on its head by the author as you are progressively led to a shocker-ending.
Most recommended.
This dark tale of role-reversal is one of the best pastiches I’ve read in some time. With starkly Freudian overtones and graphic sexual insinuations this tale recounts the coming of age of the meek Little Red Riding Hood, as she takes the front seat and drives the plot to its conclusuion. The startling brutality of the predator-prey relations are turned on its head by the author as you are progressively led to a shocker-ending.
Most recommended.
May 6, 2019
Naklada Jesenski i Turk
Zagreb, 2015.
Prevela Senka Galenić
Jezik je atmosferičan, aktualiziran, ironičan, razigran, potentan i prpast.
Izokrenuta postmodernistička i postgotska Crvenkapica.
Oštra i ubojita kratka priča.
Samim time koliko feminizam može biti podtekst ovako kvalitetne proze?
Ne znam kako se Carterica deklarirala, jebeš pozitivizam i biografizam, no ne bih u ovom štivu pronašao uskogrudni i plitkoumni feminizam.
Ipak je na kraju djevojčica svojevoljno potpala pod mušku vlast.
Posthumanistički topos žudnje između djevojčice i vukodlaka, posthumanistička preobrazba čovjeka u vukodlaka. Jedino odudaranje od tipičnog carterizma jest to što se u vezi čovjeka i vukodlaka ne javlja ljubav.
¡Hasta luego!
Evo vam malo dobre glazbe, bogami i ja sam kao Bora Disc Jockey Jokić!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9cUa...
Zagreb, 2015.
Prevela Senka Galenić
Jezik je atmosferičan, aktualiziran, ironičan, razigran, potentan i prpast.
Izokrenuta postmodernistička i postgotska Crvenkapica.
Oštra i ubojita kratka priča.
Samim time koliko feminizam može biti podtekst ovako kvalitetne proze?
Ne znam kako se Carterica deklarirala, jebeš pozitivizam i biografizam, no ne bih u ovom štivu pronašao uskogrudni i plitkoumni feminizam.
Ipak je na kraju djevojčica svojevoljno potpala pod mušku vlast.
Posthumanistički topos žudnje između djevojčice i vukodlaka, posthumanistička preobrazba čovjeka u vukodlaka. Jedino odudaranje od tipičnog carterizma jest to što se u vezi čovjeka i vukodlaka ne javlja ljubav.
¡Hasta luego!
Evo vam malo dobre glazbe, bogami i ja sam kao Bora Disc Jockey Jokić!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9cUa...
November 12, 2022
This writing is amazing and beautiful. I'm sure people wish they could write, in many ways I wish I had written this. This is lovely and haunting. A great quick read which requires many rereads and a lot more comprehension than I expected.
A marriage of Brother's Grimm and every take on Little Red.
I leave my review short more to avoid spoiling this wonderful experience.
I love little nods like the idea of werewolves being children born feet first or rubbing themselves with the ointment gifted from the devil. So many neat little details.
A marriage of Brother's Grimm and every take on Little Red.
I leave my review short more to avoid spoiling this wonderful experience.
I love little nods like the idea of werewolves being children born feet first or rubbing themselves with the ointment gifted from the devil. So many neat little details.
August 25, 2023
A tale of men who turn into wolves representing evil and yearning to devour human flesh. A mention of women who suffer by their hands who must reestablish themselves. The second part of the story — a new version of “Lil Red Ridding Hood” depicts a girl coming of age who must outsmart evil. A moment in life when one must let go of fear to focus on a plan. By initiating the expected behaviors she wins and calms the beast down. To do this she losses something precious but she survives.
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