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The Bloody Chamber | Introduction

Published in 1979, The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories, which received the Cheltenham Festival Literary Prize, retells classic fairy tales. Angela Carter revises "Puss-in-Boots" and "Sleeping Beauty," for example, from an adult, twentieth-century perspective. Her renditions are intended to disturb and titillate her audience, instead of lulling it to sleep. The title story recasts the legend of Bluebeard, the mysterious French nobleman who murders his many wives. The legend, as recorded by the seventeenth-century author Charles Perrault, begins with the marriage of a girl to an eccentric, wealthy man. Called away on business, the newlywed husband leaves his wife the keys to every room and cabinet in the house. This keyring includes one key that she must not use: the one to the ''room at the end of the great gallery.’’ Of course, she eventually enters the room forbidden to her. In it she finds the corpses of her husband's previous wives, all with their throats cut. Startled, the girl drops the key, which is enchanted and permanently stained by the blood on the floor. From this stain, Bluebeard discovers her disobedience. He raises his scimitar, but just in time, her brothers arrive to slay the murderer.

Though it follows the original tale in basic structure, ''The Bloody Chamber'' adds details of character and setting that raise issues of sexual awakening and sexual depravity, of the will to live, and of life in hell. In having the young bride be the one to tell her story and in having her courageous mother come to the rescue, moreover, Carter revisits an age-old tale with her feminist viewpoint.

The Bloody Chamber Summary

‘‘The Bloody Chamber’’ begins with the narrator on her wedding night, traveling by train from Paris to her new home. Her husband is asleep near her, and she, a young pianist, lies sleepless, not knowing what to expect of her married life. She recounts their speedy courtship. Her husband, a marquis who is much older than she and much richer than she, had three wives before her—an opera diva, an artist's model, and a countess—all of whom died under mysterious circumstances.

The couple disembarks the train at dawn and are taken to the Marquis's castle, which is on an island. However, the husband must attend to some business before they can commence their honeymoon. While he is gone, she discovers an out-of-tune piano in the conservatory and a library that includes many volumes of pornography. Her husband returns to find her perusing these volumes and brings her back to the "maternal bed." He puts his grandmother's ruby choker around her neck and they consummate the marriage.

Later, they are awakened by the telephone, and her husband is called away to New York on urgent business. Against her protests, he prepares to depart. He leaves her the keys to every cabinet and room in the castle. He tells her of the treasures that await her viewing, but also informs her that there is one small key that she must not use. "Every man must have one secret," he explains and... » Complete The Bloody Chamber Summary