… imagery derived from subterranean areas behind everyday experience. Angela Carter 1974 from ‘Fireworks’

… Gothic tales, cruel tales, tales of wonder, tales of terror, fabulous narratives that deal directly with the imagery of the unconscious. Angela Carter 1974 from ‘Fireworks’

The Bloody Chamber uses the story form… obliquely, variously, from ten strikingly different angles. Helen Simpson, 2006 in the Introduction to The Bloody Chamber

… a variety of portraits of desire and sexuality Helen Simpson, 2006 in the Introduction to The Bloody Chamber

Carter was later to come under attack for not busting enough taboos than she did. Helen Simpson, 2006 in the Introduction to The Bloody Chamber

… elicits furious hostility from a significant number of students. Helen Simpson, 2006 in the Introduction to The Bloody Chamber

She loved to describe the rich trappings of luxury, to display rich scenery in rich language. Helen Simpson, 2006 in the Introduction to The Bloody Chamber

To be the object of desire is to be defined in the passive case. To exist in the passive case is to die in the passive case – that is to be killed. This is the moral of the fairy tale about the perfect woman. Angela Carter in an epigraph of The Sadeian Women

Images of meat, naked flesh, fur, snow, menstruation, mirrors and roses recur fugue-like throughout, giving these stories an unmistakable family resemblance, different thought they are from each other in approach. Helen Simpson, 2006 in the Introduction to The Bloody Chamber