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Book Of Wayward Girls And Wicked Women
This bestselling collection of stories extols the female virtues of discontent, sexual disruptiveness and bad manners Here are subversive tales - by Ama Ata Aidoo, Jane Bowles, Angela Carter, Colette, Bessie Head, Jamaica Kincaid and Katherine Mansfield among others - all have one thing in common: the wish to restore adventuresses and revolutionaries to their rightful position as models for all women
Reflecting the wide-ranging intelligence and deliciously anarchic taste of Angela Carter, some of these stories celebrate toughness and resilience, some of them low cunning: all of them are about not being nice.
352 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1986
180 people are currently reading
3942 people want to read
About the author
Angela Carter
212 books3,722 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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May 27, 2019
As I have said before, any short story collection usually tends to collect 3 stars from me. This is only logical, as any collection will contain the good, the bad and the average: so the mean is likely to cluster around the centre for most (hence the bell-shaped curve of the normal distribution). The exceptions occur when the editor goes out of his/ her way to choose extremely good (or bad!) stories: or when the stories revolve around a common theme, giving and taking from one another, so that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts - as is the case with the book in question.
Wayward Girls and Wicked Women, edited by Angela Carter, is true to its title. This book is filled with stories about women and girls who are wayward in every way, from society's (read men's) viewpoint: written by authors separated by a century. There are confidence tricksters, prostitutes, lesbians and even murderers-but there are no damsels in distress. Each and every one of these women are their own masters.
Thus we meet the con woman of Elizabeth Jolley's The Last Crop; the lesbians of Rocky Gamez's The Gloria Stories and Ama Ata Aidoos's The Plums; the sexually promiscuous women who revel in their own sexuality of Bessie Head's Life and Jane Bowles's A Guatemalan Idyll; and the witches of Colette's Rainy Moon and Frances Tower's Violet. There are also young girls coming to terms with their sexuality in a socially unacceptable way (The Young Girl by Katherine Mansfield and A Woman Young and Old by Grace Paley) and women who have fallen prey to the familiar devil, drink (Wedlock by George Egerton, Aunt Liu by Lo Shu).
All of these stories are not tragedies: not all have happy endings, either. But they have one thing in common - the indefatigable spirit of their heroines (no, I will not use the word protagonist - each of these wayward girls and wicked women are true heroines in their own right).
In style, the stories range from the romantic (Oke of Okehurst by Vernon Lee) to realist (The Long Trial by Andree Chedid). Some of them are akin to fairy tales (The Earth by Djuna Barnes) while some are outright fables (The Debutante by Leonora Carrington, Three Feminist Fables by Suniti Namjoshi). One cannot be even called a story, rather a vignette (Girl by Jamaica Kincaid).
Angela Carter's own story, The Loves of Lady Purple, is the most powerful story of the collection and the most difficult to categorise. It can be seen either as a fable, dark fantasy, or horror: but whatever be the genre, this dark tale of a puppet come to life, making the dark fantasies of her master a horrifying reality, may be seen to supply the theme for the entire book - a puppet breaking its strings.
A worthwhile collection to read and to keep.
Wayward Girls and Wicked Women, edited by Angela Carter, is true to its title. This book is filled with stories about women and girls who are wayward in every way, from society's (read men's) viewpoint: written by authors separated by a century. There are confidence tricksters, prostitutes, lesbians and even murderers-but there are no damsels in distress. Each and every one of these women are their own masters.
Thus we meet the con woman of Elizabeth Jolley's The Last Crop; the lesbians of Rocky Gamez's The Gloria Stories and Ama Ata Aidoos's The Plums; the sexually promiscuous women who revel in their own sexuality of Bessie Head's Life and Jane Bowles's A Guatemalan Idyll; and the witches of Colette's Rainy Moon and Frances Tower's Violet. There are also young girls coming to terms with their sexuality in a socially unacceptable way (The Young Girl by Katherine Mansfield and A Woman Young and Old by Grace Paley) and women who have fallen prey to the familiar devil, drink (Wedlock by George Egerton, Aunt Liu by Lo Shu).
All of these stories are not tragedies: not all have happy endings, either. But they have one thing in common - the indefatigable spirit of their heroines (no, I will not use the word protagonist - each of these wayward girls and wicked women are true heroines in their own right).
In style, the stories range from the romantic (Oke of Okehurst by Vernon Lee) to realist (The Long Trial by Andree Chedid). Some of them are akin to fairy tales (The Earth by Djuna Barnes) while some are outright fables (The Debutante by Leonora Carrington, Three Feminist Fables by Suniti Namjoshi). One cannot be even called a story, rather a vignette (Girl by Jamaica Kincaid).
Angela Carter's own story, The Loves of Lady Purple, is the most powerful story of the collection and the most difficult to categorise. It can be seen either as a fable, dark fantasy, or horror: but whatever be the genre, this dark tale of a puppet come to life, making the dark fantasies of her master a horrifying reality, may be seen to supply the theme for the entire book - a puppet breaking its strings.
A worthwhile collection to read and to keep.
July 2, 2022
This is a remarkably mixed bunch of stories. I think Angela Carter focused more on meeting the criteria of her title rather than collecting quality writing. She does say in her introduction:
"'Wayward Girls and Wicked Women': the title of this collection is, of course ironic. Very few of the women in these stories are guilty of criminal acts, although all of them have spirit and one or two of them, to my mind, are, or have the potential to be, really evil."
And later she explains a further requirement of her selection: "... morality as regards women has nothing to do with ethics; it means sexual morality and nothing but sexual morality ... Therefore I have been careful to select bad girls who are not sexual profligates."
This, however, is not strictly true. Two of her stories deal with sexually profligate characters - her own story "The Loves of Lady Purple", for which she provides an excuse, and "Life", by Bessie Head.
I suspect this is the reason, why some of the stories are to be frank - sinkers. Carter limited her range too severely by trying to find stories to match her very specific subject and failed somewhat on quality - I would have thought quality more important.
That said, however that are some remarkable stories and writers - so I'll begin with those. The totally outstanding story for me, is Frances Towers', "Violet" - completely strange and wonderful with a distinctive tone that marks it out as number ONE. I was so impressed that I checked on Towers and found she only had one collection - "Tea with Mr Rochester", published in 1948, which is available through Persephone books.
My next favourite is Elizabeth Jolley's "The Last Crop", and as this is a re-read I was amazed to find that every word of this story came back to my reading mind - with the original delight. In fact I remember (from 10/15 years ago) feeling guilty on behalf of the good doctor who wants to purchase the old farm and is foiled by the mother of the household with her - "one last crop". I obviously identifed with this story: a poor urban family have the chance to move back to the outback farm that the grandfather bought in his last years - a long bus ride from the town, it is set in a dry Australian valley with its own beauty; peaceful and quiet. Without the doctor's money the family can do nothing with it, but once the house is sold, to the doctor, with the proviso of the "last crop", they have money enough to live there, and enjoy for the first time in their lives a house in the country.
Next one along - these are not in the same order as the book - just my own list of best to least, so the next is "from The Gloria Stories" by Rocky Gamez. I was surprised to find that these are supposedly true stories, as the narrator is our girl Rocky - she does feature, but mostly as an observer, as the stories are about the oddball Gloria.
Here's the introduction - which I love:
Every child aspires to be something when she grows up. Sometimes these aspirations are totally ridiculous, but coming from the mind of a child they are forgiven and given enough time, they are forgotten. ...
My friend Gloria, however, never went beyond aspiring to be one thing, and one thing only. She wanted to be a man. Long after I had left for college to learn the intricacies of being an educator, my youngest sister would write to me long frightening letters in which she would say that she had seen Gloria barrelling down the street in an old Plymouth honking at all the girls walking down the sidewalk.
There is a Southern vibe to this - as if it might be a Harper Lee, or a Eudora Welty backwater town. But the narrative is dynamic and great fun to read.
Number 4 - "Life" by Bessie Head - she is a superb, skilled and original writer. The story is set in Africa - Botswana to be precise, about a woman who returns to her small village after living for 17 years in Johannesburg. For me the story encapsulated exactly that difference in attitude and character that exemplifies people who come from poor "Third World" type countries:
Custom demanded that people care about each other, and all day long there was this constant traffic of people in and out of each other's lives. Someone had to be buried; sympathy and help were demanded for this event - there were money loans, new born babies, sorrow, trouble, gifts. ... It was the basic strength of village life. It created people whose sympathetic and emotional responses were always fully awakened, and it rewarded them by richly filling in a void that was one big, gaping yawn.
Her story is short but powerful, and her understanding of the clash that happens between different cultures or two worlds brought together as in city/village - is perfectly brought to life with her realistic characters - Life and Lesego, and the village setting.
And now we have the stories that pleased: some of these are extremely short and take only a few minutes to read. Suniti Namjoshi's "Three Feminist Fables" - excellent: Leonora Carrington's "The Debutante" - fun, "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid - read many times before. In the short section also are: "The Earth" by Djuna Barnes, a happy ending folk-type tale about two sisters, Polish peasants; the exceedingly well written, and poignant "Aunt Liu" by Lou Shu - a very short story with which I could easily identify. Set in China about a poor servant woman, badly treated by all around her.
And now the O.K., section - by this I mean that I liked the stories and I could easily see how they would fit into Carter's selection, and I don't have any particular woes, or complaints against them.
Jane Bowles - "A Guatemalan Idyll" - this is a very clever send up of, I would think, a typical middle-class American man, on a business trip to a place he finds - extraordinary, and exotic.
Katherine Mansfield's "The Young Girl" - I've read this in various Mansfield collections, but it's certainly typical of her work - set in the early 20th century, about a spoilt, little rich girl - acute observations.
George Egerton's "Wedlock" - this has the style of late Victorian - but a convincingly macabre edge to keep the reader's interest.
Andree Chedid's "The Long Trial" - a fable type story - not one that stood out for me. Set in Morocco about very poor village people.
Grace Paley's "A Woman Young and Old" - and I think with this one - we are definitely approaching my NEUTRAL ground.
And so finally to the ones that I DID NOT LIKE - AT ALL.
Carter's very own - "The Loves of Lady Purple" - Carter as far as I can see specialises in dense, long winded sentences, with unique vocabulary, that still manage to be grammatically correct, but your eye tends to dwell on this rather than the story. If you like her style then you may like the story - I didn't like either.
Vernon Lee's "Oke of Okehurst" - not kidding, bored to tears by this one - utterly, totally and completely bored to the very last word and the totally mundane ending. It's also very long!
Surprisingly bored by Colette's "Rainy Moon" - didn't hate it, just found her style decidedly self-referencing and pompous. I've read plenty of Colette before this one, and I think I've just not got the patience for her. There are many better writers on today's writing scene - maybe it's because she's French, or that it has been translated. Was NOT enarmoured of story, or style.
My worst on the list - Ghanaian writer Ama Ata Aidoo's "The Plums" - this story is told from the bitter perspective of a young African girl spending time at a Holiday Camp in Bavaria - she meets a local girl Marija - who is terribly lonely. Her husband is away all day working to pay off the mortgage on their modern home.
I disliked the distorted story style of this - the short stanza like poem sections, intermixed with paragraphs, but what I really hated was the Hateful Colonials perspective. Our narrator Sissie understands the reasons behind the White Europeans' expansionist policies throughout the world - it boils down to their
L
O
N
E
L
I
N
E
S
S
I don't mind the writer drawing this conclusion but, the writer through the character of Sissie - has her own brand of misery to offer. So, is she not simply perpetuating the story she seeks to condemn? For me it was a very miserable read, not thought provoking, not new. As with the other African writer, Bessie Head, it is about the clash of different cultures, different worlds, but this one left me profoundly disheartened.
So to sum up - 4 brilliant stories, 4 total bummers, 9 interesting ones - with varying degrees of very good, to middling.
"'Wayward Girls and Wicked Women': the title of this collection is, of course ironic. Very few of the women in these stories are guilty of criminal acts, although all of them have spirit and one or two of them, to my mind, are, or have the potential to be, really evil."
And later she explains a further requirement of her selection: "... morality as regards women has nothing to do with ethics; it means sexual morality and nothing but sexual morality ... Therefore I have been careful to select bad girls who are not sexual profligates."
This, however, is not strictly true. Two of her stories deal with sexually profligate characters - her own story "The Loves of Lady Purple", for which she provides an excuse, and "Life", by Bessie Head.
I suspect this is the reason, why some of the stories are to be frank - sinkers. Carter limited her range too severely by trying to find stories to match her very specific subject and failed somewhat on quality - I would have thought quality more important.
That said, however that are some remarkable stories and writers - so I'll begin with those. The totally outstanding story for me, is Frances Towers', "Violet" - completely strange and wonderful with a distinctive tone that marks it out as number ONE. I was so impressed that I checked on Towers and found she only had one collection - "Tea with Mr Rochester", published in 1948, which is available through Persephone books.
My next favourite is Elizabeth Jolley's "The Last Crop", and as this is a re-read I was amazed to find that every word of this story came back to my reading mind - with the original delight. In fact I remember (from 10/15 years ago) feeling guilty on behalf of the good doctor who wants to purchase the old farm and is foiled by the mother of the household with her - "one last crop". I obviously identifed with this story: a poor urban family have the chance to move back to the outback farm that the grandfather bought in his last years - a long bus ride from the town, it is set in a dry Australian valley with its own beauty; peaceful and quiet. Without the doctor's money the family can do nothing with it, but once the house is sold, to the doctor, with the proviso of the "last crop", they have money enough to live there, and enjoy for the first time in their lives a house in the country.
Next one along - these are not in the same order as the book - just my own list of best to least, so the next is "from The Gloria Stories" by Rocky Gamez. I was surprised to find that these are supposedly true stories, as the narrator is our girl Rocky - she does feature, but mostly as an observer, as the stories are about the oddball Gloria.
Here's the introduction - which I love:
Every child aspires to be something when she grows up. Sometimes these aspirations are totally ridiculous, but coming from the mind of a child they are forgiven and given enough time, they are forgotten. ...
My friend Gloria, however, never went beyond aspiring to be one thing, and one thing only. She wanted to be a man. Long after I had left for college to learn the intricacies of being an educator, my youngest sister would write to me long frightening letters in which she would say that she had seen Gloria barrelling down the street in an old Plymouth honking at all the girls walking down the sidewalk.
There is a Southern vibe to this - as if it might be a Harper Lee, or a Eudora Welty backwater town. But the narrative is dynamic and great fun to read.
Number 4 - "Life" by Bessie Head - she is a superb, skilled and original writer. The story is set in Africa - Botswana to be precise, about a woman who returns to her small village after living for 17 years in Johannesburg. For me the story encapsulated exactly that difference in attitude and character that exemplifies people who come from poor "Third World" type countries:
Custom demanded that people care about each other, and all day long there was this constant traffic of people in and out of each other's lives. Someone had to be buried; sympathy and help were demanded for this event - there were money loans, new born babies, sorrow, trouble, gifts. ... It was the basic strength of village life. It created people whose sympathetic and emotional responses were always fully awakened, and it rewarded them by richly filling in a void that was one big, gaping yawn.
Her story is short but powerful, and her understanding of the clash that happens between different cultures or two worlds brought together as in city/village - is perfectly brought to life with her realistic characters - Life and Lesego, and the village setting.
And now we have the stories that pleased: some of these are extremely short and take only a few minutes to read. Suniti Namjoshi's "Three Feminist Fables" - excellent: Leonora Carrington's "The Debutante" - fun, "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid - read many times before. In the short section also are: "The Earth" by Djuna Barnes, a happy ending folk-type tale about two sisters, Polish peasants; the exceedingly well written, and poignant "Aunt Liu" by Lou Shu - a very short story with which I could easily identify. Set in China about a poor servant woman, badly treated by all around her.
And now the O.K., section - by this I mean that I liked the stories and I could easily see how they would fit into Carter's selection, and I don't have any particular woes, or complaints against them.
Jane Bowles - "A Guatemalan Idyll" - this is a very clever send up of, I would think, a typical middle-class American man, on a business trip to a place he finds - extraordinary, and exotic.
Katherine Mansfield's "The Young Girl" - I've read this in various Mansfield collections, but it's certainly typical of her work - set in the early 20th century, about a spoilt, little rich girl - acute observations.
George Egerton's "Wedlock" - this has the style of late Victorian - but a convincingly macabre edge to keep the reader's interest.
Andree Chedid's "The Long Trial" - a fable type story - not one that stood out for me. Set in Morocco about very poor village people.
Grace Paley's "A Woman Young and Old" - and I think with this one - we are definitely approaching my NEUTRAL ground.
And so finally to the ones that I DID NOT LIKE - AT ALL.
Carter's very own - "The Loves of Lady Purple" - Carter as far as I can see specialises in dense, long winded sentences, with unique vocabulary, that still manage to be grammatically correct, but your eye tends to dwell on this rather than the story. If you like her style then you may like the story - I didn't like either.
Vernon Lee's "Oke of Okehurst" - not kidding, bored to tears by this one - utterly, totally and completely bored to the very last word and the totally mundane ending. It's also very long!
Surprisingly bored by Colette's "Rainy Moon" - didn't hate it, just found her style decidedly self-referencing and pompous. I've read plenty of Colette before this one, and I think I've just not got the patience for her. There are many better writers on today's writing scene - maybe it's because she's French, or that it has been translated. Was NOT enarmoured of story, or style.
My worst on the list - Ghanaian writer Ama Ata Aidoo's "The Plums" - this story is told from the bitter perspective of a young African girl spending time at a Holiday Camp in Bavaria - she meets a local girl Marija - who is terribly lonely. Her husband is away all day working to pay off the mortgage on their modern home.
I disliked the distorted story style of this - the short stanza like poem sections, intermixed with paragraphs, but what I really hated was the Hateful Colonials perspective. Our narrator Sissie understands the reasons behind the White Europeans' expansionist policies throughout the world - it boils down to their
L
O
N
E
L
I
N
E
S
S
I don't mind the writer drawing this conclusion but, the writer through the character of Sissie - has her own brand of misery to offer. So, is she not simply perpetuating the story she seeks to condemn? For me it was a very miserable read, not thought provoking, not new. As with the other African writer, Bessie Head, it is about the clash of different cultures, different worlds, but this one left me profoundly disheartened.
So to sum up - 4 brilliant stories, 4 total bummers, 9 interesting ones - with varying degrees of very good, to middling.
January 13, 2025
I enjoyed this collection/anthology of eighteen stories, edited by Angela Carter. the individual stories were very varied in length and style.
there was nice bio at the end of each story 🙂
quite a few of the authors were women who grew up and/or lived in countries at the time occupied/colonised as part of the British Empire. this in part suggested their potential privilege, tho I also pondered their perspectives - potentially looking on perhaps more as observers, differently to the men (husbands, fathers) who were more active instruments of colonialism 🤔 (not that that evades complicity, just the potential for a slightly different perspective 🤔)
it sounded like quite alot of the stories were originally published in the 1970s (from the bio info about authors' other published works).
📖
1. The Last Crop, Elizabeth Jolley. 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 .5
I enjoyed the story, and the mothers ingenuity 😃😉
2. The Debutante, Leonora Carrington. 🌟 🌟 🌟. 5
a woman and a hyena from the zoo - she persuades it to take her place at a dinner she's expected at 🙂 quirky and macabre 😃😉 felt a little short.
3. From The Gloria Stories, Rocky Raquel Gamez. 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 .5
a woman away at school receives a letter from her friend Gloria, who is now living as a man. Gloria talks about how she hopes to become a father 😉 in her next letter, Gloria recounts how she managed to marry Rosita 😉
humourous, tongue in cheek, and interestingly challenging (the possibilities available to women). hilariously sexually explicit too 😉
4. Life, Bessie Head. 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
Botswana, in the 1960s. the borders between Botswana and South Africa closing and people being sent back to place of origin. Life returns to the village her family are from, and the village gradually help her make her family yard habitable again.
Life is rich compared to the villagers, from her life in Johannesburg, and the villagers a little suspicious about how she came by the money (tho happy to be paid/treated from it).
the opportunities for women in Botswana at the time.
Life being the first woman to work selling sex in the village. the different groups of women and their attitudes to Life. the changes in the village.
5. A Guatemalan Idyl, Jane Bowles. 🌟 🌟 🌟 .5+
travellers at a pensione. Señora Ramírez, and her two daughters. Señorita Córdoba. other neighbours. this initially felt a little disjointed, but like interesting tales within a tale maybe.
an American man travelling after working in the region, until the next boat back to the US, staying at the pensione - some of the story told by him/reflected in his eyes. the variety of events that happen within a short time. some nice interactions between children in the village. gendered interactions.
ended really well, kinda tying things together 🙂
6. The Young Girl, Katherine Mansfield. 🌟 🌟 🌟. 5+
quite a satire and critique of upper class norms/behaviour I think. really nice closing line 🙂
7. Three Feminist Fables, Suniti Namjoshi. 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
Case History (Little Red Ridinghood) 😉
A Room Of His Own (Bluebeard) 😉
Legend (about a sea she-monster. couldn't place which this was a twist on).
(I'm still currently reading/rereading the whole collection - Feminist Fables - slowly).
8. The Rainy Moon, Collette. 🌟 🌟 🌟 .5
two women, a writer and her copyist. nicely drawn, shades of colour, texture...
felt a little long by half way thru... tho curious about where/how it's going to go/end.
not sure it went anywhere in particular 🙂 tho a nice closing line 🙂
over 2 hours long!
9. Wedlock, George Egerton. 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
two bricklayers discuss the hereditary nature of alcoholism, after helping a drunk woman into her house.
in the house, a woman lodger (a writer) observes the drunk woman's children, the jostling street, her own loneliness.
the woman confides in the lodger why she drinks. such a sad turn of tale.
an interesting exploration of alcoholism from different perspectives. of women's lives, losses, choices, lack of... 💔
10. Violet, Frances Towers. 🌟 🌟 🌟
a new maid brings disruption in a tense household.
"things always seem to happen when I come into a house" 😉
"love, she thought, and death, dealt out on the kitchen table by those small clever hands"
(Violet reads cards)
11. The Plums, Ama Ata Aidoo. 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
set in Germany, with a focus on the experiences of West Indian and West African immigrants. colonialism, missionaries, school, names, language... volunteering, working menial jobs, the loss of skills and knowledge from 'home' countries with their doctors working in Europe...
the image of birds crossing continents, dropping feathers 😊
Sissy is our main character, a young Black African woman, staying at the youth hostel, tending young Christmas trees in Bavaria, working in a shop in the town...
Maria, befriending Sissy, while her husband is out at work. gives her bags of vegetables and fruit (from the garden) when she leaves to go back to the ex-castle youth hostel and other campers. the plums!
the relationships between the diverse international campers at the youth hostel, and their transience.
the positioning of Sissy as exotic as the only female African, and who doesn't speak German (tho is fluent in English, which they disregard). how the local Maria is also viewed for her attempts at friendship with Sissy. racism in Germany.
and some more universal gendered experiences and politics.
some fantastic dense but succinct statements, phrases, on racism, colonialism, ++
some really poetic too.
I think I'd like to read this one on paper maybe, or a different reader. be good to see the structure, the different pieces - dialogues, thoughts, memories,
12. A Woman Young and Old, Grace Paley. 🌟 🌟 🌟 ish.
generations of women, and their loves/lovers/men. kinda comedy, and kinda comment.
tho I didn't quite get into this one/get the full sense of it, and it's place in the anthology.
13. The Long Trial, Andree Chedid. 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
a family, the hut full of children. description of daily life.
Haj Osman - whose visits often bring cures, and whose visit to the family changes the feel of the day for Amina.
the old man in thanks for food says may she be blessed with seven more children.. Amina requests he take back the benediction - she can't cope with more children. (who briefly turn into grasshoppers).
are births the province of God, or should a couple have control over how many children they have?
her husband, and many of the villagers also petition Haj Osman to take back the benediction. abit of a fight breaks out when he knocks the one legged man over...
14. The Loves of Lady Purple, Angela Carter. 🌟 🌟 🌟. 5+
the Professor, a puppeteer and his puppets...
Lady Purple - a dominatrix sex worker.
she gains life thru the Professor's death. leaves the theatre and heads into town to the single brothel there.
15. The Earth, Djuna Barnes. 🌟 🌟 🌟
two sisters who both own the same bit of land... until one tries to take it from the other by trickery...
16. Oke of Okehurst, Vernon Lee. 🌟 🌟 🌟
the story told as a kind of monologue, the narrator, an artist, is commissioned to paint a couple, the Okes in Okehurst, Kent. descriptions of the house, and then the unusual Mrs Oke... her indifference and individuality.
some details about Mr Oke and the couples dynamic.
the artist getting a sense of each and both, and thinking about how to paint them.
"...my whole mind was swallowed up in thinking how I should paint Mrs Oke, how I could best transport onto canvas that singular and enigmatic personality"
how alike Mrs Oke is to a portrait in the house, family and ancestors... something of the past that haunts the present, and the two Okes... Lovelock...
"this wayward and exquisite creature whom I had rashly promised myself to send down to posterity"
one of the longest stories of the anthology. about 2 and a half hours long.
17. Girl, Jamaica Kincaid. 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
written as a list of instructions from eg a mother/grandmother to a daughter... with occasional interjections from the girl.
I found myself kinda wishing I'd been taught some of these things 😉 tho they also seemed abit impossible to achieve.
very short! shorter than expected cos the final track contains two stories.
18. Aunt Liu, Lo Shu. 🌟 🌟 🌟.5 +
meeting Aunt Liu again after 8 years, who had cared for her as a child. "time and hateful conventions had made a wide gap between us". the young woman, awkward at first, wants her to stay longer, speaks with Aunt Liu about how life is for her now.
📖
🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
accessed as an RNIB talking book, mostly well read by Gretel Davis. there were a few stories where her reading, and attempts to convey the accents of some of the characters, didn't fit so well.
there was nice bio at the end of each story 🙂
quite a few of the authors were women who grew up and/or lived in countries at the time occupied/colonised as part of the British Empire. this in part suggested their potential privilege, tho I also pondered their perspectives - potentially looking on perhaps more as observers, differently to the men (husbands, fathers) who were more active instruments of colonialism 🤔 (not that that evades complicity, just the potential for a slightly different perspective 🤔)
it sounded like quite alot of the stories were originally published in the 1970s (from the bio info about authors' other published works).
📖
1. The Last Crop, Elizabeth Jolley. 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 .5
I enjoyed the story, and the mothers ingenuity 😃😉
2. The Debutante, Leonora Carrington. 🌟 🌟 🌟. 5
a woman and a hyena from the zoo - she persuades it to take her place at a dinner she's expected at 🙂 quirky and macabre 😃😉 felt a little short.
3. From The Gloria Stories, Rocky Raquel Gamez. 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 .5
a woman away at school receives a letter from her friend Gloria, who is now living as a man. Gloria talks about how she hopes to become a father 😉 in her next letter, Gloria recounts how she managed to marry Rosita 😉
humourous, tongue in cheek, and interestingly challenging (the possibilities available to women). hilariously sexually explicit too 😉
4. Life, Bessie Head. 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
Botswana, in the 1960s. the borders between Botswana and South Africa closing and people being sent back to place of origin. Life returns to the village her family are from, and the village gradually help her make her family yard habitable again.
Life is rich compared to the villagers, from her life in Johannesburg, and the villagers a little suspicious about how she came by the money (tho happy to be paid/treated from it).
the opportunities for women in Botswana at the time.
Life being the first woman to work selling sex in the village. the different groups of women and their attitudes to Life. the changes in the village.
5. A Guatemalan Idyl, Jane Bowles. 🌟 🌟 🌟 .5+
travellers at a pensione. Señora Ramírez, and her two daughters. Señorita Córdoba. other neighbours. this initially felt a little disjointed, but like interesting tales within a tale maybe.
an American man travelling after working in the region, until the next boat back to the US, staying at the pensione - some of the story told by him/reflected in his eyes. the variety of events that happen within a short time. some nice interactions between children in the village. gendered interactions.
ended really well, kinda tying things together 🙂
6. The Young Girl, Katherine Mansfield. 🌟 🌟 🌟. 5+
quite a satire and critique of upper class norms/behaviour I think. really nice closing line 🙂
7. Three Feminist Fables, Suniti Namjoshi. 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
Case History (Little Red Ridinghood) 😉
A Room Of His Own (Bluebeard) 😉
Legend (about a sea she-monster. couldn't place which this was a twist on).
(I'm still currently reading/rereading the whole collection - Feminist Fables - slowly).
8. The Rainy Moon, Collette. 🌟 🌟 🌟 .5
two women, a writer and her copyist. nicely drawn, shades of colour, texture...
felt a little long by half way thru... tho curious about where/how it's going to go/end.
not sure it went anywhere in particular 🙂 tho a nice closing line 🙂
over 2 hours long!
9. Wedlock, George Egerton. 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
two bricklayers discuss the hereditary nature of alcoholism, after helping a drunk woman into her house.
in the house, a woman lodger (a writer) observes the drunk woman's children, the jostling street, her own loneliness.
the woman confides in the lodger why she drinks. such a sad turn of tale.
an interesting exploration of alcoholism from different perspectives. of women's lives, losses, choices, lack of... 💔
10. Violet, Frances Towers. 🌟 🌟 🌟
a new maid brings disruption in a tense household.
"things always seem to happen when I come into a house" 😉
"love, she thought, and death, dealt out on the kitchen table by those small clever hands"
(Violet reads cards)
11. The Plums, Ama Ata Aidoo. 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
set in Germany, with a focus on the experiences of West Indian and West African immigrants. colonialism, missionaries, school, names, language... volunteering, working menial jobs, the loss of skills and knowledge from 'home' countries with their doctors working in Europe...
the image of birds crossing continents, dropping feathers 😊
Sissy is our main character, a young Black African woman, staying at the youth hostel, tending young Christmas trees in Bavaria, working in a shop in the town...
Maria, befriending Sissy, while her husband is out at work. gives her bags of vegetables and fruit (from the garden) when she leaves to go back to the ex-castle youth hostel and other campers. the plums!
the relationships between the diverse international campers at the youth hostel, and their transience.
the positioning of Sissy as exotic as the only female African, and who doesn't speak German (tho is fluent in English, which they disregard). how the local Maria is also viewed for her attempts at friendship with Sissy. racism in Germany.
and some more universal gendered experiences and politics.
some fantastic dense but succinct statements, phrases, on racism, colonialism, ++
some really poetic too.
I think I'd like to read this one on paper maybe, or a different reader. be good to see the structure, the different pieces - dialogues, thoughts, memories,
12. A Woman Young and Old, Grace Paley. 🌟 🌟 🌟 ish.
generations of women, and their loves/lovers/men. kinda comedy, and kinda comment.
tho I didn't quite get into this one/get the full sense of it, and it's place in the anthology.
13. The Long Trial, Andree Chedid. 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
a family, the hut full of children. description of daily life.
Haj Osman - whose visits often bring cures, and whose visit to the family changes the feel of the day for Amina.
the old man in thanks for food says may she be blessed with seven more children.. Amina requests he take back the benediction - she can't cope with more children. (who briefly turn into grasshoppers).
are births the province of God, or should a couple have control over how many children they have?
her husband, and many of the villagers also petition Haj Osman to take back the benediction. abit of a fight breaks out when he knocks the one legged man over...
14. The Loves of Lady Purple, Angela Carter. 🌟 🌟 🌟. 5+
the Professor, a puppeteer and his puppets...
Lady Purple - a dominatrix sex worker.
she gains life thru the Professor's death. leaves the theatre and heads into town to the single brothel there.
15. The Earth, Djuna Barnes. 🌟 🌟 🌟
two sisters who both own the same bit of land... until one tries to take it from the other by trickery...
16. Oke of Okehurst, Vernon Lee. 🌟 🌟 🌟
the story told as a kind of monologue, the narrator, an artist, is commissioned to paint a couple, the Okes in Okehurst, Kent. descriptions of the house, and then the unusual Mrs Oke... her indifference and individuality.
some details about Mr Oke and the couples dynamic.
the artist getting a sense of each and both, and thinking about how to paint them.
"...my whole mind was swallowed up in thinking how I should paint Mrs Oke, how I could best transport onto canvas that singular and enigmatic personality"
how alike Mrs Oke is to a portrait in the house, family and ancestors... something of the past that haunts the present, and the two Okes... Lovelock...
"this wayward and exquisite creature whom I had rashly promised myself to send down to posterity"
one of the longest stories of the anthology. about 2 and a half hours long.
17. Girl, Jamaica Kincaid. 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
written as a list of instructions from eg a mother/grandmother to a daughter... with occasional interjections from the girl.
I found myself kinda wishing I'd been taught some of these things 😉 tho they also seemed abit impossible to achieve.
very short! shorter than expected cos the final track contains two stories.
18. Aunt Liu, Lo Shu. 🌟 🌟 🌟.5 +
meeting Aunt Liu again after 8 years, who had cared for her as a child. "time and hateful conventions had made a wide gap between us". the young woman, awkward at first, wants her to stay longer, speaks with Aunt Liu about how life is for her now.
📖
🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟
accessed as an RNIB talking book, mostly well read by Gretel Davis. there were a few stories where her reading, and attempts to convey the accents of some of the characters, didn't fit so well.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 28, 2019
Eighteen short stories of varying lengths, each from a different female author, which all have one thing in common : the main character is a woman. An eclectic and entertaining collection of stories!
February 13, 2020
An anarchic and eclectic collection featuring con women, witches, precocious children and revolutionaries.
What a wonderful idea: to restore rebels and adventuresses as female role models. But the standard of the contributions waver so much, it is difficult to rate them as a collection. Given that they were handpicked by (the brilliant) Angela Carter, I did expect something more. The stories are, at times, disparate, and whilst there are some gems (Carter’s The Loves of Lady Purple, Carrington’s The Debutante and Colette’s The Rainy Moon), on the whole I was underwhelmed.
Wayward Girls and Wicked Women marked my first foray into writers I intend to revisit. This particular collection as a whole? Maybe not. We’ll see.
What a wonderful idea: to restore rebels and adventuresses as female role models. But the standard of the contributions waver so much, it is difficult to rate them as a collection. Given that they were handpicked by (the brilliant) Angela Carter, I did expect something more. The stories are, at times, disparate, and whilst there are some gems (Carter’s The Loves of Lady Purple, Carrington’s The Debutante and Colette’s The Rainy Moon), on the whole I was underwhelmed.
Wayward Girls and Wicked Women marked my first foray into writers I intend to revisit. This particular collection as a whole? Maybe not. We’ll see.
April 23, 2021
I was so excited for this but unfortunately I couldn‘t connect with the stories
March 16, 2020
This collection is composed of eighteen different stories from various female authors that come form different cultures and different parts of the world. I was in the middle of reading these stories during the International Women's Day March 8th. It was a great way to celebrate it by reading a book from women about women that talks about different aspects of women. The title suggested the less traditional but much more real women.
The Last Crop by Elizabeth Jolley ★★★★
This first story in the collection is a very inspiring and quirky just like the mother in this story is. The resourcefulness and and the well meaning caught me by surprise. I like the pace this story has set for the rest of the collection.
The Debutante by Leonora Carrington ★★★★★
This story was so short that just as I got into it was over. I liked the idea and how it was written! Loved the fact that the story had a hyena in it!
from The Gloria Stories by Rocky Gamez ★★★
This was by far one of the most confusing stories I've read. Gender bender quality of the story aside, what gave me trouble was that I could not place it in any timeline. I needed more cultural pointers to get into the story. I was confused by switching from issues of ignorance and homosexuality.
Life by Bessie Head ★★★★★
The main character is a woman named Life. This story hit me hard. Life dies in a very relatable way many women have died trough the ages.
A Guatemalan Idyll by Jane Bowels ★★
This story was the longest so far with around 40 pages. It read like a piece for the theater and the characters were one dimensional and oppressive.
The Young Girl by Katherine Mansfield ★★★★
The short form of the story alluded to certain motives but they were never fully explored. This story was more like a painting than a narrative and everything it had to say could have been made in to a painting.
Three Feminist Fables by Suniti Namjoshi ★★★★★
Three very short texts. So short one can hardly call them stories. So far they reminded me the most of the Angela Carter's other works and I enjoyed them the most as well! The fantastic elements and dry humor translated much more than words can convey.
The Rainy Moon by Colette ★★
One of the longest and most tedious stories so far. I just had trouble concentrating. The mentioned background characters were confusing and I struggled between „French realism“ setting and motives of the story.
Wedlock by George Egerton ★★★
I had some trouble with reading this story due to the English slang dialogues. The whole story was dripping with melancholy and it affected me more than I liked it to admit.
Violet by Frances Towers ★★★★
This story presented how people more often make decisions based on their fear. Rather nice story with a gloomy ending.
The Plums by Ama Ata Aidoo ★★★★★
I loved the verse writing style. It was very emotional and very symbolic. Prose was heavy with meaning and some of it scared me.
A Woman Young and Old by Grace Paley ★★★★★
I think this story has captured so many aspects of what matriarchy could feel like.
The Long Trial by Andree Chedid ★★★
I appreciated the cultural diversity this story brought with it. The religious theme is quite thought provoking and satisfying.
The Loves of Lady Purple by Angela Carter ★★★
Dark and playfully twisted. I like that she used a doll as a story element.
The Earth by Djuna Barnes ★★★
I liked the writing style and the motives. The characters were unique and very expressive against their own nature. I was surprised at how some themes transcend well trough time and I can understand them better than I thought I would.
Oke of Okehurst by Vernon Lee ★★★★
A very elaborate story with gothic elements. Sort of melancholy and captures the English countryside with „weltshmertz“ theme.
Girl by Jamiaca Kincaid ★★★★
I have a thing for these short forms with lots of repetitions and even more hidden meanings.
Aunt Liu by Luo Shu ★★★★
I'm ambivalent toward this story. I'm not sure I can digest what it is suggesting. Although i'm sure that a man in the situation of aunt Liu would probably be celebrated hero and a martyr…
There were only two stories I did not like. The five of the stories were excellent and I enjoyed them so much. The rest were either good or very good. The general rating of the collection is four stars out of five. These stories were not celebrating women power but were delving into those female traits that are rarely explored by authors and media. Some characters were inspiring and ingenious others were thought provoking and melancholy. I'm very pleased with this book and the stories I've read.
The Last Crop by Elizabeth Jolley ★★★★
This first story in the collection is a very inspiring and quirky just like the mother in this story is. The resourcefulness and and the well meaning caught me by surprise. I like the pace this story has set for the rest of the collection.
The Debutante by Leonora Carrington ★★★★★
This story was so short that just as I got into it was over. I liked the idea and how it was written! Loved the fact that the story had a hyena in it!
from The Gloria Stories by Rocky Gamez ★★★
This was by far one of the most confusing stories I've read. Gender bender quality of the story aside, what gave me trouble was that I could not place it in any timeline. I needed more cultural pointers to get into the story. I was confused by switching from issues of ignorance and homosexuality.
Life by Bessie Head ★★★★★
The main character is a woman named Life. This story hit me hard. Life dies in a very relatable way many women have died trough the ages.
A Guatemalan Idyll by Jane Bowels ★★
This story was the longest so far with around 40 pages. It read like a piece for the theater and the characters were one dimensional and oppressive.
The Young Girl by Katherine Mansfield ★★★★
The short form of the story alluded to certain motives but they were never fully explored. This story was more like a painting than a narrative and everything it had to say could have been made in to a painting.
Three Feminist Fables by Suniti Namjoshi ★★★★★
Three very short texts. So short one can hardly call them stories. So far they reminded me the most of the Angela Carter's other works and I enjoyed them the most as well! The fantastic elements and dry humor translated much more than words can convey.
The Rainy Moon by Colette ★★
One of the longest and most tedious stories so far. I just had trouble concentrating. The mentioned background characters were confusing and I struggled between „French realism“ setting and motives of the story.
Wedlock by George Egerton ★★★
I had some trouble with reading this story due to the English slang dialogues. The whole story was dripping with melancholy and it affected me more than I liked it to admit.
Violet by Frances Towers ★★★★
This story presented how people more often make decisions based on their fear. Rather nice story with a gloomy ending.
The Plums by Ama Ata Aidoo ★★★★★
I loved the verse writing style. It was very emotional and very symbolic. Prose was heavy with meaning and some of it scared me.
A Woman Young and Old by Grace Paley ★★★★★
I think this story has captured so many aspects of what matriarchy could feel like.
The Long Trial by Andree Chedid ★★★
I appreciated the cultural diversity this story brought with it. The religious theme is quite thought provoking and satisfying.
The Loves of Lady Purple by Angela Carter ★★★
Dark and playfully twisted. I like that she used a doll as a story element.
The Earth by Djuna Barnes ★★★
I liked the writing style and the motives. The characters were unique and very expressive against their own nature. I was surprised at how some themes transcend well trough time and I can understand them better than I thought I would.
Oke of Okehurst by Vernon Lee ★★★★
A very elaborate story with gothic elements. Sort of melancholy and captures the English countryside with „weltshmertz“ theme.
Girl by Jamiaca Kincaid ★★★★
I have a thing for these short forms with lots of repetitions and even more hidden meanings.
Aunt Liu by Luo Shu ★★★★
I'm ambivalent toward this story. I'm not sure I can digest what it is suggesting. Although i'm sure that a man in the situation of aunt Liu would probably be celebrated hero and a martyr…
There were only two stories I did not like. The five of the stories were excellent and I enjoyed them so much. The rest were either good or very good. The general rating of the collection is four stars out of five. These stories were not celebrating women power but were delving into those female traits that are rarely explored by authors and media. Some characters were inspiring and ingenious others were thought provoking and melancholy. I'm very pleased with this book and the stories I've read.
May 20, 2023
Brilliant collection of stories by female authors. I loved the mixture of cultures, writing styles and variations of what evil in a woman can be. Cannot wait to read more of these authors.
August 13, 2022
Publicada por Edhasa en 1989. Recopila cuentos de Ama Ata Aidoo, Andrée Chedid, Bessie Head, Colette, Djuna Barnes, Elizabeth Jolley, Frances Towers, George Egerton, Grace Paley, Jamaica Kincaid, Jane Bowles, Katherine Mansfield, Leonora Carrington, Luo Shu, Rocky Gamez, Suniti Namjoshi y Vernon Lee, bajo la premisa de ser cuentos sobre mujeres independientes, liberadas y tildadas por lo mismo de "malas" o "perversas", sin que realmente lo sean, salvo quizás en la libertad sexual mal vista bajo una óptica patriarcal. Bajo ese criterio se pueden catalogar de "perversas" a todas las autoras de este libro, cuando en realidas sólo fueron fieles a una de las principales obsesiones de Carter: " Self-possession. To be in possession of oneself. That’s the only thing really.’ Bajo esa premisa vivió su vida y fue lo que guío esta antología, donde podemos leer los destinos de adolescentes de la alta sociedad que se rebelan en su baile de presentación, niñas insoportables con su familia y viejas que advierten de las catástrofes. Doncellas, madres y ancianas en una lucha perpetua por ser ellas mismas.
August 18, 2024
Me parece que este libro es un esfuerzo por visibilizar a autoras que no han recibido la atención ni el reconocimiento que se merecen. Pero además, con historias de mujeres que toman el control de sus vidas o se atreven a salirse de lo que se espera de ellas y pisan así, caminos maléficos, diabólicos y perversos.
Me ha gustado en cuanto que me ha llevado a conocerlas y querer leer más su obra, lamentablemente sus trabajos son difíciles de conseguir y aun más en español.
Los relatos que me han gustado: la última cosecha, las ciruelas, contrato matrimonial, Violeta, Oke de Okehurst, la larga espera y Chica.
¡Lo recomiendo!
Me ha gustado en cuanto que me ha llevado a conocerlas y querer leer más su obra, lamentablemente sus trabajos son difíciles de conseguir y aun más en español.
Los relatos que me han gustado: la última cosecha, las ciruelas, contrato matrimonial, Violeta, Oke de Okehurst, la larga espera y Chica.
¡Lo recomiendo!
Want to read
June 14, 2023Wow. Wayward and wicked sounds right up my lane. I desperately need this.
April 14, 2019
I shocked myself by not enjoying this collection that much. I'm a die-hard Angela Carter fan and as soon as I heard about this female focused collection selected by her and featuring one of her own stories, I had to get my hands on it. It's not like it's not great, I just didn't get the wow factor from a large number of the stories, found myself skimming through them and didn't engage but having said that there were some gems and I really did love these and will focus on them for my review.
The loves of Lady Purple by Carter herself, is odd and perfect, the tale of a puppet who comes to life. It's sensual, scary, feminist and trademark Angela Carter. One of my favourite stories, Rainy Moon by Collette is the longest and most stand out, in my opinion. It was great to re-read it in a female focused collection and re-affirmed that I really need to read more Collette!
The Djuna Barnes and Leonora Carrington stories did not disappoint. An author I hadn't heard of was Vernon Lee. I loved the ghostly and supernatural Oke of Okehurst. I'd definitely like to read more of her.
The other standouts were Elizabeth Jolley's The Last Crop (I think this 'wicked woman' is the standout of the collection!) and Life by Bessie Head, that story was just a universe onto itself in terms of women and culture and just life.
So yeah an interesting collection, happy to have discovered some amazing new writers but didn't live up to my expectations all in all.
The loves of Lady Purple by Carter herself, is odd and perfect, the tale of a puppet who comes to life. It's sensual, scary, feminist and trademark Angela Carter. One of my favourite stories, Rainy Moon by Collette is the longest and most stand out, in my opinion. It was great to re-read it in a female focused collection and re-affirmed that I really need to read more Collette!
The Djuna Barnes and Leonora Carrington stories did not disappoint. An author I hadn't heard of was Vernon Lee. I loved the ghostly and supernatural Oke of Okehurst. I'd definitely like to read more of her.
The other standouts were Elizabeth Jolley's The Last Crop (I think this 'wicked woman' is the standout of the collection!) and Life by Bessie Head, that story was just a universe onto itself in terms of women and culture and just life.
So yeah an interesting collection, happy to have discovered some amazing new writers but didn't live up to my expectations all in all.
October 16, 2021
3.5
as expected w short story collections, esp ones not entirely comprised of the compiler’s stories, there were some stories which were a pain to get through, but i read on for the delightful hidden gems buried within the more average stories.
top three:
“the last crop” , “the rainy moon” & “oke of okehurst”
honourable mentions: “the young girl” “the earth” “the loves of lady purple” “girl” & “life”
will probably reread this sometime in the future & annotate!
as expected w short story collections, esp ones not entirely comprised of the compiler’s stories, there were some stories which were a pain to get through, but i read on for the delightful hidden gems buried within the more average stories.
top three:
“the last crop” , “the rainy moon” & “oke of okehurst”
honourable mentions: “the young girl” “the earth” “the loves of lady purple” “girl” & “life”
will probably reread this sometime in the future & annotate!
November 25, 2018
Excellent collection of stories - goes without saying the Angela Carter one is brilliant, dark and sensual. Some I didn't get on with too much, hence the 4 stars, but overall, very enjoyable wicked women!
May 21, 2024
Unfortunately didn't enjoy this one at all despite its killer theme. The Colette one stands out in its fullness and I didn't get that from the other ones for the most part.
October 11, 2021
The first story, The First Crop by Elizabeth Jolley, is a surprising and maybe even slightly disturbing tale about a poor family whose head, a resourceful and unpredictable lady, does... things. I don't know how to describe what happens without spoilers, but I felt it was verging on magical realism while being completely realistic – it was just that wild. The writing reminded me of George Saunders for some reason. I didn't know at first where or when the story was taking place, and was delighted to slowly find out that it was set in Australia. (I went to Wikipedia afterwards to learn about Elizabeth Jolley; her biography is very interesting.)
Wedlock by George Egerton (the author is a woman), was an incredibly sad and tragic story of a young woman who had an illegitimate child and... I don't think it's possible to say anything more without spoilers, so I won't. The story is confusing in the beginning, and I had a hard time telling who was in reality the main character, but once I settled in, it proceeded at a breathtaking space. You can see how it will end, but not in a bad way – a "will it or won't it go there" way. The one thing that annoyed me was the use of dialect, I thought it was a bit excessive, but again, once I got used to it, it became a minor thing.
Violet by Frances Towers, I loved. The titular Violet is a young maidservant who unexpectedly... well, she is a bit of a spooky Mary Poppins. I can't really say anything else! ("'Notre domestique,' wrote Sophy, in the green ink she affected, 'is no ordinary scullion. She might have washed up the wine-cups of the Borgias, or looked through the keyholes of the Medici.")
The Plums by Ama Ata Aidoo has a highly unusual style of narration, which sometimes changes from prose to almost-verse, and is about experiences of a foreign student from Ghana, who travels around Europe and befriends a young German woman. Some of her observations I found a bit didactic, but I loved her perspective, and the story was moving and engrossing.
A Woman Young and Old is by Grace Paley, whom I heard a lot of good things about, but whose work I have never read; and wow, the story about a family of ladies and a lone sergeant named Brown was so wild and so expertly written – I think that the skill was fully in the service of the wildness, and the result was stunning.
The Long Trial by Andrée Chedid, has a simple style and structure, resembling a fairy tale or a fable, and the main character is a poor Egyptian peasant woman who unexpectedly shows enough strength and determination to upset the power dynamics in her village – and wins. (I hope she wins.)
The story by Angela Carter herself, The Loves of Lady Purple, sort of annoyed me, even though the imagery and language were beautiful... but it was heavily influenced by the culture of Japanese red-light districts, and not in a good way; it takes an almost offensively fetishizing approach, at least for me. So I couldn't really enjoy this one.
As for Madam Djuna Barnes's The Earth, I was determined to understand! her! this! time! and I think I did, maybe because it was a quite straightforward story of two uneducated farmer sisters fighting for some land and a man – it was almost a morality tale. For some reason, the sisters were Polish and the man was Swedish. Now I don't know about him, but there was nothing Polish about the sisters, not even the names, so it's probable that their nationality was supposed to symbolize them being not quite normal.
Oke of Okehurst by Vernon Lee (whom I knew about, because some time ago I read a novel in which she was one of the characters), was very long, Victorian in style, tone and pace, and bordering on being a ghost story. Or maybe it was one, I don't know; the heroine Alice was a lazy and beautiful rich woman, obsessed by the thought that she might have been a reincarnation of her ancestress (or the ancestress of her husband, I don't remember). What I remember was the feeling of exasperation towards her and of sympathy towards her husband. But I did like the story.
The Girl by Jamaica Kincaid was more of a sketch on the topic of societal and familial expectations which (cruelly) are allowed to shape the lives of women. It was extremely short and quite powerful.
The last story in the book, Aunt Liu, was half-sad, half-hopeful, almost autobiographical story about a little girl and her nurse Aunt Liu, who despite the poverty and privation of her life still finds the strength to be independent, resolute, even defiant. I'm definitely going to check out the author; I looked her up on Wiki and it seems she died very young. :(
Wedlock by George Egerton (the author is a woman), was an incredibly sad and tragic story of a young woman who had an illegitimate child and... I don't think it's possible to say anything more without spoilers, so I won't. The story is confusing in the beginning, and I had a hard time telling who was in reality the main character, but once I settled in, it proceeded at a breathtaking space. You can see how it will end, but not in a bad way – a "will it or won't it go there" way. The one thing that annoyed me was the use of dialect, I thought it was a bit excessive, but again, once I got used to it, it became a minor thing.
Violet by Frances Towers, I loved. The titular Violet is a young maidservant who unexpectedly... well, she is a bit of a spooky Mary Poppins. I can't really say anything else! ("'Notre domestique,' wrote Sophy, in the green ink she affected, 'is no ordinary scullion. She might have washed up the wine-cups of the Borgias, or looked through the keyholes of the Medici.")
The Plums by Ama Ata Aidoo has a highly unusual style of narration, which sometimes changes from prose to almost-verse, and is about experiences of a foreign student from Ghana, who travels around Europe and befriends a young German woman. Some of her observations I found a bit didactic, but I loved her perspective, and the story was moving and engrossing.
A Woman Young and Old is by Grace Paley, whom I heard a lot of good things about, but whose work I have never read; and wow, the story about a family of ladies and a lone sergeant named Brown was so wild and so expertly written – I think that the skill was fully in the service of the wildness, and the result was stunning.
The Long Trial by Andrée Chedid, has a simple style and structure, resembling a fairy tale or a fable, and the main character is a poor Egyptian peasant woman who unexpectedly shows enough strength and determination to upset the power dynamics in her village – and wins. (I hope she wins.)
The story by Angela Carter herself, The Loves of Lady Purple, sort of annoyed me, even though the imagery and language were beautiful... but it was heavily influenced by the culture of Japanese red-light districts, and not in a good way; it takes an almost offensively fetishizing approach, at least for me. So I couldn't really enjoy this one.
As for Madam Djuna Barnes's The Earth, I was determined to understand! her! this! time! and I think I did, maybe because it was a quite straightforward story of two uneducated farmer sisters fighting for some land and a man – it was almost a morality tale. For some reason, the sisters were Polish and the man was Swedish. Now I don't know about him, but there was nothing Polish about the sisters, not even the names, so it's probable that their nationality was supposed to symbolize them being not quite normal.
Oke of Okehurst by Vernon Lee (whom I knew about, because some time ago I read a novel in which she was one of the characters), was very long, Victorian in style, tone and pace, and bordering on being a ghost story. Or maybe it was one, I don't know; the heroine Alice was a lazy and beautiful rich woman, obsessed by the thought that she might have been a reincarnation of her ancestress (or the ancestress of her husband, I don't remember). What I remember was the feeling of exasperation towards her and of sympathy towards her husband. But I did like the story.
The Girl by Jamaica Kincaid was more of a sketch on the topic of societal and familial expectations which (cruelly) are allowed to shape the lives of women. It was extremely short and quite powerful.
The last story in the book, Aunt Liu, was half-sad, half-hopeful, almost autobiographical story about a little girl and her nurse Aunt Liu, who despite the poverty and privation of her life still finds the strength to be independent, resolute, even defiant. I'm definitely going to check out the author; I looked her up on Wiki and it seems she died very young. :(
June 29, 2009
Perhaps a complete review some day but in the meantime...
The average of the individual story ratings (out to four decimal places): 3.8056
INCLUDES:
• "The Last Crop" by Elizabeth Jolley: ★★★½
• "The Débutante" by Leonora Carrington: ★★★★
• from The Gloria Stories by Rocky Gámez: ★★★
• "Life" by Bessie Head: ★★★
• "A Guatemalan Idyll" by Jane Bowles: ★★
• "The Young Girl" by Katherine Mansfield: ★★★
• "Three Feminist Fables" by Suniti Namjoshi: ★★★★
• "The Rainy Moon" by Colette: ★★★★
• "Wedlock" by George Egerton: ★★★
» The cockney makes it a bit tough to follow at points but otherwise good stuff.
• "Violet" by Frances Towers: ★★★½
» Twisted and feeling like it may require a re-read at some point.
• "The Plums" by Ama Ata Aidoo: ★★★★★
• "A Woman Young and Old" by Grace Paley: ★★★★
• "The Long Trial" by André Chedid: ★★★★
• "The Loves of Lady Purple" by Angela Carter: ★★★★★
» It's like a twisted "Pinnochio" in reverse? (and/or essentially making it a Pygmalion story?)
• "The Earth" by Djuna Barnes: ★★★★★
• "Oke of Okehurst" by Vernon Lee: ★★★½
» Surreal and bizarre and great (if a bit long and stylistically rambling).
• "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid: ★★★★★
• "Aunt Liu" by Luo Shu: ★★★★
The average of the individual story ratings (out to four decimal places): 3.8056
INCLUDES:
• "The Last Crop" by Elizabeth Jolley: ★★★½
• "The Débutante" by Leonora Carrington: ★★★★
• from The Gloria Stories by Rocky Gámez: ★★★
• "Life" by Bessie Head: ★★★
• "A Guatemalan Idyll" by Jane Bowles: ★★
• "The Young Girl" by Katherine Mansfield: ★★★
• "Three Feminist Fables" by Suniti Namjoshi: ★★★★
• "The Rainy Moon" by Colette: ★★★★
• "Wedlock" by George Egerton: ★★★
» The cockney makes it a bit tough to follow at points but otherwise good stuff.
• "Violet" by Frances Towers: ★★★½
» Twisted and feeling like it may require a re-read at some point.
• "The Plums" by Ama Ata Aidoo: ★★★★★
• "A Woman Young and Old" by Grace Paley: ★★★★
• "The Long Trial" by André Chedid: ★★★★
• "The Loves of Lady Purple" by Angela Carter: ★★★★★
» It's like a twisted "Pinnochio" in reverse? (and/or essentially making it a Pygmalion story?)
• "The Earth" by Djuna Barnes: ★★★★★
• "Oke of Okehurst" by Vernon Lee: ★★★½
» Surreal and bizarre and great (if a bit long and stylistically rambling).
• "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid: ★★★★★
• "Aunt Liu" by Luo Shu: ★★★★
June 13, 2010
Although I really enjoy Angela Carter's own short stories, evidently I'm not as keen on her choice of those of other writers. Perhaps it was the collection of so many female-centred stories in one book, but I did feel that I was being beaten over the head with conspicious feminism a lot of the time, as strings of women were driven to the titular 'wickedness' through the opressive situations in which they found themselves rather than any real fault of their own. The tone of the book seems to ask "but what else could they have done?" which, while it's an interesting perspective to read from, did get a little wearing.
That complaint aside, there were some stories that I really enjoyed. The folk tale style of the story of Lena and Una, complete with typical folk justice, was particularly good and the haunting story of the Okes of Okehampton reminded me of Daphne du Maurier. All in all, an interesting collection, but not one I think I'm likely to read again.
That complaint aside, there were some stories that I really enjoyed. The folk tale style of the story of Lena and Una, complete with typical folk justice, was particularly good and the haunting story of the Okes of Okehampton reminded me of Daphne du Maurier. All in all, an interesting collection, but not one I think I'm likely to read again.
December 18, 2016
well, that for sure took some time.
June 18, 2020
An extremely diverse little collection in all senses. My one quibble is there are too many long short stories which aren't buffeted by shorter ones, which makes the whole collection quite dense.
Individual reviews:
the last crop 4
the debutante 5
from the Gloria stories 4
Life 4 and a half
A Guatemalan idyll 2
the young girl 2
3 feminist fables 5
the rainy moon 4
wedlock 5
violet 2
the plums 5
A woman young and old 5
the long trial 5
the loves of lady purple 5
the earth 5
oke of okehurst 5
girl 4
Aunt Liu 3rd
Individual reviews:
the last crop 4
the debutante 5
from the Gloria stories 4
Life 4 and a half
A Guatemalan idyll 2
the young girl 2
3 feminist fables 5
the rainy moon 4
wedlock 5
violet 2
the plums 5
A woman young and old 5
the long trial 5
the loves of lady purple 5
the earth 5
oke of okehurst 5
girl 4
Aunt Liu 3rd
November 25, 2025
Although this is great for its focus on ‘non conforming’ women, its greatest strength for me was the chance it gave me to try out a good number of the twentieth century’s most interesting and mainly under-read, if hardly unknown, female writers. There’s quite an eclectic mix, and although the main focus is on the US and UK, plenty of other places are also represented - from Botswana to Guatemala.. It has meant that there are some writers that I probably won’t leap to read next (although it’s more a style preference than any quality issue) but there are also a few that have been bumped up the list so all round quite the worthwhile read.
March 22, 2020
I was excited about this book because I really like Angela Carter but I slogged through this and was actually excited to be finished with it. I did like a couple of stories and appreciated the exposure to these authors
June 2, 2019
A pleasantly varied collection by some remarkable authors, portraying women across centuries, cultures and perspectives. I particularly enjoyed reminiscing about my University modules linked to feminist writing and female representation while reading it. My personal favourites in the collection have been Angela Carter’s “The Loves of Lady Purple”, Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” and Suniti Namjoshi’s “Three Feminist Fables”.
October 22, 2020
The title led me to think these would all be ribald or bawdy tales -- only a couple were.
18 pieces, I like five or six of them -- not a great ratio, but I was knocked out by one of them, "Oke of Okehurst" by Vernon Lee. Also really liked the first Colette I've ever read, "The Rainy Room".
18 pieces, I like five or six of them -- not a great ratio, but I was knocked out by one of them, "Oke of Okehurst" by Vernon Lee. Also really liked the first Colette I've ever read, "The Rainy Room".
September 11, 2020
’No tears came to Lena’s help. And had they done so, they would have hissed against the flaming steel of her eyeballs.’
An anthology of short stories edited by Angela Carter with a focus on female "deviancy"? Sign me up.
This is a great, varied collection. A few of the stories washed over me but in general I thoroughly enjoyed the variety.
Mainly published in the 20th Century, Carter showcases a range of female authors, some famous and some obscure; some English, some international. The stories feature themes of anthropomorphism, love, marriage, the occult, murder, trickery, cruelty and jealousy. There is a range of narrative styles, cultures and protagonists to enjoy here. Sometimes it’s interesting to see the similarities between Carters own work and the stories she has selected, sometimes you just get caught up in something new.
Probably my top three were: The Debutante, Life and The Rainy Moon. Although Girl, Oke of Okehurst, Wedlock and A Guatemalan Idyll were also interesting.
An anthology of short stories edited by Angela Carter with a focus on female "deviancy"? Sign me up.
This is a great, varied collection. A few of the stories washed over me but in general I thoroughly enjoyed the variety.
Mainly published in the 20th Century, Carter showcases a range of female authors, some famous and some obscure; some English, some international. The stories feature themes of anthropomorphism, love, marriage, the occult, murder, trickery, cruelty and jealousy. There is a range of narrative styles, cultures and protagonists to enjoy here. Sometimes it’s interesting to see the similarities between Carters own work and the stories she has selected, sometimes you just get caught up in something new.
Probably my top three were: The Debutante, Life and The Rainy Moon. Although Girl, Oke of Okehurst, Wedlock and A Guatemalan Idyll were also interesting.
August 16, 2018
My top three thoughts on 'Book of Wayward Girls & Wicked Women:
1. When I picked this book, I assumed by the misleading title that the author of this book is Angela Carter. It literally took up the entire cover! This is in fact a collection of short stories of 'controversial' women by different authors PICKED by Angela Carter. The stories are from a simpler time when being different was enough to be labeled as wicked. In my opinion, the women featured are less wicked/sinister and more just different and unconventional. I.e. hornier, bolder, smarter, etc.
2. Since there are quite a number of stories with similar themes in the book, I found my mind wandering and at times I was even dozing off mid story (I'm looking at you 'A Guatemalan Idyll'). 3. A few stories that remotely held my interest were: 'The Last Crop', 'The Young Girl', 'Wedlock' and 'The Loves of Lady Purple'. Despite the last one being written by Carter herself, this collection of short stories just didn't work for me. I really struggled to finish the book.
1. When I picked this book, I assumed by the misleading title that the author of this book is Angela Carter. It literally took up the entire cover! This is in fact a collection of short stories of 'controversial' women by different authors PICKED by Angela Carter. The stories are from a simpler time when being different was enough to be labeled as wicked. In my opinion, the women featured are less wicked/sinister and more just different and unconventional. I.e. hornier, bolder, smarter, etc.
2. Since there are quite a number of stories with similar themes in the book, I found my mind wandering and at times I was even dozing off mid story (I'm looking at you 'A Guatemalan Idyll'). 3. A few stories that remotely held my interest were: 'The Last Crop', 'The Young Girl', 'Wedlock' and 'The Loves of Lady Purple'. Despite the last one being written by Carter herself, this collection of short stories just didn't work for me. I really struggled to finish the book.
December 20, 2017
Wildly uneven, Wayward Girls and Wicked Women wavers so much in tone that it’s hard to form any coherent opinion of it. The women don’t seem wayward or wicked (for the most part) so much as bordering on hysteria, a term the Greeks used centuries ago when women acted in ways the menfolk didn’t understand. From two old maid sisters reported on in a meandering fashion by a woman trapped in her own past to a modern Medea to a wife and mother making a flailing leap at lesbianism (you’re not sure whether she’s lonely without her husband or just coming to a realization about her sexuality), the stories have such a stifling air that wading from one to another is like coming out of a marsh to find yourself falling into a swamp. Fairy tales dealing with desperate heroines will give you more in the way of subtext without all this plodding commentary.
March 6, 2015
Most choices in this anthology were great, the stories are rich and fast-paced, full of energy. The contributors are wonderfully diverse geographically and in terms of historical times. There are contributors from China, Egypt, Victorian England and more. Carter’s story wasn’t actually my favorite and although I was very excited to be reading my first story ever by Katherine Mansfield, I found the latter to be tedious and pointless. But I made a few interesting discoveries of new-to-me authors, particularly the South-African writer Bessy Head and the Latino-American writer Rocky Gamez and will be looking for more of their works. Other highlights for me were Colette’s and Grace Paley’s stories (also my first forays into their oeuvres, but at least I’m familiar with these writers). Overall it was an exquisite racy read.
April 16, 2011
A collection of short stories put together by Angela Carter, in which girls are most definitely not made of sugar and spice and all things nice, and aren't really judged for it either.
Whilst I didn't enjoy these as much as I did Carter's own short stories (probably the reason why the only one by her within, The Loves of Lady Purple, was my favourite), these tales written in a variety of ways and from various countries were always told from an interesting perspective and had enough going on that if I didn't enjoy one there was likely to be another coming along that I would.
Other highlights included: The Last Crop, Wedlock, Oke of Okehurst, and Girl.
Whilst I didn't enjoy these as much as I did Carter's own short stories (probably the reason why the only one by her within, The Loves of Lady Purple, was my favourite), these tales written in a variety of ways and from various countries were always told from an interesting perspective and had enough going on that if I didn't enjoy one there was likely to be another coming along that I would.
Other highlights included: The Last Crop, Wedlock, Oke of Okehurst, and Girl.
April 22, 2024
reafirmando una vez más lo mucho que me gustan los cuentos, debe ser algo psicológico de cuando mi madre me los contaba desde muy muy pequeña. tengo que decir que esta antología es algo diferente a las que suelo leer el 90% de las veces, que son de un mismo autor. este libro me llamó mucho la atención en una librería de segunda mano por su título y su sinopsis y me alegro mucho de haberlo comprado. al ser relatos de diferentes autoras hay bastante diversidad de lenguajes y estilos, tanto para lo bueno como para lo malo: es muy probable que algún cuento te guste sí o sí y también es muy probable que alguno te sea muy indiferente. en mi caso destacaría "la luna de lluvia" de colette, "contrato matrimonial" de george egerton, "las ciruelas" de ama ata aidoo, "la larga espera" de andrée chedid y "oke de okehurst" de vernon lee. hay otros que me han gustado pero un poquito menos, y otros que sin más.
tengo que decir que lo que causa un poco de confusión, creo, en muchos lectores, y que comparto, es que la autora que recopila el material no pone unos criterios demasiado sólidos para juntar todos estos relatos en un libro. de hecho me sorprendió lo corto de la introducción tratándose de una antología de varias autoras, porque pensé que la editora habría justificado muy bien su elección y habría desarrollado extensamente la temática central. lo que yo interpreto del título puede ir en dos direcciones: la exploración de la maldad pura y dura en las mujeres, dado que la brutalidad se suele explorar más en los hombres, o la exploración de lo que socialmente se asocia a la "maldad" y la "perversión" femeninas, muy ligado a los dobles estándares machistas. por esta última motivación me han gustado especialmente "las ciruelas" o "la larga espera", ya que creo que son los cuentos que más aportan sobre las situaciones de las mujeres alrededor del mundo (sobre este tema quiero puntualizar que es muy enriquecedor el cierto nivel de internacionalidad de las autoras, es un punto muy a favor del libro). veo que son de los cuentos que menos gustan pero a mí me gustaron muchísimo, "la larga espera" en especial es frenética y lunática, increíble.
por la inclusión de las "niñas" en el título supuse que tiraba más por el segundo camino mencionado (el machismo de los estándares morales) ya que no considero que los niños puedan ser malvados o hacer cosas tan terribles salvo en casos muy contados, de cualquier forma no suficiente para llenar un libro de 400 páginas. cabe destacar que entiendo la maldad como la crueldad, el morbo por hacer sufrir, las malas intenciones contra alguien inocente. de ahí que destaque cuentos como "la luna de lluvia" u "oke de okehurst" (que por cierto tiene un toque henry james que me encantó). "contrato matrimonial" creo que está en el eje entre la maldad y el relato social, una zona psicologica, gris y problemática que creo que merecía más cuentos dedicados a ella (o tal vez la mayoría que hay bajo este paraguas no me hayan acabado de convencer). todo esto que expongo son criterios muy personales, pero es que un título tan llamativo, ambiguo y hasta cierto punto polémico lleva a un tema muy abierto, y por eso creo que la autora tendría que haber explicado qué entiende ella por maldad y perversidad, y por qué en niñas y mujeres (entiendo que explora un sesgo de género) para que los lectores, sin estar de acuerdo o en desacuerdo, conociéramos el punto de partida. sin embargo sólo apunta que ha evitado la "promiscuidad sexual" como maldad (cosa que me dio risa durante 400 páginas porque es descaradamente mentira, la mitad de cuentos van de eso o lo insinúan, y no sé cómo alguien de edición o publicación no se lo dijo) y que "las mujeres tendemos más a perdonar la mala conducta" cosa que... fuente? lo escribe tranquilamente sin darte el dato ni nada. entiendo que es un libro de los 80 y que el feminismo y las consideraciones sociales respecto a varios temas han cambiado, pero no creo que esté nada bien argumentada su postura (ni siquiera sé cuál es su postura, de hecho). la mayoría de cuentos sobre niñas van sobre la "promiscuidad sexual" y la trama de éstos es simplemente: pedofilia. es hasta gracioso porque incluso el cuento de la propia recopiladora cae bajo esta problemática. una niña de 12 no puede "seducir" a su padre. por lo que se desprende de la introducción y por el tono general de los cuentos se entiende que se está explorando una dirección feminista, lo que choca con estos cuentos bajo la visión de "niñas malas". son una crítica? un retrato social? o realmente piensan que las "niñas malas" de menos de 15 pueden seducir a los hombres y destrozar sus vidas? como en el libro hay tanto mujeres verdaderamente malas como mujeres que son víctimas o simplemente un poco excéntricas, no podemos saber en qué grupo están las menores. de nuevo, la interpretación feminista de la antología la hago yo (aunque creo que hay bastante base sobre la que hacerla). si la intención es feminista, esta idea de "niña mala" acrítica es francamente preocupante, si el criterio de la autora ha sido juntar las conductas que ella verdaderamente considera reprobables por parte de las mujeres, entonces sí puede tener sentido que estén estos cuentos, aunque esté radicalmente en desacuerdo con la idea que desprenden
en fin, que no entiendo muy bien qué pretendía la autora, y veo que no soy la única. igualmente me lo he pasado muy bien leyéndolo y me ha gustado mucho ver la diversidad de lenguajes y descubrir a tantas autoras nuevas
tengo que decir que lo que causa un poco de confusión, creo, en muchos lectores, y que comparto, es que la autora que recopila el material no pone unos criterios demasiado sólidos para juntar todos estos relatos en un libro. de hecho me sorprendió lo corto de la introducción tratándose de una antología de varias autoras, porque pensé que la editora habría justificado muy bien su elección y habría desarrollado extensamente la temática central. lo que yo interpreto del título puede ir en dos direcciones: la exploración de la maldad pura y dura en las mujeres, dado que la brutalidad se suele explorar más en los hombres, o la exploración de lo que socialmente se asocia a la "maldad" y la "perversión" femeninas, muy ligado a los dobles estándares machistas. por esta última motivación me han gustado especialmente "las ciruelas" o "la larga espera", ya que creo que son los cuentos que más aportan sobre las situaciones de las mujeres alrededor del mundo (sobre este tema quiero puntualizar que es muy enriquecedor el cierto nivel de internacionalidad de las autoras, es un punto muy a favor del libro). veo que son de los cuentos que menos gustan pero a mí me gustaron muchísimo, "la larga espera" en especial es frenética y lunática, increíble.
por la inclusión de las "niñas" en el título supuse que tiraba más por el segundo camino mencionado (el machismo de los estándares morales) ya que no considero que los niños puedan ser malvados o hacer cosas tan terribles salvo en casos muy contados, de cualquier forma no suficiente para llenar un libro de 400 páginas. cabe destacar que entiendo la maldad como la crueldad, el morbo por hacer sufrir, las malas intenciones contra alguien inocente. de ahí que destaque cuentos como "la luna de lluvia" u "oke de okehurst" (que por cierto tiene un toque henry james que me encantó). "contrato matrimonial" creo que está en el eje entre la maldad y el relato social, una zona psicologica, gris y problemática que creo que merecía más cuentos dedicados a ella (o tal vez la mayoría que hay bajo este paraguas no me hayan acabado de convencer). todo esto que expongo son criterios muy personales, pero es que un título tan llamativo, ambiguo y hasta cierto punto polémico lleva a un tema muy abierto, y por eso creo que la autora tendría que haber explicado qué entiende ella por maldad y perversidad, y por qué en niñas y mujeres (entiendo que explora un sesgo de género) para que los lectores, sin estar de acuerdo o en desacuerdo, conociéramos el punto de partida. sin embargo sólo apunta que ha evitado la "promiscuidad sexual" como maldad (cosa que me dio risa durante 400 páginas porque es descaradamente mentira, la mitad de cuentos van de eso o lo insinúan, y no sé cómo alguien de edición o publicación no se lo dijo) y que "las mujeres tendemos más a perdonar la mala conducta" cosa que... fuente? lo escribe tranquilamente sin darte el dato ni nada. entiendo que es un libro de los 80 y que el feminismo y las consideraciones sociales respecto a varios temas han cambiado, pero no creo que esté nada bien argumentada su postura (ni siquiera sé cuál es su postura, de hecho). la mayoría de cuentos sobre niñas van sobre la "promiscuidad sexual" y la trama de éstos es simplemente: pedofilia. es hasta gracioso porque incluso el cuento de la propia recopiladora cae bajo esta problemática. una niña de 12 no puede "seducir" a su padre. por lo que se desprende de la introducción y por el tono general de los cuentos se entiende que se está explorando una dirección feminista, lo que choca con estos cuentos bajo la visión de "niñas malas". son una crítica? un retrato social? o realmente piensan que las "niñas malas" de menos de 15 pueden seducir a los hombres y destrozar sus vidas? como en el libro hay tanto mujeres verdaderamente malas como mujeres que son víctimas o simplemente un poco excéntricas, no podemos saber en qué grupo están las menores. de nuevo, la interpretación feminista de la antología la hago yo (aunque creo que hay bastante base sobre la que hacerla). si la intención es feminista, esta idea de "niña mala" acrítica es francamente preocupante, si el criterio de la autora ha sido juntar las conductas que ella verdaderamente considera reprobables por parte de las mujeres, entonces sí puede tener sentido que estén estos cuentos, aunque esté radicalmente en desacuerdo con la idea que desprenden
en fin, que no entiendo muy bien qué pretendía la autora, y veo que no soy la única. igualmente me lo he pasado muy bien leyéndolo y me ha gustado mucho ver la diversidad de lenguajes y descubrir a tantas autoras nuevas
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