Angela Carter - A Beginner's Guide gives beginning readers of Angela Carter, her students and her fans a sense of the breadth and variety, the richness of her work. Her writing is amusing, ironic and Gothic, providing a critique of the gender and power relations amongst whish we live and through which we create our identities. Winged women, music hall, werewolves, Bluebeard and his wives and Beauty and the Beast are some of the charcters, areas and tales Angela Carter explores and re-writes.

Gina Wisker's text explores how Carter:

re-writes fairytales and popular myths to explore gender relations

reveals contradictions, relations of power and gender in society, and the ways men and women are represented and construct their identities

celebrates women's energies in different moments of time

mixes rich imagery, paradox, symbols and beautifully written descriptions

works with the forms and themes of horror, science fiction, music hall, pantomine and romance to entertain and to explore ourselves and our cultures.