Strange Worlds: The Vision of Angela Carter ed. by Marie Mulvey-Roberts and Fiona Robinson (review)

Since her passing in 1992, Angela Carter has remained the quintessential agent provocateur of fairy tales. Carter's works, bottomless wellsprings of layered, textured, and strikingly lush metaphors and imagery, allow for endless interpretations and continue to inspire artists and authors alike in their revisions of classical fairy tales. Strange Worlds: The Vision of Angela Carter, edited by Marie Mulvey-Roberts and Fiona Robinson, synthesizes selected works of art with essays and excerpts that remember Angela Carter and celebrate the legacy of her work. It was published in conjunction with the Royal West of England Academy's exhibition of the same name (reviewed by Mayako Murai for Marvels & Tales, vol. 32, no. 1, 2018). In addition to functioning as an illustration of how influential Carter's work has been, the collection asks the reader to think about the ways in which art can reflect or serve as a continuation of her work.

Foregrounding Carter's lasting influence on art, the collection is comprised of around forty-five pieces of art and nine essays. Carefully curated, the editors "sourced work which reflects the pulsating and anarchic energy of Carter's exuberant and excessive prose" (10). The artworks selected for this collection span roughly four and a half centuries, ranging from 1566 to 2016, and are accompanied by either an explanation from the editors or a descriptive reflection written by the artist. Complementing the art, as well as the overall celebratory tone of the collection, the essays, written by Christopher Frayling, Marina Warner, Jack Zipes, Victor Sage, David Punter, Christine Molan, Kim Evans, Marie Mulvey-Roberts, and Fiona Robinson, read like love letters to Angela Carter as they fondly reminisce on their experiences with her and the enduring power of her literature.

Marie Mulvey-Roberts and Fiona Robinson do an excellent job of guiding those unfamiliar with the world of art through the collection and the intent behind many of the selections. In "Art and Angela Carter," Mulvey-Roberts expounds upon the intimate relationship Angela Carter had with art, further discussing works that influenced her writing. similarly, Robinson's essay, "Contemporary Art and the Continuing Influence of Angela Carter," explores the familiar themes that run through Carter's work—the fairy tale, magical realism, and the Gothic—and unpacks select artworks that take up these themes. In addition to the explanations that accompany the selected artworks and editors' essays, the contemporary artists briefly reflect on their experience with Carter's work. The sharing of these private memories is perhaps one of the most unique and satisfying features of the collection.

The essays featured in the collection are memoirs that are written as much to Angela Carter as they are for the readers, and they work with the artwork to amplify the poignancy of the collection. David Punter's essay, "The Sardonic Woman," is a memoir beautifully written as a stream of consciousness that recounts two memories through alternating paragraphs, the memory of meeting Angela Carter the person—and later friend—and the memory of meeting Angela Carter the author—through her works. In "Authenticating Magic: Angela, Folksong and Bristol," Christine Molan shares her memories of singing folk songs with Angela Carter at a Bristol club, discussing at length Carter's fascination with folk songs. Victor sage sheds light on Angela Carter's philosophy in "Lizzie's Handbag: Magical Unrealism and the Object," noting that the question "Why not the other way around?" continually guided Carter's explorations, playing an important role in her "dialectical reversals of systems of thought" (24).

Jack Zipes, in "A Down-to-Earth Working Girl," recalls his first encounter with Angela Carter and goes on to share letters she wrote him when he began teaching at the University of Florida and the introduction he gave her when she spoke at the university. He closes the essay by sharing the last letter she wrote him, a response to an inquiry, and shares some thoughts on her...