The Bloody Chamber
Quotes
"I am sure I want to marry him"
"Older than I"
"fire opal"
"choker of rubies...like an extraordinary slit throat"
"the faery solitude of the place"
"gourmand that he was"
"bare as a lamb chop"
"a rare talent for corruption"
"my mother had disposed of a man eating tiger"
Premise
A young bride travels from Paris with her much older husband, she describes her introduction to a world of luxury and pleasure. The Marquis leaves to attend to business. He asks her not to go into his private study. After ringing her mum, she explores the house. She goes into the forbidden room and finds the remains of the Marquis' ex wives. The Marquis returns - not happy, but the mother saves her from save fate of previous wives.
Themes
Context
The Tiger's Bride
Premise
A father loses his daughter to The Beast in a game of cards. She is taken to an isolated mansion and refuses The Beast's voyeuristic requests. He reveals he is an animal, she decides to be with him and she changes into an animal herself.
Themes
Quotes
"my father lost me to the beast at cards"
"the beast bought solitude not luxury"
"the wind that sprinted through the palace made the door tremble in its frame"
"always the pretty one"
"I saw them all in the mirror"
"the white rose, unnatural, out of season"
Context
The Company of Wolves
Quotes
"the wolf is carnivore incarnate"
"the invisible pentacle of her own virginity"
"it is your granddaughter, he mimicked"
"all silent, all still"
"she knew she was nobody's meat"
"Sweet and sound she sleeps in granny's, between the paws of the tender wolf"
Context
Themes
Premise
The wolves in the winter forest are hungry. A girl sets off through the forest to her granny's house, she meets a young man who bets her a kiss if he can get to granny's house before her. The young man/wolf gets there first and eats granny. The young girl sleeps soundly in granny's bed with the wolf.
Werewolf
Quotes
Premise
Context
Themes
A child is sent to her grandmother and she encounters a huge wolf. Unafraid, she draws her knife and cuts off its right forepaw. The child comes to her grandmother's and finds her unwell. As the child takes a cloth from her basket, the wolf's paw falls out and it has transformed into a human hand. The child recognises it as her grandmother's. The child cries out and the neighbours come. They beat the old woman and stone her to death. The girl moves into her grandmother's house and prospers.
"the devil is as real as you or I"
"but it was no longer a wolf's paw. It was a hand"
"the child wiped the blood off her knife clean"
"she prospered"
"their houses are built of logs, dark and smoky within"
The Courtship of Mr Lyon
Quotes
Context
Premise
Themes
Poor man and daughter are stranded on their way home, he goes to the Beast's house but offends him by taking a rose. Daughter stays with the Beast while her father is helped. She returns to father and Beast almost dies. She goes back to the Beast and transforms him with a kiss.
"and then it was no longer a lion in her arms it was a man"
"but she smiled at mirrors a little too often"
"one white rose she always wanted"
"a diamond necklace"
"the beast sunk his great head on to his paws...it will be lonely here"
Wolf Alice
Quote
Context
Themes
Premise
A girl raised by wolves is brought back to human society and is placed in the care of the Duke (a werewolf). The girl grows up and discovers clothes. The Duke (haunting as a wolf) is wounded by an angry widower. The girl tends to the wolf's wounds and he becomes a Duke again.
"punctuality that transformed her vague grip of time"
"her pace is not our pace"
"the moon, the governess of transformation"
"he sees, no where, a reflection of himself"