Book 79 - Angela Carter "Unicorn"
Nov. 14th, 2017 07:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzy_daveAngela Carter "Unicorn : The Poetry of Angela Carter" (Profile Books)
This beautiful hardback book is a revelation. I had no idea Angela Carter wrote poetry; nor, it seems, did a lot of people, so this collection of her poems written 1963-71 put together by Rosemary Hill is a welcome addition to Carter’s published works. Familiar themes of fairy tale shot through by violence, degradation and the banality of human behaviour make for a rich, disturbing retelling of the unicorn myth in the title poem, while the material for other poems ranges from a tale written in Middle Scots by William Dunbar to a forlorn look at modern marriage.
The second half of the book consists of a beautifully written essay by Rosemary Hill, which both illuminates the poems and brings to life the 1960s literary scene with clarity, wit and a delicious sense of humour. Her analysis of how the personal pronouncements of the famous Angry Young Men of the late 1950s ‘ran the gamut of bad temper from righteous anger to peevishness’ made me chortle, as did her remark that ‘the emergence of a remarkable number of talented young women writers...made some of the Angry Young Men simply furious.’
So, if you love poetry and / or a fan of this novelist then you must grab a copy down your local bookstore. I highly recommend this.
This beautiful hardback book is a revelation. I had no idea Angela Carter wrote poetry; nor, it seems, did a lot of people, so this collection of her poems written 1963-71 put together by Rosemary Hill is a welcome addition to Carter’s published works. Familiar themes of fairy tale shot through by violence, degradation and the banality of human behaviour make for a rich, disturbing retelling of the unicorn myth in the title poem, while the material for other poems ranges from a tale written in Middle Scots by William Dunbar to a forlorn look at modern marriage.
The second half of the book consists of a beautifully written essay by Rosemary Hill, which both illuminates the poems and brings to life the 1960s literary scene with clarity, wit and a delicious sense of humour. Her analysis of how the personal pronouncements of the famous Angry Young Men of the late 1950s ‘ran the gamut of bad temper from righteous anger to peevishness’ made me chortle, as did her remark that ‘the emergence of a remarkable number of talented young women writers...made some of the Angry Young Men simply furious.’
So, if you love poetry and / or a fan of this novelist then you must grab a copy down your local bookstore. I highly recommend this.
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