Title: The Tiger’s Bride
Author: Angela Carter
In: The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter
Rating Out of 5: 3 (On the fence about this one)
My Bookshelves: Classics, Romance
Pace: Slow
Format: Short story
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
Year: 1979
5th sentence, 74th page: The doors of the hall let the bright day in; I saw that it was morning.

A woman moves in with a mysterious “Milord”, after her father loses her to him in a game of cards. He is eventually revealed to be a tiger. But in the end, transformations reinforce identities…

The Tiger’s Bride was a great commentary on the stark difference between man and beast. Man and woman. Starting with the selling of a daughter to another by the father, Carter shows us the stark difference between beast, man and woman and our places in the world.

I loved that throughout this short story, the Beast and his servants are displayed as odd, not entirely okay, but far less in the wrong than the father. And that, eventually, the girl decides to join the Beast for after all, that is what makes her free and happy. Not being married or sold off as her father has done.

Image source: Goodreads