‘Heroes and Villains’ by Angela Carter
You're not supposed to judge a book by its cover - I know, I know. But thanks to GCSE art I was able to recognise Marilyn Minter's handiwork almost immediately, the evocative enamel on metal stylings leaping out from afar. However, this was not my only motivation for picking up this work. The name Angela Carter was another that I recognised from high school; several classes, not including my own, studied her most renowned work, The Bloody Chamber, as part of their english curriculum. Why I passed up The Bloody Chamber in favour of Heroes and Villains I am not so sure, but I shall attribute it to Marilyn Minter's beautiful cover.
Heroes and Villains, a work first published in 1969, is the tale of Marianne, a feisty young lady who flees her steel and concrete tower to roam with the Barbarians that live in a decaying world beyond her perimeter fence. Among the pillaging masses she encounters the oddly alluring Jewel, a so-called 'Prince of Darkness' (ah, so that's where Ozzy got it from), to whom she is almost immediately betrothed. Countless deaths, many of them very violent, occur over the course of the book, and in the realm of the Barbarians Marianne encounters all manner of macabre delights.
A real strength of Heroes and Villains is that it is dazzlingly rich, particularly in terms of imagery and setting. The impetus is on describing every last leaf of gnarled foliage, and bringing to life the Barbarians' tarnished velvet robes. Carter's writing style is every bit as lush and multi-layered as her ideas, and her talent is showcased in long sentences chock full of vibrancy. In Heroes and Villains a rare and venerable imagination is at play, and Carter pulls off fantasy with genuine aplomb.
It saddens me to say, however, that I didn't truly enjoy this book. While there were a handful of vignettes that piqued my interest, the overall magic just was not there for me. These comments ought not to denounce Carter's abilities, for she was without a doubt an extraordinary talent in her field. Heroes and Villains is quite simply not my cup of tea, or coffee, as the case may be. Fans of Carter's other works will surely gobble this one up, but I offer a word of advice to novices like myself: do not make judgements based on cover art, however glorious it may be.
This piece was originally published on alisonlaurabell.tumblr.com in December 2011.