This collection combined two earlier collections of fairy tales published by Virago for which Angela Carter was the chief
editor: The Virago Book of Fairy Tales (1990) and The Second Virago Book of Fairy Tales (1992). Angela Carter had compiled and edited the first book but passed away before she could complete the same for the second book; nevertheless, the second book was published based on notes she left behind. Each story centered around a female protagonist and true to many familiar tales, Most of the stories deal with themes we are already familiar with, bravery, courage, wit and humor. While classic stereotypical tales abound, such as the various versions of Cinderella-like story, where the female protagonist put up with the hardships and harshness of her life to be rewarded in the end with a blissful marriage and possibly riches like "Mossycoat"., the merit of this collection is however the more unusual stories Carter had collected. In the "Furburger", a wife attempted revenge on a husband by turning his rough speak on himself; in the "Reason to beat your wife", I found amusement in the hapless husband who failed to find reason to beat his dutiful wife and was instead insulted by his own singular thought of male superiority. Other more novel stories include one about a pot that bought riches to the human mother who had given birth to it. As a direct result of the stories coming from various cultures and societies around the world, the collection here is interesting and varied. Although owning to the theme of female protagonists, evil
stepmothers and pitiful stepdaughters appeared frequently; there is nothing on an evil stepfather at all. I do wonder if the pervasive "stepmother" arise because most societies were patriarch cal and it was a common society believe that only woman are capable of such pettiness as being jealous of a stepchild; that a stepfather is not capable of being jealous of a stepson. The stories also deal with topics like homosexual behaviors which are common in Innuit
folktales. An illustration is the story of a man whose mother coveted his wife and slept with his wife (Innuit, "The woman who married her son's wife"). Incest was also discussed in some stories and the ones that Carter picked for this collection showed practically no tolerance toward such behavior.
Readers unfamiliar with old English structure may find some difficulties in some old English stories where the original language is retained. Overall, the individual short stories make this collection easy to plough through. This is however recommending this to children as many stories dealt with adult concepts which younger children are better spared of.