Bluebeard's Egg

Bluebeard's Egg

by Margaret Atwood (Author)

Synopsis

In this acclaimed collection of twelve stories, Margaret Atwood probes the territory of childhood memories and the casual cruelty men and women inflict upon each other and themselves. She looks behind the familiar world of family summers at remote lakes, ordinary lives, and unexpected loves, and she unearths profound truths. A melancholy, teenage love is swept away by a Canadian hurricane, while a tired, middle-aged affection is rekindled by the spectacle of rare Jamaican birds; a potter tries to come to terms with the group of poets who so smother her that she is driven into the arms of her accountant; and, in the title story, the Bluebeard legend is retold as an ironic tale of marital deception. Stark and scathing at times, humorous and compassionate at others, "Bluebeard"'"s Egg" confirms once again Atwood's reputation as the pre-eminent chronicler of our times.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 281
Edition: 1st Edition
Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd
Published: 04 Jun 1987

ISBN 10: 0224022458
ISBN 13: 9780224022453

Media Reviews
A book to be read and re-read, to be talked about and savored. - London Free Press Margaret Atwood renders visual, aural, and tactile events in such crisp, surprising language that her images crackle off the page. - Washington Post The depth and complexity of Atwood's critique of contemporary society are stunning. - Ms. Her stories are sophisticated, reticent, ornate, stark, supple, stiff, savage or forgiving; they are exactly what she wants them to be. They are stories from the prime of life. - Times Literary Supplement An outstanding correspondent on the war between the sexes writes as wittily as ever on the hopes and shortcomings of women who bake for poets, sleep with their accountants, attribute their preference for awful men to fearlessness, and don't know how much they scare their own mothers. - The Observer (U.K.) Atwood displays polished craftsmanship and rare insight in the stories in this collection. They are the work of an author in full control of her considerable talents. - Globe and Mail This collection of short stories shows her genius with all its sparkle and humour. - Cosmopolitan Atwood is nothing if not clairvoyant. -Kingston Whig-Standard Once again Atwood brings her poetic talents, her acute clarity of perception, and her sardonic humour to an examination of the foibles and follies of modern life. -David Staines, Canadian Literature In this impressive collection of astute and reverberating stories, she adds to her already considerable stature as a writer. - Winnipeg Free Press Atwood's prose in Bluebeard's Egg is powerful, elegant, and mellifluous to an extraordinary degree. - Quill & Quire An acute and poetic observer of the eternal, universal, rum relationships between men and women. - The Times (U.K.) From the Hardcover edition. ompelling tale of adolescence. . . . Ki
Author Bio
Margaret Atwood was born in Ottawa in 1939, and grew up in northern Quebec and Ontario, and later in Toronto. She has lived in numerous cities in Canada, the U.S., and Europe. She is the author of more than thirty books - novels, short stories, poetry, literary criticism, social history, and books for children. Atwood's work is acclaimed internationally and has been published around the world. Her novels include The Handmaid's Tale and Cat's Eye - both shortlisted for the Booker Prize; The Robber Bride ; Alias Grace, winner of the prestigious Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy, and a finalist for the Booker Prize, the Orange Prize, and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award; and The Blind Assassin, winner of the Booker Prize and a finalist for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Her new novel is Oryx and Crake (2003). She is the recipient of numerous honours, such as The Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence in the U.K., the National Arts Club Medal of Honor for Literature in the U.S., Le Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France, and she was the first winner of the London Literary Prize. She has received honorary degrees from universities across Canada, and one from Oxford University in England. Margaret Atwood lives in Toronto with novelist Graeme Gibson. From the Hardcover edition.