American Ghosts and Old World Wonders is a posthumously published anthology of short fiction by Angela Carter. It was first published in the United Kingdom in 1993 by Chatto & Windus Ltd. and contains a collection of nine stories, one half of which deal with American folklore and the other with older myths and fairytales. It is introduced by Susannah Clapp.
The book is divided into two parts, the first (concerned with America) consists of "Lizzie's Tiger", "John Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore", "Gun for the Devil" and "The Merchant of Shadows".
Part two (concerned with Europe: the "Old World") contains "The Ghost Ships", "In Pantoland", "Ashputtle or The Mother's Ghost", "Alice in Prague or The Curious Room" and "Impressions: The Wrightsman Magdalene".
The anthology's contents are also reprinted in the volume Burning Your Boats, which features all of Carter's short fiction.
|
Famous quotes containing the words american, ghosts, world and/or wonders:
“The American doctrinaire is the converse of the American demagogue, and, in this way, is scarcely less injurious to the public. The first deals in poetry, the last in cant. He is as much a visionary on one side, as the extreme theoretical democrat is a visionary on the other.”
—James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851)
“Some ghosts are women,
neither abstract nor pale,
their breasts as limp as killed fish.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“To be a woman and a writer
is double mischief, for
the world will slight her
who slights “the servile house,” and who would rather
make odes than beds.”
—Dilys Laing (1906–1960)
“Welcome, all wonders in one night!
Eternity shut in a span,
Summer in winter, day in night,
Heaven in earth, and God in man.
Great Little One! Whose all-embracing birth
Lifts earth to heaven, stoops heaven to earth.”
—Richard Crashaw (1613?–1649)