This was a great collection of fairy tales from all over the world (Eskimo, Burmese, Greek, English, Indian, Russian, West African, Icelandic, etc.). I recognized quite a few as fairy tales I knew as a child, or precursors to those, and others were completely new to me. ( )

My personal liking is for "fractured" fairy tales, "fractured" and lengthier – stories/novellas/novels employing a traditional fairy tale but with a "twist." Consequently, this collection of more traditional fairy tales wasn't particularly to my liking, but that's just me, so I'll give it 4**** on an objective judgment of its quality.

It's an excellent collection of fairy tales with a multi-cultural and international flavor, and Carter includes endnotes that provide a source for each story and, in some instances, some short commentary. ( )

Meh. While I liked some of the individual stories, the overall impression was that Carter had an axe to grind. There were just too many stories about women tricking men (who sometimes deserved it but often did not). ( )

Neither here nor elsewhere lived a king . . .

These fairy tales come from all around the word and each has a female protagonist. Angela Carter selected them for Virago but didn't re-write them at all, so the story collected from a small child who heard it from her baby-sitter is in childish language and shows childish preoccupations, while most of the Eskimo stories are X-rated. Fairy tales often have a formulaic opening that tells the listener that the story is not expected to be believed, and although the African stories in this collection tend to end quite abruptly, other cultures have traditional ways to end fairy tales, like these two variants of the traditional English ending, one from America and the other from England:

And her and Jack got married, and they done all right. Some folks say they lived happy ever after.

and

So the gentleman turned back home again, and married the farmer's daughter, and if they don't live happy for ever after, that's nothing to do with you or me. ( )