''The Curious Room: Plays, Film Scripts and an Opera'' is a collection of dramatic works by English writer

Angela Carter Angela Olive Pearce (formerly Carter, Stalker; 7 May 1940 – 16 February 1992), who published under the name Angela Carter, was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picar ...

, published

posthumously Posthumous may refer to: * Posthumous award, an award, prize or medal granted after the recipient's death * Posthumous publication, publishing of creative work after the author's death * Posthumous (album), ''Posthumous'' (album), by Warne Marsh, 1 ...

Chatto and Windus Chatto & Windus is an imprint of Penguin Random House that was formerly an independent book publishing company founded in London in 1855 by John Camden Hotten. Following Hotten's death, the firm would reorganize under the names of his business ...

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

. Edited and with production notes provided by Mark Bell, with an introduction by

Susannah Clapp Susannah Clapp (born 1949) is a British writer, who has been the theatre critic of ''The Observer'' since 1997 and is a contributor to the BBC Radio 3 ''Nightwaves'' programme. Clapp read English at the University of Bristol, where one of her teac ...

, the contents include her original film screenplays for ''

The Company of Wolves ''The Company of Wolves'' is a 1984 British Gothic fantasy horror film directed by Neil Jordan and starring Angela Lansbury, David Warner, Micha Bergese, and Sarah Patterson in her film debut. The screenplay by Angela Carter and Jordan was a ...

'' and '' The Magic Toyshop'', both adapted from her own stories. Additional contents include a

libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...

for an opera based on '' Orlando: A Biography'' by

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. She helped to pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device. Vir ...

, as well as five radio plays: "Vampirella", which she then reworked as "The Lady of the House of Love" in ''

The Bloody Chamber ''The Bloody Chamber'' (or ''The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories'') is a collection of short stories by English writer Angela Carter. It was first published in the United Kingdom in 1979 by Gollancz and won the Cheltenham Festival Literary ...

'' collection; "The Company of Wolves"; "Puss in Boots" (both reworkings of Charles Perrault's fairy tales); and two "artificial biographies", one of Victorian painter

Richard Dadd Richard Dadd (1 August 1817 – 7 January 1886) was an English painter of the Victorian era, noted for his depictions of fairies and other supernatural subjects, Orientalist scenes, and enigmatic genre scenes, rendered with obsessively minuscule ...

, and the other of Edwardian novelist

Ronald Firbank Arthur Annesley Ronald Firbank (17 January 1886 – 21 May 1926) was an innovative English novelist. His eight short novels, partly inspired by the London aesthetes of the 1890s, especially Oscar Wilde, consist largely of dialogue, with referen ...

. The collection also includes the unproduced screenplays ''Gun for the Devil'' (based upon an earlier short work of hers, collected in ''American Ghosts and Old World Wonders'') and ''The Christchurch Murders'' (based on the

Parker–Hulme murder case The Parker–Hulme murder case was the murder of Honorah Mary Rieper (also known as Honorah Mary Parker) in Christchurch, New Zealand, on 22 June 1954. The perpetrators were Rieper's teenaged daughter Pauline Parker and her friend Anne Perry, ...

, which also influenced the 1994

Peter Jackson Sir Peter Robert Jackson (born 31 October 1961) is a New Zealand filmmaker. He is best known as the director, writer, and producer of the ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003) and the ''Hobbit'' trilogy (2012–2014), both of which ar ...

film ''

Heavenly Creatures ''Heavenly Creatures'' is a 1994 New Zealand biographical film directed by Peter Jackson, from a screenplay he co-wrote with his partner, Fran Walsh. It stars Melanie Lynskey and Kate Winslet in their feature film debuts, with Sarah Peirse, Dian ...

''), as well a stage adaptation of

Frank Wedekind Benjamin Franklin Wedekind (July 24, 1864 – March 9, 1918) was a German playwright. His work, which often criticizes bourgeois attitudes (particularly towards sex), is considered to anticipate expressionism and was influential in the developme ...

's Lulu plays.

References

*Charlotte Crofts (1996), Review of Angela Carter (1996), ''The Curious Room: Collected Dramatic Works'', London: Chatto and Windus in ''

Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...

'', 8 November, p. 34. *Charlotte Crofts (2003) ''

Anagrams of Desire An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once. For example, the word ''anagram'' itself can be rearranged into the phrase "nag a ram"; which ...

: Angela Carter's Writings for Radio, Film and Television'' (London: Chatto & Windus). {{DEFAULTSORT:Curious Room, The Books by Angela Carter Dramatic works by Angela Carter Books published posthumously Chatto & Windus books 1996 books