#i have an argument about byatt in general and babel tower in particular and the neo-gothic

[chthonic-cassandra]

I have some more recommendations:

The SurLaLune published collection Bluebeard Tales from Around the World is an absolute treasure trove and well worth buying if you have significant interest in variations on the story; you can also find a lot of wonderful materials at their website.

Academic Texts: Casie E. Hermansson, Bluebeard: A Reader’s Guide to the English Tradition and Reading Feminist Intertextuality Through Bluebeard Stories Grisela Pollack, Bluebeard’s Legacy: Sexuality, Curiosity, and Violence

Theater: Maurice Maeterlinck, Ariane et Barbe-Bleue or The Useless Rescue (and the opera based on it, composed by Paul Dukas) Béla Bartók (composer) & Béla Balázs (librettist), Bluebeard’s Castle [imagine little hearts around this one; it’s my favorite adaptation ever]

Fiction: Gregory Frost, Fitcher’s Brides Suniti Namjoshi, “A Room of His Own” in Feminist Fables A. S. Byatt, Babel Tower 

Film: Bluebeard (dir. Catherine Breillat) The Piano (dir. Jane Campion)

Do you know of any books or poems about Bluebeard? I read the Bloody Chamber and loved it.

Yes, The Bloody Chamber is delightful, and so vividly written. Here are my suggestions to go further with the Bluebeard archetype:

Bluebeard (Barbe-Bleue), Charles PerraultBluebeard (Blaubart), The Grimm BrothersBluebeard, Carol Ann Duffy, in Duffy/Supple/StillBluebeard’s Egg, Margaret AtwoodBluebeard (Barbe-Bleue), Amélie NothombThe Seven Wives of Bluebeard (Les Sept Femmes de Barbe-Bleue), Anatole FranceWomen Who Run With Wolves, Clarissa Pinkola EstésBluebeard, Francesca Lia BlockWaiting for Bluebeard, Helen IvorySecrets Beyond the Door, Maria TatarMr. Fox, Helen Oyeyemi& of course :Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë, and a few works on the question:

- Bluebeard and the Beast: The Mysterious Realism of Jane Eyre, Jessica Campbell- Tradition and Transformation: Fairy Tales in the Victorian Novel, Jessica Campbell - Bluebeard Gothic: Jane Eyre and Its Progeny, Heta Pyrhoenen

Have fun!