《焚舟纪》是英国著名女作家安吉拉•卡特的短篇小说全集，一套共五本四十二个短篇。五个集子依次是《烟火》、《染血之室》、《黑色维纳斯》、《美国鬼魂与旧世界奇观》和《别册》。
这些短篇多以童话、民间故事、文学经典为蓝本，文学女巫卡特以奇绝想象力和非凡叙事技巧将之加以戏仿、混酿 、改装和重塑，并以通透戏谑的视角呈现出童话背后的冷僻真相，传奇之中的幽暗细节，为幻想世界打上现实投影，极具颠覆性却又不损奇幻之美，慑人之余又令人迷醉，形成融魔幻现实主义、女性主义、哥特风格和寓言色彩为一体的独特写作模式。
正如拉什迪所说，短篇小说是展现卡特独特才情的最佳形式。所录每一篇都堪称深邃智思与瑰丽文字结合而成的魔法杰作。
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我重复，安吉拉•卡特是一个伟大的作家。许多同行和迷恋她的读者都明白她的珍稀之处，是这个星球上真正绝无仅有的存在。她应当被安放在我们时代的文学之中央，正中央。她最精彩的作品是她的短篇小说集。
——撒缪尔•拉什迪
如果你想以安吉拉•卡特的风格来再现她的作品之诞生，那么你需要召集一整个戏班的神人之幽灵围拢在她的打字机旁随侍。王尔德必须在场，爱伦坡也要来，还有勃兰姆•斯托克、佩罗、玛丽•雪莱、甚至麦卡勒斯，以及一群热爱蜚短流长的鸹噪老太。
——玛格丽特•阿特伍德
这是怎样一场烟花般绚烂的表演！像是书封之下别无他物。哥特，奇异，变态，美妙…语言又那么丰沛华美，就像爱伦坡和奥康纳在联手为苏丹新娘谢赫拉莎德捉刀《天方夜谭》。
——Mirabella
遇见安吉拉•卡特奇观和魔法般的小说，你必然会得出一个结论：它必然会流传，会被阅读，被膜拜。
——《泰晤士报文学副刊》

安潔拉．卡特（Angela Carter）是英國最具獨創性的作家，2008年《時代》雜誌選為1945年以來英國最偉大50位作家第十名，有「說故事女巫」的稱號。書寫風格混雜魔 幻寫實、歌德式、女性主義，獲獎累累。除了最著名的小說創作，卡特也在《衛報》、《獨立報》發表文章，創作舞台劇劇本，也從事翻譯，是位多產的作家。 1969年旅居東京兩年，使她的作品更增添東方色彩。布克獎得主石黑一雄曾受教於她。
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《焚舟紀》完整收錄安潔拉．卡特創作生涯中的42 篇短篇小說。1995年原輯為《焚舟紀》單冊出版，為回復閱讀理解脈絡，中文版將一冊拆回四冊，包括曾獨立出版之作品：《煙火》（1974）、《染血之 室》（1979）、《黑色維納斯》（1985），以及《美國鬼魂與舊世界奇觀》（1993），並於〈別冊〉另外收錄卡特從未出版單行本之六篇遺珠小說、著 名小說家也是卡特好友的魯西迪（Salman Rushdie）特別推薦序言，以及譯者嚴韻序言。
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42篇精彩短篇小說依時序閱讀，可以看到卡特在創作上的企圖心：題材從童話故事到真人真事皆有，原發表場所從一般流行雜誌《時尚》（Vogue）到學術傾向的倫敦書評，顯示卡特不斷跨越各種書寫、社會分界，像是個遊走江湖的說書人，吸引各種社會階層駐足聆聽。
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其中《染血之室》為卡特最著名的代表作，她改寫〈藍鬍子〉、〈穿靴貓〉、〈小紅帽〉等著名故事，大幅翻轉故事的指涉意義。其中〈與狼為伴〉一篇曾改編成 電影《The Company of Wolves》（1984，台譯《狼之一族》，導演Neil Jordan曾執導《夜訪吸血鬼》）。
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名人推薦
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「如利刃般的想像」——駱以軍
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「如今讀來，寓言風格魅力依舊」——伍軒宏
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「把現實移個位、讓正經轉了彎」——開卷好書
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「完整認識這位小說家的誠意之作」——誠品好讀
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「向這個陌生、強大、美麗靈魂致敬」——網路與書選書
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「安潔拉．卡特的故事景框繞著這些發狂的、被文明技術『玩過了、傷害了，重建認知迴路並旋上發條』的女孩，項然邊高速旋轉。這套故事集絕對可以讓最事故 的小說讀者不安－－一種創造力如利刃以超出你想像之陌生角度切割那些理應是熟爛題材的迷惑、驚訝與嘆息。」駱以軍（作家）
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「對女孩而 言，男人可能是猛獸，危險、原始、充滿慾望和暴力。可是身體正在變化成長的女孩並非無法對付這些雄性動物，因為情慾是雙面刃。安潔拉．卡特告訴我們如何扭 轉局面，儘管代價可能不菲。她在女性對抗父權、發現自我的年代寫作，如今讀來，寓言風格魅力依舊，文字濃烈，描述瑰麗，氣氛夢幻，而場景往往是孤寂古堡、 危險森林、幽暗密室，那些遙遠而奇異的所在。如果熟悉女性主義奮鬥史的讀者覺得情節強烈了些，女孩應該讀讀看，才知道人獸難分。」伍軒宏（政大英語系講師）
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「其實也不過是把現實移個位、讓正經轉了彎、使惡意世界帶點幽默、逼單調淡出驚悚進入，卡特就叫故事神奇地飛舞起來。不必然有道德 啟示，不見得邏輯合拍。卡特拔起時間活塞，放出愛唱歌的橘色公貓。將你誘拐。」賀淑瑋（清大台文所助理教授，2005開卷十大好書推薦理由）
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「行人出版社在二○○四年推出《魔幻玩具鋪》後，今年接續編輯、出版《焚舟紀》，展現經營安潔拉．卡特這位英國後現代小說暨女性主義作家的企圖。《焚舟 紀》為卡特自一九六二至一九八一年間所創作的短篇小說全集，出版社將英文原版之厚厚鉅冊拆成一套五冊，並依寫作題材與風格，大致還原成作者分冊出版時的樣 貌。精裝的套書外殼，配以看似潑墨山水、實為寫意人體的傳統繪畫，於呼應作者奇詭的風格之餘，亦可見本地編排巧思。全書出自同一譯者統一而流暢之譯筆，是 完整認識這位小說家的誠意之作。」（2005誠品好讀推薦理由）
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「非常感激這家出版社以這樣典緻不俗的函裝書形式，像我們介紹了這位此 間讀者或不熟悉，但絕對可以稱之為偉大的女小說家安潔拉．卡特。（有趣的是，在評選過程，我因閱讀的時間匆促草率，僅以文字風格之糜麗魔幻感受這套書，當 時屬意推薦蘇珊．桑塔格之《在美國》，反而是其他類別之三位評審熱情、極力說服以此套書為本月首選。待回家細讀後，才驚為天人，竊幸未曾因粗疏而錯失了一 次向這個陌生、強大、美麗靈魂致敬的機會。）
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這套書裡收錄的四十二篇安潔拉．卡特（就我個人言，真像某一臨摹說故事基本功突然從天而降 的『四十二章經』）不同時期短篇，極難在此短篇幅中詳細分析。她可以迅速、精確、簡潔地調度每一則故事「立即進入」的怪異情境、修辭傳統，像奢侈的電影導 演嚴格要求的光度、顏色、氛圍、昂貴擺設。在無比寬廣的說故事地表，幾乎沒有一種二十世紀的小說素材（鏡中顛倒世界、黑暗之心、地下室手記式的青少年暴力 自懲、西部片似的向惡魔報仇的血洗場面、偶戲變成真人反噬其操縱藝師......）不印象畫派式旋轉馬車在她那一則一則的短篇故事中洶湧瞬現。那近乎向波 赫士一般博學、華麗、冷面詼諧且以鐘錶器械之精準，熟知自己的書寫位置與任一龐大文學傳統卡榫銜接的奏瓶關係，那樣的一位『純敘事人』。」駱以軍 （2005網路與書四月選書推薦理由）
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「對安潔拉而言，童話不是童話，童話是顛覆小說的最佳文類，或讓小說回到說故事的氛圍（安潔拉在 《煙火》後記中說，『我寫的，是故事』）。《焚舟紀》也見證了小說書寫與安潔拉的小說技藝的無限可能（跨越一切邊界，打破所有禁忌）。在安潔拉的小說世界 裡，格林兄弟與莎士比亞並駕齊驅，波特萊爾（及其情婦）與愛德加．愛倫坡（及其妻子）皆成故事中人，故事可以新編，文類疆界得以打破，人獸之間相互變易， 時空錯亂記憶模糊，鏡像倒影虛虛實實（法文稱做mise en abyme），這個哥德式華麗國度堪稱繽紛瑰麗，令人目為之眩，歎為觀止。」張錦忠（中山大學外文系副教授）

Wise Children follows the fortunes of the Chance twins, Dora and Nora, taking in the story of their show business family -- the Hazards -- over the past century. Born illegitimately, spurned by their father Melchior and brought up by their landlady, Mrs Chance, Dora and Nora learn to dance, and begin to forge a career, “two girls pounding the boards”. After the post-war decline of their careers they are reduced to performing in nude revues, while the latest generation of Hazards rise to fame as stars of television. Angela Carter's witty and bawdy new novel celebrates the magic of over a century of show business.

The transformation of Desiderio's city into a mysterious kingdom is instantaneous: Hallucination flows with magical speed in every brain; avenues and plazas are suddenly as fertile as fairy-book forests. And the evil comes, too, as imaginary massacres fill the streets with blood, the dead return to question the living, and profound anxiety drives hundreds to suicide.
Behind it all stands Doctor Hoffman, whose gigantic generators crack the immutable surfaces of time and space and plunge civilization into a world without the chains – or structures – of reason. Only Desiderio, immune to mirages and fantasy, can defeat him. But Desiderio's battle will take him to the very brink of undeniable, irresistible desire.

As well as her eight novels, Angela Carter published four wonderful collections of short stories during her lifetime, and contributed stories to several anthologies. The stories were scattered amongst different publishers, and a couple of the volumes are now out of print. In "Burning your Boats," they are gathered for the first time; this is a key collection and a major event for Angela Carter aficionados.

「唱歌跳舞是多開心的事！」
經常以女性情慾作為小說主題的英國小說家安潔拉．卡特，在《明智的孩子》裡轉而關注女性於家族關係中的位置，在曖昧不明無法追認的父系從出之外，另行創建了一個繽紛璀璨的母系家族，不依血緣組構，而是用愛聯綴彼此間的親屬關係。
卡特仍舊持舞她拿手的魔幻寫實、歌德式、女性主義等武器，且發揮得更加淋漓盡致，出入自得，匠意著痕盡謝，以一對猶勝15歲少女輕盈的75歲雙生老婦為主角，娓娓自道兩人以跳舞表演為業的傳奇人生。
回憶錄般的故事內容羅織變異的家庭羅曼史，互喻諧擬莎士比亞的眾多戲劇創作，陳述語調詼諧逗趣，輕薄又輕快，故事主角戲謔自嘲的丑角生涯，接連起現實生活與戲劇演出，交融成巨大的表演舞台，但別忘了，小丑彩色的誇張笑容彷若另一種心碎的表情，而喜劇往往是他人的悲劇。
據稱本書是安潔拉．卡特在被診斷出罹患癌症後不久所撰寫的，藉由此書卡特企圖向讀者傳達「充分過活」的意念；做為卡特生前出版的最後一本小說，《明智的孩子》是總結卡特多年寫作歷程的最後一幕，凝斂了卡特向來為人所著稱的後現代書寫風格，揉雜成綻放著秀異花朵的奇幻果實，誘使讀者一同品嚐。
如柏恩（Beth A. Boehm）之言，這部小說是卡特的「天鵝之歌」，但這首自知死之將至的絕唱之作毫不淒美哀婉，而是一首「發出一大串黑色喜劇式的自鳴得意詠歎調，讓聽的人要不笑都很難。」（魯西迪語）
《明智的孩子》做為作者生前出版的最後一部小說，可謂是總結多年寫作歷程的璀璨謝幕，出版後雖為當代英語小說界重要獎項英國布克文學獎（the Booker Prize）遺珠，卻也因此而催生了日後為女性小說家所專設的柑橘文學獎（the Orange Prize for Fiction）。
2006年，本書被改編為舞台劇，於英國國家戲劇院上演，Vintage則重新再版卡特多部作品，其中《明智的孩子》便銷售了超過一萬三千本，卡特始終是讀者與其他創作者心目中屹立不搖的經典長銷作家。

In their heyday on the vaudeville stages of the early twentieth century, Dora Chance and her twin sister, Nora--unacknowledged daughters of Sir Melchior Hazard, the greatest Shakespearean actor of his day--were known as the Lucky Chances, with private lives as colorful and erratic as their careers. But now, at age 75, Dora is typing up their life story, and it is a tale indeed that Angela Carter tells. A writer known for the richness of her imagination and wit as well as her feminist insights into matters large and small, she created in "Wise Children "an effervescent family saga that manages to celebrate the lore and magic of show business while also exploring the connections between parent and child, the transitory and the immortal, authenticity and falsehood.

From reflections on jazz and Japan through vigorous refashionings of classic fairy tales to stunning snapshots of modern life in all its tawdry glory, "Burning Your Boats" charts the evolution of Angela Carter's marvelous magic vision in a volume that assembles her considerable legacy of short fiction, including early and previously unpublished stories.

'Angela Carter has influenced a whole generation of fellow writers towards dream worlds of baroque splendour, fairy tale horror, and visions of the alienated wreckage of a future world. In "Nights at the Circus" she has invented a new, raunchy, raucous, Cockney voice for her heroine Fevvers, taking us back into a rich, turn of the 19th century world, which reeks of human and animal variety'. "The Times".

First published in 1971, Love is Angela Carter’s fifth novel. With surgical precision it charts the destructive emotional war between a young woman, her husband and his disruptive brother as they move through a labyrinth of betrayal, alienation and lost connections.

The novel focuses on the life and exploits of Fevvers, a woman who is – or so she would have people believe – a Cockney virgin, hatched from an egg laid by unknown parents and ready to develop fully fledged wings. At the time of the story, she has become a celebrated aerialiste, and she captivates the young journalist Jack Walser, who runs away with the circus and falls into a world that his journalistic exploits had not prepared him to encounter.
Nights at the Circus incorporates multiple categories of fiction, including postmodernism, magical realism, or postfeminism. As in her previous works, Angela Carter plays with many literary aspects and dissects the traditional fairy tale structure.

This story follows Evelyn, a young Englishman, along a journey through mythology and sexuality. It is a story of how he learns to be a woman, first in the brutal hands of Zero, the ragtime Nietzsche, then through the ancient Tristessa, the beautiful ghost of Hollywood past.

Annabel, an artist adrift in the political and sexual crosscurrents of the 1960s and the whirling undertow of her own mind, falls into marriage with the blithely adulterous Lee. Before long, her relationship leads to obsession, betrayal, deceit, voyeurism, violence, and suicide.

One night, Melanie walks through the garden in her mother's wedding dress. The next morning the world is shattered and she's forced to leave her childhood home. She is sent to London to live with relatives she has never met. There, she meets Aunt Margaret, beautiful and speechless; and brooding Uncle Philip, who loves only the life-sized wooden puppets he creates in his toyshop.

A reissue of a collection of short stories first published ten years ago. They include "The Company of Wolves", on which the prize-winning film of the same name was based. Angela Carter is the author of "Nights at the Circus" and "The Magic Toyshop". --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

'The scar drew her whole face sideways and even in profile, with the hideous thing turned away, her face was horribly lop- sided, skin, features and all, dragged away from the bone. She was a beautiful girl, a white and golden girl, like moonlight on daisies, a month ago.' And yet the men still hover around her, more out of curiosity than lust, and none more so than the wildly seductive, dangerous funny man, Honeybuzzard; lithe as a stick of liquorice, he is the demonic puppet master at the swirling centre of the tale. 'In a modern day horror story gleaming with perfect 1960's detail, she performs a double act, conjuring up just the right amount of unease and perversion beneath the idiosyncratic business of relatively ordinary lives' THE TIMES

From familiar fairy tales and legends - Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, Puss in Boots, Beauty and the Beast, vampires and werewolves - Angela Carter has created an absorbing collection of dark, sensual, fantastic stories.

Once upon a time fairy tales weren't meant just for children, and neither is Angela Carter's Book of Fairy Tales. This stunning collection contains lyrical tales, bloody tales and hilariously funny and ripely bawdy stories from countries all around the world- from the Arctic to Asia - and no dippy princesses or soppy fairies. Instead, we have pretty maids and old crones; crafty women and bad girls; enchantresses and midwives; rascal aunts and odd sisters. This fabulous celebration of strong minds, low cunning, black arts and dirty tricks could only have been collected by the unique and much- missed Angela Carter. Illustrated throughout with original woodcuts.