The Werewolf by Angela Carter (1979)
Tuesday’s Fairy Tale, A Modern Retelling August 11, 2020
As an avid reader, you might know that fairy tales are being retold in modern and highly inventive ways. You may have seen titles like Cinderella is Dead or The Librarian and the Beast or Alice, The Wanderland Chronicles. Retellings of Little Red Riding Hood are one of the most popular stories to flood the literary marketplace. Amazon has over 100 retellings (The Red Wolf; Moon and Fangs; Reluctant Hood). Why we still love fairy tales comes from our need to believe that magical things can happen to common folk and what better place to indulge in that than fiction.
The original Little Red Riding Hood is believed to have been written by Charles Perrault (17th century), or possibly more ancient than that as an 11th century poem, according to anthropologist Jamie Tehrani at National Geographic. Most of us know the story as authored by the Brothers Grimm from 1812 “Rotkäppchen.”
Reportedly, there are 58 versions of the tale from Japan to Africa to Korea. Here is the original by Grimm, if you’d like a read:
(https://germanstories.vcu.edu/grimm/redridinghood.html )
This week, however, I bring you a version of Little Red Riding Hood by Angela Carter, The Werewolf. Flash fiction at 900 words, a 5-minute read. And what a read it is. Gothic, pastoral, sharp. And this little riding girl is skilled at using a hunting knife. It ends grimly but like all fairy tales, the last line in this miniature narrative is dramatically tight.
Read Carter’s The Werewolf here at Biblioklept.org:
https://biblioklept.org/2012/06/03/read-the-werewolf-a-short-fable-by-angela-carter/
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Paula Cappa 
I had no idea that there are Red Riding Hood stories from different continents. That’s very interesting!
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It was news to me too, Priscilla.
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