Bluebeard’s Egg is a collection of short stories by Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 author Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood

Margaret Eleanor Atwood, is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. She is among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C...

, published in 1983.

In this collection, Atwood explores the politics

Politics

Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...

 of sex

Sex

In biology, sex is a process of combining and mixing genetic traits, often resulting in the specialization of organisms into a male or female variety . Sexual reproduction involves combining specialized cells to form offspring that inherit traits from both parents...

 and heterosexual

Heterosexuality

Heterosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, physical or romantic attractions to persons of the opposite sex";...

 relationships, examining the emotions, betrayal

Betrayal

Betrayal is the breaking or violation of a presumptive contract, trust, or confidence that produces moral and psychological conflict within a relationship amongst individuals, between organizations or between individuals and organizations...

s, and casualties of such relationships. Four of the stories in the collection depart from this theme to instead present presumably autobiographic

Autobiography

An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...

 ruminations on the narrator’s childhood influences. The majority of these stories are set in downtown Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

.

Contents

• "Significant Moments in the Life of My Mother"
• "Spring Song of the Frogs"
• "Hurricane Hazel" - This story explores the pain and uncertainty of adolescence; the narrator recalls her first love affair, at age 14, and how the conventions of the time might have trapped her into an unhappy marriage.
• "Scarlet Ibis"
• "Loulou;" or, "The Domestic Life of the Language" - This story explores the topic of a woman being exploited by men. Loulou is a successful potter who supports financially a number of poets including her ex-husband and former lovers. A fling with her accountant leads her to realize she enjoys being a patroness of the arts, fully aware of her financial exploitation by the poets.
• "The Salt Garden" - The essence of this selection is the story of a married couple who are amiably separated, each with a new lover.
• "Uglypuss"
• "The Sin Eater"
• "Betty"
• "The Sunrise" - This work explores the experiences of a female painter who progresses from painting erect penises to painting men's faces, stalking men whose faces she wishes to paint. Disillusionment comes when one of these men expresses to her his view that women are properly the objects of violence.
• "Bluebeard's Egg"
• "Unearthing Suite" - Reviewer William French argues that this story can be read as autobiographical. As such, it suggests the beginnings of Atwood's writerly development occurred in her observations of the passing landscape during long car rides with her family.
• "Two Stories about Emma" (which includes "The Whirlpool Rapids" and "Walking on Water")
• "In Search of the Rattlesnake Plantain"