SOURCE: A review of Bluebeard's Egg and Other Stories, in World Literature Today, Vol. 61, No. 4, Autumn, 1987, p. 629.

In the following review, Knapp offers a negative assessment of Bluebeard's Egg.

As much as The Handmaid's Tale was a minor literary sensation which marked Atwood's move to international prominence, her second collection of short fiction is patently unsensational. With the exception of two stories new to the American edition, the volume appeared already in 1983 in Canada. Two-thirds of the stories, in addition, have been featured previously in Harper's and other magazines, making their reappearance under one cover as much a matter of publishing convenience as of artistic necessity. Not a single date of original publication is given; and whether this is mere negligence or deliberate obfuscation by the publisher, it makes the critic's evaluation of the texts more difficult.

Of course, Atwood's unique voice, with its wry understatement and sensitive...