I’m hunting down a fiction anthology that involved “Beauty and the Beast” riffs. One of the riffs involved a perfect couple (I think New Yorkers) with a perfect life–and the wife was slowly beginning to think that her beautiful, flawless, successful, doting husband had a terrible double life as a beast in a city reeling from a series of bloody, violent attacks. I’m fairly sure it was published in softcover in the late 1980s to mid 1990s. One detail that really stands out to me is that when the husband came home late one night, the wife noticed a drop of blood on his cheek and realized that he was the beast–which left her in a whole bunch of serious dilemmas, most of which were left as cliffhangers. This was only one of many stories in the book, but it really left an impression. If I recall correctly, most of the writers in the anthology were women. I was way into Sheri S. Tepper and other female authors at the time, if that helps, but I don’t think it was her story collection “Beauty.” I hope you can find it! Thanks 🙂
Stump the Bookseller
New format, same book stumper solving.
This might not be it, but it sounds similar to The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter. It’s not an anthology because Carter wrote all the stories, but it was written in 1978, so close to the right time period. It’s 10 chapters with different takes of fairytales. The two that were about Beauty and the Beast were called, “The Courtship of Mr. Lyon” and “The Tiger’s Bride”, but the first one sounds closer to what you described.
I believe this story was in one of the Snow White, Blood Red anthologies edited by Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow, but I don’t remember which one. There are at least 6 anthologies; they feature darker and often very violent retellings of traditional folk and fairy tales.
I think Kate is right, as that particular story sounds like ‘The Beast’ by Tanith Lee in the Datlow and Windling anthology ‘Ruby Slippers Golden Tears’
By the way… thank you Kate and Vic! The story is “The Beast” by Tanith Lee, in Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears!!