Bluebeard.

Bluebeard is a French literary folktale. The tale tells the story of a violent nobleman in the habit of murdering his wives and the attempts of one wife to avoid the fate of her predecessors.

Bluebeard is a wealthy aristocrat, feared and shunned because of his ugly, blue beard. He has been married several times, but no one knows what became of his wives. He is therefore avoided by the local girls. When Bluebeard visits one of his neighbours and asks to marry one of her two daughters, the girls are terrified, and each tries to pass him on to the other. Eventually, he talks the younger daughter into visiting him, and after hosting a wonderful banquet, he persuades her to marry him, which she does and she lives with him in his chateau.

Very shortly after, Bluebeard announces that he must leave the country for a little while; he gives all his keys to his new wife, telling her they open doors to numerous treasures. He tells her to use the keys freely apart from the key which opens one small room beneath the castle. Bluebeard stresses to her that she must not open this room under any circumstances but still leaves her with the key - obvious temptation. She vows she will never enter the room but is overcome with a hungry desire to know what the forbidden room holds and despite warnings from her sister Anne, who has come to visit her, she opens it.

Upon the opening of the room, the new wife discovers the horrible secret the room kept. Its floors were awash with blood and the murdered bodies of her husbands former wives hang from hooks on the wall. Horrified she drops the key in a pool of blood and flees from the room. Despite several attempts the blood on the key won't wash off. She reveals her husband's secret to her sister Anne and both plan to flee the castle the next day. Bluebeard returns home unexpectedly and noticing the blood on the key flies into a violent rage and threatens to behead her on the spot. However, she implores him to give her fifteen minutes to say her prayers upon which he consents and she locks herself in the highest tower with Anne. Bluebeard tries to break down the door whilst the two sisters wait for their two brothers to arrive. At the last moment the brothers break in to the castle and as he attempts to flee they kill him. He leaves no heirs other than his wife, who inherits his great fortune - the money is used for a dowry to marry off her sister, her brothers' captains' commissions and the rest to marry a worthy gentleman who makes her forget her horrible encounter with Bluebeard.

Bloody Chamber is basically Angela Carter's modern day adaption/version of Bluebeard (with a few differences) and is completely different to what I thought Bluebeard was as a child - I use to think it was a pirate story. Boy was I wrong!