The Bloody Chamber: The Snow Child Summary & Analysis

It is winter, and a Count and Countess go riding through the snowy wilderness. The Count admires the snow and wishes for a “girl as white as snow.” Then they come to a hole in the snow filled with blood, and the Count wishes for a “girl as red as blood.” Then the Count sees a raven, and wishes for “a girl as black as that bird’s feather.”

As soon as the Count finishes speaking, a naked girl appears with white skin, a red mouth, and black hair. The Count lifts her onto his horse and the Countess is jealous. She drops her glove into the snow and tells the girl to get it, intending to ride off and leave her, but the Count says he will buy her new gloves instead. At that the Countess’s furs leave her body and wrap around the naked girl.

The Countess then throws her brooch into a frozen pond and tells the girl to get it, but again the Count stops her and this time the Countess’s boots leap onto the girl’s feet. Now the Countess is naked and the girl clothed. They come to a rosebush and the Countess tells the girl to pick her a rose, and the Count agrees. The girl picks a rose, it pricks her finger, and she falls down dead.

The Count dismounts, crying, and has sex with the girl’s corpse. When he is done she melts and returns to a bloodstain, a raven’s feather, and the rose. The clothes return to the Countess. The Count hands the rose to the Countess, but it pricks her finger too and she says “it bites!”