Leilah in a new guise of Lilith, vagabond rebel leader. Lilith takes Eve to the coast to meet with Mother again, here they see a crazy old lady on a beach—a manifestation of ageing superficiality: dirty, caked in make-up, with piled high golden locks, singing old musical songs and living on vodka and cold tinned food and defecating in the bushes behind her deck chair. Eve realises that Leilah never objectively existed but was only a manifestation of his own lusts and corruption. Lilith tells Eve she must go and meet The Mother and pushes her into a cleft in the rocks that metamorphoses into the uterus of time. Eve progresses through the increasingly deep and warm subterranean rock pools to her rebirth. The amber Eve discovers in one of the caves and holds in her hands liquifies into ancient pine forests and primeval species. Eve is then symbolically reborn, guided by Leilah, and rejects her chauvinistic male past. Eve emerges onto a beach by Lilith, (name taken from the apocryphal story of Adam's first wife) who leaves her to go back and fight with her rebels, saying Eve cannot join her because she is pregnant. Eve swaps the gold alchemical on a neck chain that Lilith has given her for the purple skiff belonging to the crazed old woman and takes the boat and sails away. External links Jeff VanderMeer on Angela Carter's works The Body of the City: Angela Carter’s The Passion of New Eve (Journal of Science Fiction Studies) Further reading Bentley, Nick. "Angela Carter, 'The Passion of New Eve'". In 'Contemporary British Fiction' (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008), 97–108. . 1977 British novels Novels by Angela Carter Feminist science fiction novels British science fiction novels British magic realism novels 1977 science fiction novels 1977 fantasy novels Postmodern novels Dystopian novels Victor Gollancz Ltd books