JULY: Reading A. S. Byatt

Below is a full list of Byatt's books; I highly recommend Byatt's The Children's Book or Angels and Insects, as well as her best-known novel, Possession!

Byatt's The Shadow of the Sun, 1964;
Degrees of Freedom, 1965 (reprinted as Degrees of Freedom: the early novels of Iris Murdoch, 1994);
The Game, 1967;
Wordsworth and Coleridge in their Time, 1970 (reprinted as Unruly Times: Wordsworth and Coleridge in their Time, 1989);
Iris Murdoch 1976
The Virgin in the Garden, 1978;
GEORGE ELIOT Selected Essays, Poems and Other Writings , 1979 (editor);
Still Life, 1985
Sugar and Other Stories, 1987;
George Eliot: selected essays, 1989 (editor)
Possession: a romance, 1990
Robert Browning’s Dramatic Monologues, 1990 (editor);
Passions of the Mind, (essays), 1991;
Angels and Insects (novellae),1992
The Matisse Stories (short stories),1993;
The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye: five fairy stories, 1994
Imagining Characters, 1995 (joint editor);
New Writing 4, 1995 (joint editor);
Babel Tower, 1996;
New Writing 6, 1997 (joint editor);
The Oxford Book of English Short Stories, 1998 (editor);
Elementals: Stories of fire and ice (short stories), 1998;
The Biographer’s Tale, 2000;
On Histories and Stories (essays), 2000;
Portraits in Fiction, 2001;
The Bird Hand Book, 2001 (Photographs by Victor Schrager Text By AS Byatt);
A Whistling Woman, 2002
Little Black Book of Stories, 2003
Byatt's The Children’s Book, 2009

Nice job. A few wrong touchstones though :)

I totally agree with your choices, Deborah!

2> Oooh, there are a LOT! I don't know how to correct them if an "others" link doesn't show up. One does for The Children's Book--but the Byatt isn't in the list of suggestions. I'll get back and check them later--sorry!

In the meantime, I suggest you link to book titles through the author's site: A. S. Byatt.

I've got a couple of collections of her short stories that I hope to find the time for in July - The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye and Sugar and Other Stories. Will have to track them down on my shelves...

I read The Virgin in the Garden a few years back and have been tempted to continue with the series - the Frederica Potter Quartet, but have not yet requested the next book from the library and am going away on holidays for the first half of July. I think I'd better keep that project for a different time!

>4 Cariola:

Just add Byatt's at the front of any title and it will find the proper touchstone.

In addition to her books, A.S. Byatt's literary criticism is always interesting to read. Of course, I can't think of any specific examples right now, but it always seems like when I am looking for info on a particular book, one of her essays will come and have such brilliant insights on said book.

As I will be going on a holiday and have little chance to get on line after July 10, I will commit myself to only reading a short work by A.S. Byatt.

Byatt is not really my favourite author, although I have read a few of her books and have most of her other books on my tbr pile. My real favourite author is Iris Murdoch. I find that Byatt's work has a certain resemblance and affinity to that author. I cannot stand the work by Margaret Drabble, whose writings I find "too feminine" for my taste.

What I do not like so much about Byatt's work is that it seems too wordy, showing too much attention for detail, and trying to be too beautiful. The latter aspects both attracts and repels me.

To join this group, I will read Elementals: Stories of Fire and Ice:



Other books I have read by A.S. Byatt:
Still life
Possession
The biographer's tale

Not sure which book I will be starting with. The Biographer's Tale is packed away in a box somewhere, if I have the ambition to try to find it. Sugar and Other Stories is on the way from a PBS swapper, but I might hop over to the local used book store and see what they have on hand that I haven't already read.

I forgot to check in the last week or so but I'm so glad the group chose A.S. Byatt - I probably would have voted for her anyway.

I've only read one book by her before - Possession and it blew me away. I also love the movie and recommend people watch the movie first if they are having difficulties getting in to the book. Yes it will be a massive spoiler but it's one of those books I enjoyed reading already knowing the plot it was so beautiful and an intelligent book to read.

In my TBR pile I have Angels and Insects, Byatt's The Children's Book, The Virgin in the Garden, Still Life and Babel Tower.

I think I will read The Children's Book this month.

10> Excellent choice!

Yes, kiwiflowa, EXCELLENT choice!!

By coincidence I'd already started reading Possession before I got chance to find out if anyone had set a July author. Am finding it bit hard to get in to, but from what I've read here I'm guessing it may well be worth persevering.

I borrowed The biographer's tale from the library today. We leave on holiday tomorrow, so I don't know when I will be back on-line.

#13> Yes, GeorgiaBeach, your perseverance will be rewarded, believe me!

I read the first 20 pages of The biographer's tale while on holiday, and so far it reminds me very strongly of Hesse's Glasperlenspiel.

I'm enjoying Sugar and Other Stories.

I read The Virgin in the Garden a few weeks ago. I think Angels and Insects is the only other A.S. Byatt novel I have read. I'm not quite sure why I have avoided her -- I'm a big fan of Margaret Drabble, her sister's work. And yes, I'm aware of the "estrangement" between the two.

That said, The Virgin in the Garden is the first of a quartet about Frederica Potter -- here an extremely bright young girl of 17 readying to take her A levels and looking forward to a brilliant university career at Oxford or Cambridge. She's the second child in an academic family. Her father, Bill Potter, a careless, hot-headed English Master, teaches at a local boys' school in Yorkshire. He considers that Stephanie, Frederica's elder sister, is wasting her university degree by teaching at the local girls' school. The youngest child, Marcus, is terrified of his father, withdrawn, and sees the world in visual patterns (in current terms he probably has Asberger's syndrome). Mother Winifred desperately tries to hold the family together.

The year is 1952 -- Elizabeth II is about to be crowned, and England is in a frenzy of post-war celebration. Alexander Wedderburn, the second English Master, has been commissioned to write a verse drama, Astraea, chronicling the reign of Elizabeth I. The town, the countryside, and the wider theatre community are caught up into the production -- professional actors are brought in to play the leads, as locals and students play supporting roles. Frederica is cast as the young Elizabeth.

Mirth and mayhem ensue. Love and lust are in the air -- as are literature and alchemical experiments. The novel is full of allusions to Elizabethan history and English literature, as well as the social mores of the 1950s. Byatt certainly exploits her academic background. I found the novel at once humorously satirical and darkly ironic. The ending is a bit of a cliffhanger -- obviously she had sequels in mind.

>18 janeajones: Thanks for the info on The Virgin in the Garden - that's going on my wishlist now!

I finished The Biographer's Tale. I remain as bewildered as in the beginning.

I am well into The Childrens Book (I've tried everything I can think of and can't make the Touchstone thing work for the title) - anybody else reading that?

Byatt is one of my favorite authors, but I found it a little slow to get started. Once I get used to it, I like the detailed and visual focus of her writing, the descriptions of the color, texture and design. The cast of characters is large and you're introduced to most of them in a big bunch early on, so it took me some time sorting out who is who, but I like the exposure to an era I am unfamiliar with and the "counterculture" of that time.

#21> guppyfp, I loved The Children's Book (yes, I know, there is no touchstone for it!). Once you get into it, you will not be able to put it down. Such a richness of characters, wonderful description of clothing, pottery......a wonderful book!

Another lover of The Children's Book here. Add to the above descriptions of the Victorian theatre world and the effects of World War II.

aluvalibri and cariola, you're right, I loved it. Although, even at the end, I was still saying to myself - "and x is y's sister, or is she z's daughter?" And it didn't help at all that those relationships turned out to be much more confusing than originally indicated. I found it interesting that the WWI era was so totally different from the rest of the book (although I imagine it was intentional, and people who lived through that era felt the same). All the creepy sexual stuff fell away and everyone was just dealing with death and survival.

Like most of her long fiction, it seems you get absorbed in a world, and then it just ends - but maybe that is not really true; she did tie most of the ends together. I just got to the end and wanted to read a little further...

I just got to the end and wanted to read a little further...

I did too!

Same here!

Well, I missed reading Byatt in July, but I'm finally getting around to Possession. I saw your mention of it being one of your top favourites, Paola. I'm really looking forward to it.

I have a feeling you will like it, Joyce...;-)

Agreed--it's a wonderful book.