Angels And Insects: A.S. Byatt

[poliphilo]

Angels and Insects contains two novellas about the existential terrors the Victorians experienced around science and religion. In the one we look at ants, in the other at In Memoriam.  I like Byatt's short fiction better than her big, door-stopper novels- where the demands of plot and characterization and all the things we expect of "a good read" tend to overwhelm her gift for fable and fairy tale. She's stranger, less conventional and (oddly) more ambitious when she's writing short.

Comments

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

I liked Possession tremendously. But I'll look for Angels and Insects on your recommendation.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed Possession but I think A & I is better.

Possession was spoiled for me by the verse- supposedly the work of major poets- being so uninspired.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

I'm a very prosaic soul, so it all looks uninspired to me. Perhaps I'll acquire a taste for verse in my dotage. EDIT: And I skipped most of the verse.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Skipping the verse was a wise move. It's dreadful. The man's poetry is a lifeless pastiche of Browning- with hints of Arnold- and the woman's verse is a lifeless pastiche of Dickinson- with hints of Rossetti.

[sovay]

Angels And Insects: A.S. Byatt

This is my favorite of her books, full stop.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think it's mine too.

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

That's a wonderful book. Byatt's underrated as a fantasist.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Fantasy- or something very like- is what she's best at.