The Children's Book: A.S. Byatt

[poliphilo]

A hefty family saga- with a huge cast- covering the years between 1895 and 1918. Also a cultural and social history of the period. The pivotal character is a fictional version of the children's writer E. Nesbit.  Very enjoyable and immersive- and awesome in its logistics-  though I can't help thinking that most of what Byatt is doing here has been done before. 

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think there's a problem with inserting fictional artists and their fictional artworks into the historical continuum. Artworks are game changers. An artist as important as Benedict Fludd is supposed to be would have bent the world around himself. The same goes for Olive Wellwood. If these people had really existed the cultural scene Byatt is chronicling would have been very different.

She sort of gets round the problem in Possession by expunging Browning and Arnold from the record and placing Ash into the space they occupy.