In two breathtakingly accomplished novellas, A. S. Byatt explores the landscape of Victorian England, where science and spiritualism are both popular manias and domestic decorum coexists with brutality and perversion.
In "Morpho Eugenia", a shipwrecked naturalist is rescued by a wealthy family and immediately falls for the eldest daughter. But before long the family's clandestine passions come to seem as inscrutable as the behavior of insects. In "The Conjugial Angel," a circle of fictional mediums finds itself haunted by the ghost of a very real historical personage.
Angels & Insects offers further proof of Byatt's prodigious powers and magical sympathy for characters who might have been our great-great-grandparents.
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"Byatt isn't for everyone. I love that she demands such a high level of intelligence of her readers. At times I would rather be reading something effortless, which requires no thought. Byatt doesn't offer that, and I'm glad she makes me use my brain." — Stephanie (4 out of 5 stars)
"Byatt isn't for everyone. I love that she demands such a high level of intelligence of her readers. At times I would rather be reading something effortless, which requires no thought. Byatt doesn't offer that, and I'm glad she makes me use my brain."
“The British novelist A. S. Byatt is a very clever woman, and Angels & Insects exhibits her cleverness.”
“Proven professional [Wanda McCaddon]...rises predictably to the challenge. Hers is a gifted storyteller’s voice, perfect for a tale of Victorian England, full of expectation and interest in the wonderments of what she has to say. Her characterizations of both males and females of varied social registers are excellent, as is her ability to transmit clearly the tonal subtexts of Byatt’s clause-laden, gracefully qualified sentences.”
“Delicate and confidently ironic.... Byatt perfectly blends laughter and sympathy [with] extraordinary sensuality.”
“Byatt effortlessly exploits the opportunities for pastiche, belletristic flourish and critical commentary. If her symbolism is as excessively upholstered and overdetermined as the narratives of her Victorian models, beneath the padding she sets out a delicate chain of thematic concerns—19th-century tensions between science and faith, erotic currents within families, the nature of marital happiness—and heightens them by juxtaposing the two novellas here. Her easy ventriloquism mocks Victorian excesses even as she uses these same elements to inveigle her readers. Complex and captivating, this fluid volume recasts itself on every page.”
" another bad story "
" I just couldn't finish it. In fact, I barely started it before I stopped. I was a teenager when I picked it up though, so it might just have been over my head. "
" One of Byatt's best. The movie didn't do it justice. "
" I enjoyed this more than I did the lauded Possession, but still not a great read. A bit above okay, almost good, certainly not great. "
" Must admit, I only read the first novella in this book. It was fine but didn't take me in like Possession had. "
" I'm with John, Conjugal Angel was failure as a short story; hard to follow and ultimately pointless. Morpho Eugenia was a pretty little gothic tale of unpleasantness and virtue punished. "
" 5 stars to the first novella, 3 to the second. "
" A collection of novellas from the author of Possession . I was a little disappointed at this follow-up due to the spectacular greatness of the novel. This one delves into incest during the Victorian period and an avid insect collector. Fairly offbeat, and I was more put off than enthralled. "
" Four stars "Morpho Eugenia" + Two stars "The Conjugial Angel" = Three star average. "
" Gorgeous and literary and thought-provoking. I love A.S. Byatt! "
" "Morpho Eugenia" was a quick read, I'm having trouble finishing up "Conjugal Angel". "
" I learned a new word from this book: gynandrous. I preferred the first novella to the second and overall, prefer Byatt's later work to this endeavor. "
" creepy, gothic, lush, romantic and stupid. "
" AWFUL book, don't waste your time. "
" Wonderful writer but every sentence is as dense and chewy as Russian black bread, a lot to digest. "
" I was bored to death! "
" Made up of two novelettes. I've read one & will read the next in a month or so. Gives us much to think about when trying to understand what our great grandparents thought of. "
A. S. Byatt (1936–2023) was a distinguished critic and author of numerous works, including Possession: A Romance, which won the Booker Prize for Fiction, the Irish Times International Fiction Prize, and the Commonwealth Writers Prize. Her other works also garnered awards and acclaim, and she was granted numerous honorary degrees. She was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge; Bryn Mawr College; and Somerville College, Oxford. In 1999 she was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Wanda McCaddon (d. 2023) narrated well over six hundred titles for major audiobook publishers, sometimes with the pseudonym Nadia May or Donada Peters. She earned the prestigious Audio Award for best narration and numerous Earphones Awards. She was named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine.
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