The Professor's House is a novel that I read and re-read, in the same way that one turns again and again to a good friend, for solace. Middle age is a time of change and this novel's main character is going through the Change of Life (as surely as if he were a woman...)

After reading this novel about 4 years ago, I went on to devour almost every other published work by this author. If you are Canadian, like me, I urge you to read Shadows on the Rock. This is a Cather novel set in 18th century Quebec City. A real gem.

But back to The Professor's House: Cather draws us in with the singularity of her main character. The professor is set apart from his wife and one of his daughters, disconnected from them by a lifetime of having to listen to and observe their pettiness. Connected to Tom Outland and to his youngest daughter, the professor flourishes. Aren't we all like this? There are kindred spirits and there are those who are not kindred spirits.

Because I love the landscape of New Mexico, I was thrilled with the descriptions of the ruins. Cather's love of this part of the world is reflected in much of her work. She is able to capture the emptiness and beauty of this stark landscape in her writing.

I have found some of Cather's work to be a bit ponderous. The Professor's House is one of her best novels. It has stood the test of time, which is what makes it literature. I'm also thrilled that a woman writer can be so successful at creating male characters. This is an art that many writers do not have.

Somewhere I read that Cather will eventually top Hemingway as America's finest and most esteemed writer. This book floated Cather above Hemingway in my estimation and this was only the fourth book of hers that I have read. A wonderful, timeless story set in the early twenties (could very well be today!). A remarkable tale of how the appearance of a young man in the lives of one family can have such impact. Cather develops each character around their reaction to the man, Outland. Outland, a perfect name for a character that sweeps in, lives intensely, whose intellectual capabilities create wonder and who gives it all away.

The main character, the Professor, begins by tutoring Outland, even as Outland tutors the Professor's own daughters. Outland betrothes the eldest who benefits from Outland's creations with enormous riches. The youngest daughter languishes in the shadow of her older daughter's consumerism, which the mother encourages, much to the disinterest and dissatisfaction of the Professor.

The middle and last sections of this three-part book are wondrous and provide the ultimate redemption and "tutoring" for the Professor who is "saved" by the life which Outland has lived.

The setting for this book moves from the attic-office of the Professor in a small college town set on Lake Michigan to the mesas of the southwest. Each setting is beautifully described, in economical and lovely language.

This novel is a wonder! Perfect, and the best that I have read in a very, very long time.

Willa Cather's early novels of life on the American prairie, such as My Antonia and O Pioneers are well known. Her novel "The Professor's House" is much less familiar but is Cather at her best.

The book tells the story of Professor Godfrey St. Peter. When we meet him, he is a respected academic and scholar, age 52, who has written an eight volume history called "Spanish Explorers" dealing with the Spanish in Mexico and the American Southwest. He has persevered in his writing and received awards. As a result, he and his family are able to build a new house and move away from the ramshakle rented quarters in which the Professor and his wife have lived and raised their family.

The family consists of two daughters who, when we meet them, have married and gone their own ways. The younger daughter is married to a struggling news reporter who has impressed his bosses by his ability to turn out hack prose-poems for the paper on a daily basis.

The older daughter was at one time engaged to a man named Tom Outlaw who is, perhaps the real hero of the book. Outlaw invented an important scientific device and willed it to her upon his death in WW I. She then marries an engineer and entrepreneur who develops and markets Outlaw's invention. The couple build a large home and name in "Outlaw".

The book tells a story of change, frustration and acceptance. The Professor is unhappy with the new home and refuses to leave his old study. His relationship with his wife and daughters has cooled. He is unhappy with the modernization of the university and of academic learning with its emphasis on technowlogy and business rather than study and reflection. Most importantly, he is dissatisfied with his honors, his leisure, and his comforts. He thinks of his youth of promise and study, of his life of solitude, and yearns for adventure and meaning.

The first part of the book tells the story of the Professor and his family. The second, shorter, part is a flash-back and tells the story of Tom Outlaw who Professor St. Peter befriended many years before and who grew up in mysterious circumstances in New Mexico. We learn in the second part of the book of Outlaw's life on the railroad and on the range. We see his somewhat ambiguous friendship with an older man and their discovery of an ancient Indian village on the mesas. There is a wonderfully drawn picture of Washington D.C. as Tom tries, without success, to interest officials in his discovery.

In the third part of the book, the Professor reflects on Tom and on his own life. It seems to me that Tom's life mirrors the theme of the Professor's lenghty studies in "Spanish Explorers" It is the kind of life in its rawness, closeness to nature, and independence that the Professor thinks he would have liked to lead rather than settling for a middle-class life of conformity, comfort, and boredom. We see how the Professor tries to struggle on.

There is a frustration built into life when we learn we are not the persons we dreamed of becoming. This is a poignant, beautifully-written story of American life and of how and why people fall short of themselves.

This novel took me by surprise. I read itright after the rather poor novel Alexander's Bridge and didn't expect much out of this one. However, Cather remains focused on her characters and develops them steadily and with a deft ablity to sketch and leave the full details to develop in the reader's mind.

She's a pretty impressive writer here and this story of aging, marital love, and fulfillment was an eye opener to me about how one's life can slip away even as you are holding on to it and *trying* to live your honest and best self.

While not especially "moving," the story did attach tendrils of feeling to that place that connects my heart to my head.

We come to know the protagonist of this short novel,Myra Henshawe.through the eyes of a younger woman who at first admires her unconditionally and grows to view her and the motivations behind her behavior more realistically as she encounters her again as an older physically suffering woman.

The bitterness which she feels toward her husband ,covered over with friends and laughter, when they were young and successful is more openly expressed as they age and find themselves in economic straits.

The characterizations achieved in this very short novel are extremely memorable. An excellent one evening read.

Too often, popular knowledge of important writers is limited to one or two books which may be neither representative of the author's work as a whole nor the author's best. This is true of Willa Cather. Her early books, such as My Antonia and O Pioneers are widely read and widely praised as is, to a lesser extent a work from her final years, Death Comes to the Archbishop. There is a range of writing from Cather's middle years which may show her at her best, without the sentimintality of the earlier writings. These middle period books are, alas, not well known.

One of these books, My Mortal Enemy, is a short tightly-written tale which can be read in a single sitting or two. But its short length holds great complexity and pathos. The book is difficult to approach because it includes a largely unsympathetic heroine, Myra Henshawe.

Ms. Henshawe left small-town Illinois behind her as a young woman to marry the man she thought she loved. In so doing, she turned her back on a large inheritance. She lives the high life in New York City as the wife of a businessman. She knows writers, artists, but is incorrigibly jealous and has a sharp tounge and a biting wit.

The elderly couple find themselves in hard times and settle in San Francisco. Myra Henshawe, sharp tounged and critical as in her youth, says harsh, irrevokable things about her life and her marriage and modernistic art and culture. She returns for value to the ritualistic elements of the Catholicism of her youth, the religion of her uncle who disinherited her when she eloped.

The story is told by a third party narrator, as is My Antonia, who functions in varied ways throughout the story.

The story is about the well of bitterness, of lost sad lives, the limitations of romantic love and the tarnished heroine's view of religion as a possible source of redemption.

Especially if you are in a book group that will be discussing "Possession", this is a thoughtful, comprehensive guide to that convoluted novel. It will ease the rather daunting task of taking in the nuances of A.M. Byatt's literary romance. Also included is a brief biography of Byatt. Recommended.

Reading A.S.Byatt's "Possession" can be a daunting task as the novel is not only interpersed with poetry and letters written by all the fictional historical characters, but is filled with allusions that only a lifetime afficiando of literature would understand. This little book by Ms Burgass will help the less erudite reader peel back the layers that comprise the entire work.
The guide is broken down into various sections that will answer questions regarding all manner of topics related to the novel. The author, the novel itself, the novel's reception, the novel's standing today, and a helpful list of study questions,further reading and websites round out the chapter topics.
I found the chapter on the novel sufficiently comprehensive to answer all my questions regarding the fictional works of Ash and LaMotte. Coverage of the novel's various themes was also extremely instructional.
I recommend this to all who enjoyed the movie and want to fully enjoy the book's entire experience.

I'm the first to admit that 'Possession' is a complex novel, but it's also one of my favourites. This guidebook might seem like an odd idea (why do you need a guidebook to a novel??) - having just finished it, though, I'm left feeling even more impressed by the novel, and itching to read it again. Dr Burgass writes clearly and is deeply knowledgeable about her subject. There are so many levels to this novel, so many nuances, and she captures most of them wonderfully. This is all in the main chapter of the book. The other material seems like a bonus: a brief history of Byatt's career and a great little section about how (and why) this clever novel sold so well. It's even current enough to have a page about the film adaptation, which as far as I know has not been released yet. But it sounds intriguing. Which is probably a good reason to read this book now - then you will know more about the novel when everybody starts talking about it again.

The House in Paris is my first encounter with Bowen's work and definitely won't be the last. She is a beautiful writer with occasional unidiomatic lapses which are compensated for in stunning paragraphs elsewhere. The scenes and characters come alive; the best way I can describe it is that they are "intensely lived." Bowen is never on autopilot. In particular, I found the scenes where Karen visits her aunt & uncle in Ireland and the scene in which Henrietta meets Mme. Fisher very evocative and enthralling despite the lack of anything much happening. Bowen also has a surehanded dramatic technique when needed.

I did find some weaknesses, which is why I give the novel 4 stars (but then the "degree of difficulty" is high). I don't ever find the romance between Karen and Max to be accessible; Bowen's portrayal is intentionally inscrutable. Though only nine, Leopold seems to think and speak like an adult. In general, I don't agree with Bowen's much praised portrayal of either child.

All in all, a very worthwhile, often intense novel.

The House in Paris is about making choices.

It starts by introducing the reader to 11 year old Henrietta who passes through the House in Paris while on her way to visit her Grandmother in Mentone. We are later introduced to Leopold. He is a nine year old boy, going to visit his mother in the House in Paris, whom he has never met. The house belongs to Madame Fisher and her daughter Naomi.

The story then goes backwards, we find out how Leopold came to be. His mother had a tryst with Max while being engaged to someone else. Leopold's Father Max was Naomi's Fiance, whom he would have married had he not killed himself. I will not give the ending away, but the threads of the story come together and everyone has a connection to the house. Bowen's descriptive style of writing is evident throughout the chapters. I can guarantee readers that they won't want to put this book down. You wish the story wouldn't end.

I am studying 'The Bell' for A Level English Literature along with 'The End of the Affair' by Graham Greene and 'Loitering with Intent' by Muriel Spark. I enjoyed 'The Bell' and the fact that it is very easy to read probably attributed to this. The relationships between many of the characters worked well, especially between Michael and Nick. The links then between this relationship and Michael's feelings for Toby was also well constructed. Dora, as the main protaganist, is very skillfully developed and many parts of the book are written from her point of view. Another point which deserves praise is Murdoch's excellent physical description of Imber, this made the place seem realistic and also supports the intended images of the characters, for example Nick. Catherine is probably the only character that did not fully work, however this is mainly true towards the end. The plot is interesting and moves at a resonable pace with the main charaters becoming increasingly intriging. However, the book could be looked at on a deeper, more philosphical/religious level with characters such as the Abbess playing more of a symbolic part than the others. This is a book about community and the strive for perfection. The characters, though all very different, have a common need for salvation and through Imber have hope for this despite their pasts. 'The Bell' is enjoyable on several levels, it is both sad and humorous although I didn't find it quite as witty as the cover led me to expect. I would also highly recommend the other two books mentioned, especially if one wants to further investigate some of the themes raised in 'The Bell'.

This beautifully constructed novel begins and ends with a description of Dora Greenfield. I feel that it is Dora who makes this novel. All of the other characters are hugely inadequate, struggling as they are with the constant dilemma of how to deal with the pleasure of life. Dora has no qualms she knows that life can be full of fear ( the reason she returns to Imber Court and her estranged husband) but she desperately wants to live, to enjoy sensual pleasure. It is not possible to detach sensuality from fear in this novel. The bell is a symbol of this fear, it sits under the water, discovered by Toby. Toby has a sexual encounter with Dora which is interrupted by the bell resounding. Toby has a sexual encounter with Michael, who is obsessed with the new bell, seeing it as a source of liberation from his sexual imprisonment, from this sensuality which he despises.

I really enjoyed this novel. It is almost perfect in form. The characters are explored slowly with wonderful skill they are slowly revealed to us .

I would highly recommend this book for anyone seeking an introduction to Iris Murdoch's work

The Bell is the only Murdoch novel I've really liked. I've read it, probably, dozens of times, and it improves with each read. The language is of a poetic quality - my test for this is that it's best when read out loud.

The theme of the book is the nature of human goodness, and the impossibility of human perfection. Murdoch was an Oxford Reader in Moral Philosophy at the time, and was well capable of producing a very dry account of this subject, but instead the book is a masterpiece of subtle comedy which gets its serious ideas across with great subtlety. The first two chapters, in particular, draw the reader into the life of the heroine with a piece of sustained artistry that is quite unparalleled, at least in my experience. It's a gorgeous piece of prose that I never tire of reading.

Dora, the heroine (and I use the term deliberately), is presented as a totally amoral being (and therefore, like the dog, without sin). She is incapable of deciding to "do the right thing", but also incapable of real wrong-doing. All the other characters are in some way struggling with their own moral turpitude, and in trying to intellectualize their struggle, accellerate their approaching doom. Dora meanwhile, guided only by her animal instincts, emerges as a Saint, cheered on at every stage by the reader (well, this reader at least). Furthermore, Dora's redemption occurs in spite of, rather than because of, the moral and intellectual strictures of Organised Religion. You cheer for Dora as she leaves the Chapel in disgust, just as you cheer for Austen's Elizabeth Bennet when she faces down Lady Catherine. It's that good!

The Bell of the title is a symbol of untrammelled female sexuality that resounds throughout the book. This theme is explored, ironically, in a plot which takes place around the grounds of a convent. There's a disturbing painting by Millais called "The Vale of Rest" that I think must have inspired Murdoch. The picture of nuns digging a grave is a wonderful image of Victorian male sexual terror (conceived, incidentally, by Millais on his honeymoon). In the backgound swings the bell. When moved, it must sound.

Apart from Dora, most of the other characters emerge from the events of the plot with their lives in ruins. Dora, in contrast, learns to value herself by finally detaching herself from the awful man she had married.

I'm very conscious of the fact that not all readers would share my interpretation of the book, and in all probability Murdoch didn't mean it that way. She was on record as saying that if she'd known how readers would feel about Dora's awful husband, she would have treated him more sympathetically. But the book is as it is, and as a description of the triumph of the Human Spirit over priests and pedants, it's just fine for me.

Incidentally, it was made into a very good television version by the BBC about 20 years ago. I hope they repeat it one day.

Fans of Tudor history will enjoy this meaty volume which delivers a very different take on the life of Queen Katherine Howard...she is hardly the hysterical and promiscuous girl so often depicted. Especially interesting characterizations of "Bloody" Mary Tudor and Henry VIII, as well. Strictly for fans of the subject, however, or otherwise tedious reading.

Ford Madox Ford's "The Fifth Queen" - actually a collection of three separate novels - is a fictionalized account of the fifth wife of England's Henry VIII, Katharine Howard. As A.S. Byatt explains in her Introduction, "This figure bears little relation to what we have about the real Katharine . . ." and thus the reader should be conscious that Ford's Katharine - a young, pretty, pious woman who yearns for a return to Catholicism after Henry's split with Rome - is strictly fictional. That said, the only real failure of this work is that Katharine is the least appealing, least interesting character; we first meet her as a dispossessed ingenue seeking entrance to Henry's court around the time of his disasterous fourth marriage to Anne of Cleves, and it is this description which will follow her throughout the book. Even as she becomes Queen, it is almost by accident, surviving the machinations of Cromwell, Lord Privy Seal and the recklessness of her devoted cousin Culpepper. She is Queen by default. She constantly protests that all she seeks is a Catholic England - the "old ways" - and yet throughout she resigns herself to letting events happen to her, as if she cannot control the consequences of her own life. Indeed, her final speech to Henry where she confesses to an adultery which did not occur, becomes her last fatal act of passivity, for which she pays with her life. She cannot see that there are those who wish to help her and that her naive, narcissistic piety does not have to be her ruin. What holds these novels together is the rich supporting cast: the aforementioned Cromwell, who has his own sovereign Protestant image of England, free from the entanglements of Rome. There is the brooding Princess Mary, Henry's daughter by his first wife, who knows how to carry a grudge for her mother's divorce, the super-spy Throckmorton, the lecherous Magister Udal and more. Ford uses Katharine to show that the blind commitment to an ideal - any ideal - will only result in failure, that this world is more than ideas and faiths, but of people who are imperfect, people who will fail. It is a world five hundred years in the past, but it is also our own.

Intrigue and romance in the court of Henry VIII
Katherine Howard, armed only with education, wit and honesty, becomes the Fifth Queen, Henry VIII's fifth wife in this amazing historical trilogy. The plot-ridden court comes to vivid life as everyone high and low maneuvers for advantage. Everyone except Katherine Howard, whose unwillingness to scheme will make her queen and defenseless at the same moment. Even knowing the general story this is a fascinating and occasionally shocking novel, with a stunning ending...

This is an adult version of the Arabian Nights tales that most kids grow up with. By adult I do not mean that it contains a lot of sexual material, however there is some, so this book is probably not appropriate for children. Stories like "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" and "Aladdin and the Magic Lamp" are included in here, along with some more obscure stories like "The Hunchback's Tale". If you're interested in learning about stories from the middle east, this is the book for you.

I just wanted to point out that most of these reviews refer to the previous version of this book that is no longer available from .... I gave this book its average grade, because as of yet I've not read this SEQUEL. Please note that this book does not contain Sinbad, Aladin, or many of the other classic stories (though it does seem to expand on the shortened earlier edition). Check the chapters to make sure you're getting the right book. Given the original however (which I have read) I'm sure this is an excellent edition of the tales.

Encourage ... to not only carry this book, but its predecessor too.

We are all familiar with the stories of Ali Baba, Aladdin, and Sinbad. But where did these tales come from? The answer lies in this wonderful (condensed) volume known as the 'Arabian Nights.'
The story is of a woman, Scheherazade, who marries a king. The king's custom is to spend one night with a woman and execute her in the morning. To avoid this, Scheherazade tells him a tale, but leaves part of it unfinished, thus gaining the king's interest and insuring her survival for another day so she can finish the tale. Being clever, she never finishes it, but keeps it continuously going, until the king finally spares her life.
The stories presented here, though often somewhat crude, have great moral lessons to be learned. The serve as a sort of moral reminder as to how a good person should act.
When Richard Burton translated the Nights, he collected as many manuscripts as possible and pieced together the tales. Many had been created centuries earlier, and were often told during gatherings among friends. Burton, through his unparalelled knack for translation, managed to capture all the magic and mystery that are the Arabian Nights.
Besides the delightful stories and good lessons to be learned, the Nights serve another purpose--they provide an intimate look at the culture of the time. By examining their legends, one can gain a basic understanding of how Arabic culture functions. There is as much to be learned about the people who tell these stories as there is from the stories themselves.
I read this book for historical and cultural value, and found it to be abundant in both. Besides that, though, I encountered a mesmerizing set of tales which will be entertaining to any audience, even (after some revision and editing) children.

I put off buying this book for a long time after reading some of the unfavourable reviews it received on Amazon.com. (e.g. that the book is difficult to read, boring, overly long, dense, etc). But in January, I watched the 2002 movie adaptation (starring Gwyneth Paltrow) and immediately fell in love with the story. I knew then that I just HAD to read the novel to experience fully the beauty of the story and its characters. I'm so glad I finally did, and would recommend this title if you're looking for a unique and engaging reading experience.

"Possession" is not exactly a light read, but once you get past the first 30 pages or so, you'll get the hang of Byatt's writing style and be fully drawn into the story. The novel opens with the introduction of the character Roland Mitchell, a young Brit graduate in mid-1980s London who works part-time at the British Museum assisting in research work on the famous (but fictional) Victorian poet, Randolph Henry Ash. Roland's a "penniless" bloke, but he's nice looking, hardworking and kind. One day as he's researching his work at the library, he discovers between the leaves of a reference book (which had once belonged to Ash), 2 letters in Ash's handwriting. They appear to be draft correspondence to an unnamed woman. Excited and intrigued, Roland pockets the letters and decides to investigate this secret life of Ash's (this is because based on the biographies written on him, Ash was supposed to be a happily married man). The significance is that if it's discovered now that he had led a "second life", the discovery would change the modern literary world's interpretation of Ash's poems.

Roland soon finds a vague link between Ash's letters and a 19th century reclusive poetess named Christabel La Motte. To find out more about La Motte, he enlists the help of Dr Maud Bailey (a La Motte scholar). Initially, Maud is reluctant to get involved in Roland's investigation as she doesn't believe there was any romantic connection between the 2 poets (what's more, La Motte was widely believed to be a lesbian). Roland finds it difficult to communicate with Maud because of her cold and distant behaviour towards him (like an "ice queen"). Maud is young, rich and beautiful with long blonde hair (which she hides under a scarf at all times - find out "why" from the book).

Their investigation takes them to various parts of England including La Motte's ancestral home (now home to the cranky Sir George Bailey). I like the scene in La Motte's bedroom (in Sir George's house), where everything in her room is left "preserved" and undisturbed after her death, including a series of dolls propped against a pillow. In this room, Maud and Roland ingeniously discover a bundle of love letters written by Ash and La Motte to each other. I think that the letters and excerpts from diaries should be read in full as they are important to the story. I also think it's alright to skip reading the longer and complex poems as it won't affect one's understanding of the story.

While intensely trailing the love affair of the 2 poets, Roland and Maud become "intoxicated" and infected by the "air of romance" in their investigation and start to draw close to each other. You must read how Roland finally melts and conquers the heart of the "ice queen". It's very romantic.

So this novel gives us two romances (from 2 different centuries) and a gripping "detective" story. What a treat! The Victorian love story is beautiful, passionate and has a compelling and unexpected ending. The contemporary romance is believable, moving and honest. I would opine that roughly, the former takes up 40% of the book, the latter 30% and the remaining 30% consists of Victorian poems and excerpts from diaries.

I love this book. I don't find it a dull read at all! It sure deserves the Booker Prize it won in 1990. And oh, watch the movie too! Both are highly recommended!

Before reading this novel, I actually did the opposite of what I normally do when it comes to seeing a movie based on a book. I saw the movie first. I loved the movie, but I loved the book even more. "Possession" is a beautiful, dark, intricate novel about two academics that investigate a previously unknown connection between the Victorian poets that they study. They become obsessed with this inner story, which is revealed though letters, diaries, and poems. Byatt's sense of voice is incredible -- it's hard to believe that all the characters were created by a single author. Her style is interesting; the book is self-referential and there are sometimes jarring transitions between the third-person limited and omniscient points of view as facts are revealed to the reader that the scholars never discover. This is the best book I've read in months. Highly recommended!

"The book was thick and black and covered with dust." It is not a coincidence that the first two words of this remarkable novel are, "the book." Possession is a book about books, about the study and love of literature and the intricate obsession with the lives of literary figures shared by academics, historians, and the randomly curious public. It tells the story of a quiet literary scholar, Roland Michell, who finds a lost letter from the great Victorian poet, R.H. Ash, to another famous poet of the day, Christabel LaMotte. As he is an Ash scholar, Roland takes the letter to a LaMotte scholar named Maude Bailey, and together they begin a search to uncover the relationship between the two. It is a discovery that will have repercussions in the academic world and in their own lives. If you tend to lose yourself in second-hand bookstores, are ravenously curious about the lives of the authors whose works you read, or simply love a great romantic mystery, you will love this book, which won the Booker prize, England's highest literary award.

A.S. Byatt is herself a formidable scholar of literature who left a teaching career at London College in 1983 to write full-time. One day while in the British Museum Library, she spotted a well-known Coleridge scholar. It occurred to Byatt that much of what she knew about the Romantic poet had been filtered through the mind of that scholar. She mused about the effect that such a single-minded pursuit must have on a person. "I thought," she said, "it's almost like a case of demonic possession, and I wondered - has she eaten up his life or has he eaten up hers?" She had an idea to write a book about two famous authors and two scholars who study their lives.

Byatt created two fictional poets, loosely based on Robert Browning and Christina Rosetti, named Randolph Henry Ash, and Christabel LaMotte. The marvel of the novel is that Byatt creates not just the poets, but also their poetry. Calling on her extensive knowledge of Victorian literature, she intersperses the narrative with their poetry, prose, tales, and even literary criticism about the works of these fictional characters. It is, to use an over-taxed phrase, a tour de force. The poems are beautiful in their own right. I confess that my first time through this novel I went to my Norton Anthology of English Literature and looked for R.H. Ash. I was frankly amazed that the author could switch from style to style and write such beautiful verse. The third time through the book, I was struck by the way the poetry also illuminates the narrative.

Roland Michell and Maude Bailey, our two protagonists, feel most uncomfortable in a modern setting and turn to the past for answers. As they connect to the lives of the poets through their letters, they find strength within themselves to live meaningful lives. Byatt's genius for metaphor connects the two couples over and over. Notice the use of color: greens for the feminine and grays and blacks for the masculine characters. Cropper wears Ash's watch, Maude wears LaMotte's brooch. Symbols of confinement and release are paired: the glass coffin and the library cubicle, the green Beetle and the serpent Melusine, the short-lived Eden of Yorkshire and Roland's forbidden garden. As the story builds toward its climax, the images pile up, as it were, until everything and everyone meets in one place, in one very cinematic scene, to uncover the truth. Yet, even with all the romantic drama, Byatt never loses contact with books, with the fact that it is through reading and writing that human beings make contact with their finer selves.

Those who write biography or study history know that every life has a story, but also that we can never tell the story exactly as it was. There is no final truth in history, but only interpretation and recreation. We read the journals of our ancestors and wonder what was not said that would have been most enlightening, as we try to extract a vision of their reality from the clues left to us. Roland and Maude, after years of studying these poets, have a deeply personal regard for them and a desire to protect their privacy. When Roland discovers a correspondence between the poets, he knows that a media sensation will ensue in which every personal detail of their lives will be open to exposure. He resents this, yet is drawn by curiosity about them to investigate further, which eventually causes everything to come to light. In a highly readable series of events, Byatt takes us deeper and deeper into these lives, switching from past to present and back to the past. Finally, after all is revealed, Byatt shares one more crucial detail with the reader that is never revealed to the other characters. It is her way of letting us know at the end that the full story of any other life will always be, to some extent, a mystery.

Two novellas by Byatt, the author of a particular favorite book of mine, Possession. Both stories share some commonalties with that work: an historical setting made real through the use of documents (poems, stories) that signify the date of their creation by their style. Both stories are set in the past, near the turn of the 19th century. "Morpho Eugenia" (the insects of the title) is a little mystery story about a naturalist who has lost all of his specimens during a sea-wreck and is forced to work as a catalogist for a wealthy amateur, working through the amateur's bought samples. The naturalist is loosely based, it seems, on David Wallace, the co-discoverer of the theory of natural selection with Charles Darwin. He finds that his patron's family is nearly as interesting as nature, especially one young lady cocooned from the world. But cocoons hide things.

The second story is more like Possession in that it plays revisionistic (or maybe impressionistic) with Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and his sister Emily through the medium of a medium (that is, a clairvoyant). The point around which the story revolves is Arthur Hallem, the subject of Tennyson's "In Memoriam," a friend of his youth and the betrothed of his sister, who died on a sea voyage when Hallem was twenty-two. Emily, now married, has lingering doubts about her choice of marriage, wondering, if she should have, as her brother's poem snidely implies, spent her days in perpetual maidenhood. Are we destined to have only one soul mate, the other being with which we form 'the conjugal angel'?

Byatt's style is Byzantine. Her scholarship into literary istory has informed her pen to leak the century from its nib, and is not for those married to modernity. Yet her subjects are fresh and vibrant, pictured with painful clarity in the harshest of lights. Her characters ache in-between the lines.

The first book I read by A.S. Byatt was Possession, which remains one of my all-time favorite books. Then I wanted to read more of her work. Angels & Insects won't be an all time favorite, but I enjoyed reading it and prefered it to the F. Potter trilogy and most of the short stories. Both novellas have interesting, detailed Victorian settings and fascinations (insects, spiritualism), layers of stories (insect studies, poems), surprises and quirky characters. "Morpho Eugenia" is the stronger novella. I enjoyed the ants, William and the satisfying ending. I liked "The Conjugal Angel" better than most of the reviwers here, perhaps because I like Tennyson's poetry.

Angels & Insects the movie is an adaptation of "Morpho Eugenia" and quite good. The costumes are dazzling.

Readers who are familiar with Byatt's "Possession", may think at first glance that the two novellas offered in this book are nothing new. True, these novellas repeat some of the same elements, in setting and in theme: they are both explorations of the passionate lives of Victorian intellectuals. But these two short works are a revelation, marked by Byatt's distinctive blend of an ambitious curiosity to find out what makes people tick and a respect for the mysteries she uncovers. The first novella, "Morpho Eugenia", is the basis of the current movie "Angels and Insects". It starts from an ingenious premise: a Scottish naturalist, having spent years in the Amazonian jungle, is taken into a landed family, and uses his skills of observation and his knowledge of social insects to interpret this well-appointed hive. But ingenuity alone often wears thin after a few chapters; Byatt does not rely on this premise alone to carry the novella, but rather uses it to reveal the interactions between high-minded obsessions, such as science and theology, and the less consciously examined human habits of erotic attraction and snobbery. In fact, this novella could be described by the term one character offers to describe the project of the natural history of the ants: "the observation of the unknown world close to hand". The second novella, "The Conjugial Angel" is, in some ways, an even more amazing balancing act between the the ordinary and the mysterious. It uses the implicit parallel between seances and poetry, as two ways in which we try to understand the loss of love and try to regain what we have lost. Again, as with the ants in the first story, the temptation many authors would fall prey to, is to use spiritualism as an example of simple naivete and either romanticize it or dismiss it. Byatt makes poetry as much a heartfelt striving to repair loss as spiritualism is, and the seance as much an artful comment on human nature as poetry is. She both dissects and yet somehow leaves intact the mysteries of desire, intellect and art.

In THE MILL ON THE FLOSS George Eliot provides an insightful and intelligent story depicting rural Victorian society. Set in the parish of St. Ogg's, Maggie and Tom Tulliver endure childhood and young adulthood while experiencing the harsh realities of poverty, devotion, love, and societal reputation. I emphasized greatly with Maggie as I have experienced some of her own lived experiences. I truly loved every chapter of this book and didn't want it to end. It is indeed very rare that I have this type of reaction to a book. Although this book was published during the Victorian era, it's amazing how Eliot's prose flows virtually unobstructed. The reader is given a rare glimpse into rural life during the 19th century and is treated to how strictly structured society was then. I am now a fan of Eliot and look forward to reading her other novels.

Bottom line: THE MILL ON THE FLOSS is an excellent novel. Enjoy!

This was my first (of four, so far) George Eliot novel. It's also my favorite. Unlike Adam Bede or Silas Marner, I found the characters to be interesting and enjoyable. No, it's not a finely-crafted piece of literature like Middlemarch. And it might be a bit on the melodramatic side. But for some odd reason I found the story to be ultimately quite moving.

Other folks who I gave the book to gave it mixed results. No one disliked it, but most found the "brother-sister" element to be a bit corny. And pardon my sexism, but I thought the book would appeal more to women than men (since the main character is a teenage girl). Not so. This book is definitely "not for women only".

I imagine if you have a sentimental streak through your bones you will probably love this book.

The Mill on the Floss has one of the most appealing young girl characterss of all 19th c. literature--Maggie Tolliver. The relationship between her and her brother is at once beautiful, horrible, and probably indicative of much that was true for boys and girls in 19th century England. Whenever I read the book (and I've read it a few times), I am again in love with Maggie, delighted with the people around her, and saddened by the heavy events that bring her down. George Eliot doesn't pull punches--when you've read one of her books, you know you've been somewhere else, experienced something powerful