The happiest moments of a liberal arts education usually take place late in the evening in a dormitory lounge or in a local bistro over several cups of coffee. They're conversations, often between two similarly minded people, that explore a favorite subject. Browsing through Imagining Characters is like lingering in a seat at the next table.

The works selected are an English major's hit list of mainly nineteenth century women's novels. Byatt and Sodre bring their experience as a fiction writer and a clinical psychologist, respectively, to their understandings and develop complementary insights rather than rigorous debates.

This isn't everyone's cup of java. The reader who enjoys this volume probably relishes at least half of the novels discussed, smiles at being called a feminist, and prefers discussion to formal criticism.

This is a great read for any fan of British novelist and critic A.S. Byatt. It's her first novel, written as an undergraduate (and reworked a few yrs later when she was a young mother.) She was obviously passionate, perceptive, brainy, busy, and full of life.The protagonist Anna notices, thinks about, and feels things -- intensely. The autobiographical story is interesting, and less deeply upholstered than Byatt's subsequent novels. The narrator's immediacy is compelling, and the young woman's struggles to define herself within (and separate from) her intellectually consuming and powerful family are well drawn. Lots of 'characters,' the Byatt ear for speech and eye for the telling detail. Memorable escapades and love affairs, too It's intense and brimming with energy and life.

A.S.Byatt's first collection of short stories bears all the characteristic hallmarks of her writing: fascination with literature, acute analysis of the life of the mind, and a richness of cultural allusions. The stories are sometimes demanding, and require a second read for a full understanding, but as a whole they possess an allure in their mood of somewhat melancholy introspection. The subjects are, for the most part, middle-aged women, frequently intellectual, examining the pattern of their lives and thought. The strongest story, 'Precipice-Encurled', is a brilliantly constructed tale of encircled lives that paves the way for Byatt's best-seller 'Possession'; 'The Dried Witch' and 'In the Air', meanwhile, centre respectively on an old Korean woman giving herself up to the practice of witchcraft, and a widow coping with fear of the imagination. There's a discussion of cultural clashes in 'Loss of Face', and, in the final title story, a fusion of autobiography and an explanation of the intentions of the collection. I enjoyed these stories, although I would rate the later collection, 'The Matisse Stories', higher. That said, they are atmospheric and rewarding, and a good introduction to a fascinating writer.

I loved both "Virgin in the Garden" and "Still Life" so was looking forward to reading "Babel Tower". The parts of the book that deal with Fredrica's marriage and divorce and with her family and friends are excellent. The sado-masochistic "novel" that is intertwined with the story is not. Ms. Byatt apparently felt the need to compare Fredrica's need for emotional and sexual freedom to an author's need for freedom from censorship, but the analogy seemed strained to me. The books is worth reading, but one can skip Jude's novel without missing much. I hope the next book in the series is better - A.S. Byatt is a great writer when she chooses to be

When people talk about Byatt, they tend to dwell on her academicism, on her allusions and quotes, on her historicism. But if this were all there were to Byatt, no one would read her. What makes Byatt a wonderful writer is that she has a tremendous sense of how the world works, how situations and relationships that seemed promising slowly unravel, how smart people can do stupid things, and how things and people who at first seem hopeless can wind up being wonderful. She understands process, and she understands complexity.

Babel Tower is about how people devoted to the life of the mind can survive in a society which is hostile to that life. Much of the book is taken up with trials, because a major character in this book is "society", which may be personified by juries, by expert witnesses, by journalists. Her character, Frederica, escapes from a marriage which first stultifies her mind, and then threatens to kill her. On a meagre living, she constructs a life and a support system that will give her young son what he needs, mentally and physically. But her husband is wealthy, and what he offers the boy seems superficially more wholesome, so in the trials for divorce and custody, Frederica is judged essentially for her surface, for what her life looks like from the outside.

In a parallel subplot, the writer Jude Mason has written a book that is judged for obscenity. But Mason wrote it as a moral book which tells the lessons he has learned in life. He is a vagrant. He was sexually abused in childhood. He understands how people torture those they love. In the book's obscenity trial, Mason, his neuroses, his appearance, and his intentions are judged and condemned; when his book is banned, he himself is banned.

And in the early part of the book, we have a debate about how children should be educated, and what they should learn. The proponents of throwing out classical and grammatical training win, and it is a blow for the life of the mind. In the end of the book we see the results.

Babel Tower has several interesting themes: 1) the way society reduces and [clouds] a person's identity, and the effect it has on them; 2) depravity and sadism as an integral part of human nature, where cruelty is the backside to love; 3) gender and class double-standards; 4) the debate of what constitutes a good education; 5) the impossibility of creating coherency between the disparate elements of your life, and what this does to you.

Byatt is a wise, courageous thinker who can turn a battle of ideas into an enthralling page-turner. But her understanding of life is what makes her work great.

Babel Tower was a great book. But you should read its prequel first, Still Life.

A. S. Byatt has to be one of our greatest contemporary writers. POSSESSION remains one of my all time favorite books; and while I won't put BABEL TOWER in quite that category, it is very, very good. I read VIRGIN IN THE GARDEN several years ago and was somewhat disappointed. Even so, I read STILL LIFE which I liked and now BABEL TOWER which is the best of the three. I'm looking forward to the fourth book in the series and to anything new by Byatt.

This book is a collection of eight essays. The first seven are each written on the subject of one of the "deadly" sins of sloth, anger, lust, gluttony, pride, avarice and envy. The eight is on despair. Each of the famous authors ruminates on the sin, looking at it from his or her unique perspective.

Overall I found the essays well written, and the book to be easy to read. This book makes for some lightweight reading, short and simple, but without much substance. Overall, I don't recommend it.

Eight essays on Sloth, Anger, Lust, Gluttony, Pride, Avarice, Envy, and Despair (yes that's 8 sins). To be honest I bought it because of Pynchon, (whose essay -if you are even a slight fan- makes the buy worth it) but read on to the back cover. I quickly discovered that these authors compiled around the topic of sins is a great way to see inside these writers styles and appraoch to a similar idea. Some I'd read before, and others introduced themselves in this novel. All were unique and interesting in their own right, especially for someone -me- who isn't terribly interested in sins. Highly reccomended!

Dull. Cryptic. Useless. Was looking for insight. Got sleep.

I thoroughly enjoyed this next to latest book by A.S. Byatt. I have loved many of her books. This one provided an American reader (moi) with insight into contemporary British writers that I didn't have before. It illuminated her shift (and others) away from the blockbuster Victorian novel toward the tale-the greatest story ever told, her last section, is not the topic you might suspect. If you're a Byatt lover, I would definitely check out this book. It's not long. An evening or two. And she's such good company. I even prefer this book to her earlier critical studies. This book is not a critical study but the fallout from a series of lectures. Check it out!

I think the Ingram reviewer above was on something when he wrote of the "danger" that grew from the sisters' game, and of the "evil man determined to control their thoughts". I didn't get any of that out of _The Game_.

_The Game_ is basically the story of two sisters: Julia, a sociable but shallow novelist who writes about the boredom of domestic life; and Cassandra, a nunlike scholar who hides away from real life in the cloistered world of high academia. The "game" referred to in the title is an imaginary Arthurian world invented by the sisters when they were children, but it has little bearing on the rest of the novel, except in that Cassandra went on to become an Arthurian scholar, and Julia uses it as an example of Cassandra's condescension. It could have been dropped from the plot without much effect, which is sad for me, since the Arthurian element is the biggest reason I wanted to read the book in the first place.

Leaving out Arthur, who is mostly irrelevant anyway, we have Julia and Cassandra, who are just repairing their estranged relationship, when Simon Moffat comes back into their life. Simon was both women's first love; Cassandra adored him from a distance, while Julia slept with him. This triangle was the reason for their estrangement. When he reappears, so do the tensions between the sisters.

_The Game_ failed to engage me; most of the characters were pretty one-dimensional and cold. Cassandra had a few moments of stunning dignity, but she didn't seem real either. A.S. Byatt has gotten much better since.

Although it's some years since I read this excellent book, the reviews thus far in my view, do not do it justice. Many people know of Byatt's writing through her book "Possession" but although this is a fine example of her work, all her writing demonstrates a wonderful story-telling ability, embroidered throughout by her extensive literary and historic knowledge. "The Game" is a very "readable" novel, drawing the reader in as the tale evolves. To over analyze "The Game" is to miss the beauty of the mystery and intrigue; to miss the interplay between the main characters and the complexities of family emotions. "The Game" is a wonderful book for any mystery-loving reader and for anyone who has not already been drawn in by Byatt's writing is an excellent place to begin a reading relationship with her work.

In contrast to the other reader reviewers, I loved this book. I've not read anything else by the author except for the Matisse stories, which did not hold my attention. I am certainly looking forward to her other novels if this is, to her fans, a second-rate effort.

I find the two lead female characters richly drawn and interesting. The younger is the prototype of a writer who must publish as she wills even though she hurts those dear to her. Her self-knowledge is finally revealed to be nothing but complete self-absorption, in contrast to her pretensions. The older sister, shut off in an arid cell of her own making, is gradually learning to live and accept people again before the final climax.

The philosphical concepts and conflicts which are argued throughout are apropos to the plot and well developed. I enjoyed the book thoroughly.