Showing results by author "A. S. Byatt" in All Categories

Possession is an exhilarating novel of wit and romance, at once a literary detective novel and a triumphant love story. It is the tale of a pair of young scholars investigating the lives of two Victorian poets. Following a trail of letters, journals and poems they uncover a web of passion, deceit and tragedy, and their quest becomes a battle against time.

23 stories, all unabridged, from a diverse group of star writers and readers. A truly memorable collection with a wide appeal. Includes "The Years Midnight" by Helen Simpson, read by Harriet Walter; "On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful Morning" by Haruki Marukami, read by Walter Lewis; "Bablady" by A. S. Byatt, read by Roslaind Eyres; "Hotel des Vaoyaguerus" by William Boyd, read by Martin Jarvis; and "Who?" by Fay Weldon, read by Julie Christie.

Brought to you by Penguin. VINTAGE CLASSICS MURDOCH: Funny, subversive, fearless and fiercely intelligent, Iris Murdoch was one of the great writers of the twentieth century. To celebrate her centenary Vintage Classics presents special editions of her greatest and most timeless novels A lay...

Famous author Olive Wellwood writes a special private book, bound in different colours, for each of her children. In their rambling house near Romney Marsh they play in a story-book world - but their lives, and those of their rich cousins and their friends, the son and daughter of a curator at the new Victoria and Albert Museum, are already inscribed with mystery. Each family carries its own secrets.

A S Byatt's fairy tales and fables are among the best-loved features of her fiction. Innumerable listeners have asked for the two marvellous fairy tales in Possession - 'The Glass Coffin' and 'Gode's Tale' of the Breton Naie des Trepasses - to be published separately. Here they take their place with three other stories with medieval and oriental settings.

Winner of England's Booker Prize and a literary sensation Possession is an exhilarating novel of wit and romance, at once an intellectual mystery and a triumphant love story. As a pair of young scholars research the lives of two Victorian poets, they uncover their letters, journals, and poems...

It is 1968, and Frederica Potter is surprised to find herself embarking on a new career in television. While she endeavours to navigate this fast-paced and occasionally bewildering industry, her lover John takes up a post working with a pair of unusual scientists. Yet in Frederica’s home county of Yorkshire, tumultuous events are unfolding. Soon her future, and that of the people closest to her, begins to look rather different.

It is the height of summer. After she is expelled from boarding school, Anna Severell returns to the strict, orderly house of her father, a celebrated novelist. The family is soon joined by Oliver Canning, a talented young academic who urges her to take control of her future. As autumn begins and Anna enters university, the pair grow closer. A single mistake, however, could put her newfound independence at risk....

England under Anden Verdenskrig. Tyskerne bomber storbyerne. En ung pige og hendes mor er søgt i sikkerhed på landet. En dag får hun foræret en bog om de nordiske myter. Hun læser om den gamle germanske verden med dens hemmeligheder og undere og undrer sig over at germanere er det samme som tyskere: Hvem var de gamle tyskere og hvordan var de anderledes end dem deroppe på nattehimlen som nu fra deres bombefly spreder død og ødelæggelse? Især er hun optaget af historien om Ragnarok.

Jomfruen i haven er første bind i A.S. Byatts stort anlagte romankvartet, som følges af Stilleben, Babelstårn og Kvinde der fløjter.

I forbindelse med festlighederne omkring Elizabeth II’s kroning i 1953 er man i en mindre by i North Yorkshire i færd med at opsætte et skuespil om Elizabeth I, Jomfrudronningen.

Fortsættelse af Jomfruen i haven, hvor vi stiftede bekendtskab med de to begavede søstre Stephanie og Frederica Potter og efterkrigstidens England. Nygifte Stephanie bliver mor til sit første barn, men har vanskeligt ved at forene de intellektuelle interesser med det praktiske liv som præstekone i en afsides provinsby. Lillesøsteren flytter til Cambridge, hvor hun får en intellektuel bekendtskabskreds og indleder en række erotiske forhold. Lillebroderen Marcus bliver indlagt på psykiatrisk afdeling pga. sine sære syner, og børnenes mor Winnifred sidder således alene tilbage med sin vanskelige mand, Bill.

Træt af kun at beskæftige sig med teori kaster den litteraturstuderende Phineas G. Nanson sig ud i et mere virkelighedsnært projekt: Han vil skrive forfatteren Destry-Scoles' biografi. Det viser sig imidlertid, at Destry-Scoles førte en usædvanlig anonym tilværelse, og det eneste, manden har efterladt sig, er et syndigt rod af løsrevne notater om andre berømte mænd. Med disse gådefulde notater som afsæt kastes Phineas ? og læseren ? ud i et festfyrværkeri af historier, som Phineas kæmper med at skabe orden i.

"Babelstårn" er tredje bog i A.S. Byatts stort anlagte romankvartet, som begyndte med Jomfruen i haven og fortsatte med "Stilleben". Af de to søstre Stephanie og Frederica er nu kun Frederica tilbage efter Stephanies tragiske og meningsløse død sidst i Stilleben. Frederica er gift med den rige, aristokratiske Nigel Reiver, men ægteskabet bliver en katastrofe, og kampen om drengen Leo et mareridt. Tiden er optakten til tressernes England og “swinging” London.

Fjerde og sidste, selvstændige del af Byatts stort anlagte romankvartet om Frederica Potter. Den nu 33-årige og nyligt fraskilte Frederica har forladt universitetslivet og får tilbudt en uvant rolle som tv-vært. Hendes kæreste forlader hende og tager tilbage til universitetet, der er blevet skueplads for forskellige af tidens antiautoritære bevægelser. På heden i nærheden huserer den karismatiske Joshua Lamb og hans disciple - tiden er 1960'erne for fuld udblæsning, og Byatts portræt er præcist og mangefacetteret.

Novellerne har det fælles præg, at de handler om det uventede, det forandrede. Om den menneskelige psykologi, om alt det der foregår under den kontrollerede overflade. De foregår i et realistisk univers, men med fantastiske og surreelle indslag, som er en dejlig udfordring for læserens ordglæde, fantasi og fortolknings- og forestillingsevne.

Inspired by the novels of D.H. Lawrence, particularly The Rainbow and Women in Love, this ambitious quartet from Booker Prize-winning novelist A.S. Byatt charts the lives of the Potter family between 1953 and 1970. Set against the changing social and political landscape of England in the '50s and '60s, it follows the heroine, Frederica, from precocious teenager to TV talk-show host and from her Yorkshire home to the heart of swinging London.

In Yorkshire, the Potter family are preparing to celebrate Elizabeth II’s arrival on the throne. Its three youngest members, however, are preoccupied with other matters. Stephanie has grown tired of their overbearing father and resolves to marry the local curate. Anxious teenager Marcus gains a new teacher and suffers increasingly disturbing visions. Then there is Frederica. On the brink of adulthood, a love affair with a young playwright may offer the freedom she desperately desires.

After her husband becomes violent, Frederica Potter flees with her young son to London. There, she secures a teaching position in an art school and finds herself surrounded by painters and poets with dreams of rebellion. Then Frederica meets Jude Mason, the strange and charismatic author of a wildly controversial novel. When her husband files for divorce and Jude becomes the target of a high-profile court case, Frederica’s life threatens to spiral out of control.

A scholar pursues an elusive biographer, stumbling upon buried fragments of distant lives; a woman walks out of her previous existence and encounters an ice-blond stranger from a secretive world; a schoolgirl draws a blood-filled picture of Jael; a swimming pool reveals a beauteous monster in its depths. The settings range from the heat of Provence in summer to the cold forests of Scandinavia, from chalk-strewn classrooms to herb-scented hillsides, from suburban streets to rocky wilds.

Leaves rustle underfoot in a dark wood: two middle-aged women walk into a forest, as they did when they were girls, confronting their fears and memories and the strange thing they saw in their childhood - or thought they saw - so long ago. A distinguished obstetrician and young woman artist find they have sharply contrasting ideas about body parts, birth and death; an innocent member of an evening class harbours unexpected view on 'raw material'. The stories in this marvellous collection are by turns funny, spooky, sparkling and haunting.