This was another book I read on holiday, which has become one of my favourite books.
Byatt brings to life life in turn of the century Kent, in the artistic rural home of the Wellwoods-Todefright-ruled over by the children’s book author Olive Wellwood and her husband, writer Humphrey and Olive’s sister Violet. It focuses on their children; Tom, Dorothy, Phyllis, Hedda and Florian-and the other additions as the years go on. It also includes Humphrey’s brother, Basil, his German wife Katharina and his children Griselda and Charles; one of the curator’s of the new V&A Prosper Cain and his children Julian & Florence, an acclaimed artist Benedict Fludd and his family, Seraphita his wife, Geraint his son and Imogen & Pomona his daughters and a runaway boy Phillip and his sister Elsie.
The above characters are just rubbing the surface of the many wonderful characters that Byatt fully forms as the tale moves from the late 1800’s to the First World War. Some of the characters I enjoyed the most were Dorothy who wants to be a doctor, Charles as he learns about the anarchist movement and Hedda in her Suffragette days.
There were a few I really didn’t like, I found Florence Cain to be quite whiney and very self-serving until around the end of the novel and the hideous Herbert Methley, a lecturer on how women should be free to have sexual relations and who serially seduces women. But, I guess it’s a testament to Byatt’s writing that she can make characters than one can adore and that one can loath, all interacting with one another in the novel.
Again, I would reiterate how much her descriptions bring to life the Todefright estate, the battered Fludd pottery, the home of Prosper Cain, university life for Julian Cain, and later Dorothy & Griselda Wellwood and Florence Cain, Paris during the Great Exhibition, German cities such as Munich at the height of the anarchist movement and finally life in the trenches and in the hospitals during the First World War.
Byatt weaves terrible secrets into her narrative, and balances moments of joy and humour with moments of tragedy, for me this balance of joy and humour was characterised by Tom Wellwood, whose ending is heartbreaking. Also interspersed with the narrative were Grimm-style stories written by Olive Wellwood, all having an edge of horror, the sort of tales that probably would not be published for children nowadays.
If you haven’t gotten round to reading this yet, I think it’s a must-read, I was totally gripped by it and its many characters and settings.
Byatt brings to life life in turn of the century Kent, in the artistic rural home of the Wellwoods-Todefright-ruled over by the children’s book author Olive Wellwood and her husband, writer Humphrey and Olive’s sister Violet. It focuses on their children; Tom, Dorothy, Phyllis, Hedda and Florian-and the other additions as the years go on. It also includes Humphrey’s brother, Basil, his German wife Katharina and his children Griselda and Charles; one of the curator’s of the new V&A Prosper Cain and his children Julian & Florence, an acclaimed artist Benedict Fludd and his family, Seraphita his wife, Geraint his son and Imogen & Pomona his daughters and a runaway boy Phillip and his sister Elsie.
The above characters are just rubbing the surface of the many wonderful characters that Byatt fully forms as the tale moves from the late 1800’s to the First World War. Some of the characters I enjoyed the most were Dorothy who wants to be a doctor, Charles as he learns about the anarchist movement and Hedda in her Suffragette days.
There were a few I really didn’t like, I found Florence Cain to be quite whiney and very self-serving until around the end of the novel and the hideous Herbert Methley, a lecturer on how women should be free to have sexual relations and who serially seduces women. But, I guess it’s a testament to Byatt’s writing that she can make characters than one can adore and that one can loath, all interacting with one another in the novel.
Again, I would reiterate how much her descriptions bring to life the Todefright estate, the battered Fludd pottery, the home of Prosper Cain, university life for Julian Cain, and later Dorothy & Griselda Wellwood and Florence Cain, Paris during the Great Exhibition, German cities such as Munich at the height of the anarchist movement and finally life in the trenches and in the hospitals during the First World War.
Byatt weaves terrible secrets into her narrative, and balances moments of joy and humour with moments of tragedy, for me this balance of joy and humour was characterised by Tom Wellwood, whose ending is heartbreaking. Also interspersed with the narrative were Grimm-style stories written by Olive Wellwood, all having an edge of horror, the sort of tales that probably would not be published for children nowadays.
If you haven’t gotten round to reading this yet, I think it’s a must-read, I was totally gripped by it and its many characters and settings.
No comments:
Post a Comment