Still Life [Paperback]

A.S. Byatt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1997

From the author of The New York Times bestseller Possession, comes a highly acclaimed novel which captures in brilliant detail the life of one extended English family-and illuminates the choices they must make between domesticity and ambition, life and art. Toni Morrison, author of Beloved, writes of Byatt: "When it comes to probing characters her scalpel is sure but gentle. She is a loving surgeon"

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Still Life is the second volume of a te tralogy. The three Potter children, Stephanie, Frederika and Marcus, in troduced in The Virgin in the Garden ( LJ 2/15/79), continue in conflict with their Yorkshire roots. To them, and to the author, intellectual passions are as all-encompassing as emotional ties, and always at war with them. Frederika, whose novel this really is, escapes to Cambridge and the life of the mind, al beit not without constant struggle. Mar cus, after a long breakdown, manages to stay and function in Yorkshire. Stephanie, having opted for small-town family life, loses her fight to retain an independent intellectual existence and is horribly vanquished by the material world in the book's one tragic moment. This is an opaque, challenging, and re warding novel . While its intellectual preoccupations and allusions will not be readily accessible to a broad reading public, it belongs in major fiction col lections. Diana Vincent-Davis, New York Univ. Sch . of Law Lib.
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; 1st Scribner Paperback Fiction ed edition (April 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684835037
• ISBN-13: 978-0684835037
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #648,513 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps Byatt's best so far., January 7, 2000

By 

peterb (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Still Life (Paperback)

Second in A.S. Byatt's ongoing Yorkshire quartet (the first and third novels are "The Virgin in the Garden" and "Babel Tower") I couldn't put Still Life down from the moment I picked it up. Tracing the Potter clan's lives through Stephanie's childbirth (and lingering chillingly on the degrading way mid-50's medicine treated expectant mothers), Still Life is one of the few books I've read in many years that brought me to the verge of tears. Strongly recommended.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Must for Byatt Fans!, February 1, 2001

By 

Dingbats "dingbats" (U.S.A.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Still Life (Paperback)

Still Life is the second of A.S. Byatt's sequenced novels that begin with The Virgin In the Garden. The novel continues to chronicle the Potter clan in the late 1950s. Can you dive into the second without having read the first? Probably. In the early part of Still Life, Byatt provides just enough background to situate the characters. Of course, "just enough" will never be the same as reading the first novel.

Still Life reads differently from The Virgin in the Garden, the author less obssessed with moment-to-moment reporting through painstakingly-gathered details. It is more sprawling, emphasizing characters' growth over a wider span of time (relatively speaking). What hasn't changed is Byatt's love for and mastery of language, and concern for the life of the mind. The novel contains many passages where Byatt boldly, and almost intrusively, airs her provocative views on everything from writing, visual perception, love, to politics (i.e. delivered in the authorial first person instead of through a character's mouth or mind). But she is also an astute observer of the ordinary, whether depicting childbirth, adultery, or domestic vignettes. There's something for everyone here. The final section is a shocker. I finished the book not quite convinced that a freak accident belongs in a literary novel. All the same, be prepared to read some moving passages on grieving.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 4 1/2 stars; almost perfect, April 20, 2003

By 

Romantic Anna (Bronx, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Still Life (Paperback)

This is a breathtaking novel. I was not that enthusiatic about The Virgin in te Garden but this book was amazing on every level. I love the development of these characters (who seem very real, very Known to me). Frederica is especially well developed. Her intelligence and lack of self-knowledge are an endearing package. I personally love the intricate explanations of ideas- it is refreshing to read about things that I think about and yet have never found elsewhere. My only real probelm with the book is that the author's voice intrudes too much; it isn't necessary to me to be AWARE of the fact that this is a novel. Byatt almost wants us to be aware that this is fiction when I would always rather be in that pleasant state of believing in the fiction. But overall, I couldn't put this book down; what happens at the end is shockingly sad. I wonder what book 3 in the series will bring.