A S Byatt
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Dame Antonia Susan Duffy ( Drabble; born 24 August 1936), known professionally by her former marriage name as A. S. Byatt ( ), is an English critic, novelist, poet and short story writer. Her books have been widely translated, into more than thirty languages. After attending the University of Cambridge, she married in 1959 and moved to Durham. It was during Byatt's time at university that she began work on her first two novels, subsequently published by
Chatto & Windus Chatto & Windus is an imprint of Penguin Random House that was formerly an independent book publishing company founded in London in 1855 by John Camden Hotten. Following Hotten's death, the firm would reorganize under the names of his business ...
as ''Shadow of a Sun'' (1964; reprinted in 1991 with its originally intended title, ''The Shadow of the Sun'') and ''The Game'' (1967). Byatt took a teaching job in 1972 so as to help pay for the education of her only son. In the same week she accepted, a
drunk driver Drunk driving (or drink-driving in British English) is the act of driving under the influence of alcohol. A small increase in the blood alcohol content increases the relative risk of a motor vehicle crash. In the United States, alcohol is invo ...
killed her son as he walked home from school. He was 11 years of age. Byatt spent a symbolic 11 years teaching (the same length of time as her son had lived), then began full-time writing in 1983. ''
The Virgin in the Garden ''The Virgin in the Garden'' is a 1978 realist novel by English novelist A. S. Byatt. Set during the same year as the coronation of Elizabeth II, the novel revolves around a play about Elizabeth I of England. The novel features a strong use of ...
'' (1978) was the first of ''The Quartet'', a
tetralogy A tetralogy (from Greek τετρα- ''tetra-'', "four" and -λογία ''-logia'', "discourse") is a compound work that is made up of four distinct works. The name comes from the Attic theater, in which a tetralogy was a group of three tragedies ...
of novels that continued with ''
Still Life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...
'' (1985), ''
Babel Tower ''Babel Tower'' is a novel by A. S. Byatt, published by Chatto & Windus in 1996. It was the third part in a tetralogy, following ''The Virgin in the Garden'' (1978) and '' Still Life'' (1985) and preceding ''A Whistling Woman ''A Whistling Wo ...
'' (1996) and ''
A Whistling Woman ''A Whistling Woman'' is a 2002 novel by A. S. Byatt. The novel was published by Chatto & Windus in 2002. The novel is the final in a sequence of four books, preceded by '' The Virgin in the Garden'' (1978), '' Still Life'' (1985), and '' Bab ...
'' (2002). Byatt's novel '' Possession: A Romance'' received the 1990
Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...
, whilst her short story collection '' The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye'' (1994) received the 1995 Aga Khan Prize for Fiction. Her novel '' The Children's Book'' was shortlisted for the 2009 Booker Prize and won the 2010 James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Her critical work includes two studies of Dame Iris Murdoch (who was a friend and mentor), ''Degrees of Freedom: The Early Novels of Iris Murdoch'' (1965) and ''Iris Murdoch: A Critical Study'' (1976). Her other critical studies include ''Wordsworth and Coleridge in Their Time'' (1970) and ''Portraits in Fiction'' (2001). Byatt was awarded the Shakespeare Prize in 2002, the Erasmus Prize in 2016, the Park Kyong-ni Prize in 2017 and the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award in 2018. She has been mentioned as a candidate for the
Nobel Prize in Literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...
.


Early life

Byatt was born in Sheffield as Antonia Susan Drabble, the eldest child of John Drabble, QC, and Kathleen Bloor, a scholar of Browning. Her sisters are the novelist
Margaret Drabble Dame Margaret Drabble, Lady Holroyd, (born 5 June 1939) is an English biographer, novelist and short story writer. Drabble's books include '' The Millstone'' (1965), which won the following year's John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize, and ''Jer ...
and the art historian Helen Langdon. Her brother Richard Drabble KC is a
barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...
. The Drabble father participated in the placement of Jewish refugees in Sheffield during the 1930s. The mother was a Shavian and the father a
Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
. As a result of the bombing of Sheffield during the Second World War the family moved to York. Byatt was educated at two independent boarding schools, Sheffield High School and The Mount School, a Quaker boarding school at York. She noted in an interview in 2009, "I am not a Quaker, of course, because I'm anti-Christian and the Quakers are a form of Christianity but their religion is wonderful — you simply sat in silence and listened to the nature of things." A "deeply unhappy" child, Byatt did not enjoy boarding school, citing her need to be alone and her difficulty in making friends. She attended Newnham College, Cambridge, Bryn Mawr College (in the United States), and
Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ir ...
. Having studied French, German, Latin, and English at school, she later studied Italian while attending Cambridge so that she could read Dante. "This means that I can actually read European literature with its own rhythms even if I have to have a side-by-side text for the difficult bits", she said in 1998. Byatt lectured in the Department of Extra-Mural Studies of the University of London (1962–71), the Central School of Art and Design and from 1972 to 1983 at University College London. She began writing full-time in 1983.


Personal life

Byatt married Ian Charles Rayner Byatt in 1959 and moved to Durham. They had a daughter together, as well as a son, Charles, who was killed by a drink-driver at the age of 11 whilst walking home from school. She spoke of her son's death and its influence on her lecturing and subsequent career after publishing '' The Children's Book'', in which the image of a dead child features: Byatt said she wished to become a full-time writer, but "if I had a job we could send my son to a fee-paying school. My son got killed on Frank Kermode's doorstep, the day I accepted the job more or less — so there was no point in having the job except what else was I going to do". Byatt stayed in the job for "as long as he had lived, which was 11 years", then, she said, "it was like being released from a spell". She came to regard her academic career "very symbolically". She later wrote the poem "Dead Boys". The marriage was dissolved in 1969. Byatt has two daughters with her second husband, Peter Duffy. Byatt's relationship with her sister
Margaret Drabble Dame Margaret Drabble, Lady Holroyd, (born 5 June 1939) is an English biographer, novelist and short story writer. Drabble's books include '' The Millstone'' (1965), which won the following year's John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize, and ''Jer ...
has sometimes been strained due to the presence of autobiographical elements in both their writing. While their relationship is no longer especially close and they do not read each other's books, Drabble describes the situation as "normal sibling rivalry" and Byatt says it has been "terribly overstated by gossip columnists" and that the sisters "always have liked each other on the bottom line." Byatt is an
agnostic Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficient ...
and a grandmother. She is interested in
snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sports, cue sport played on a Billiard table#Snooker and English billiards tables, rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six Billiard table#Pockets 2, pockets, one at each corner and o ...
.


Influences

Byatt has been influenced by Henry James and George Eliot as well as Emily Dickinson,
T. S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biogr ...
, Coleridge, Tennyson and
Robert Browning Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings ...
, in merging
realism Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to: In the arts *Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts Arts movements related to realism include: *Classical Realism *Literary realism, a move ...
and naturalism with fantasy. She is not an admirer of the Brontë family, admitting to finding their "joint imagination absolutely appalling". Nor does she like Christina Rossetti. She is ambivalent about
D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
and also stated: "I don't like the English gentlemanly high-church sort of refined person, except for George Herbert, who is perfect and unexpected". She had learnt
Jane Austen Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots of ...
off before her teens. In her books, Byatt alludes to, and builds upon, themes from
Romantic Romantic may refer to: Genres and eras * The Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement of the 18th and 19th centuries ** Romantic music, of that era ** Romantic poetry, of that era ** Romanticism in science, of that e ...
and Victorian literature. She cited art historian John Gage's book on the theory of colour as one of her favourite books to reread. Frank Kermode she regarded as "writing criticism about a literature that one might hope to add things to. In a way, what Kermode said
William Golding Sir William Gerald Golding (19 September 1911 – 19 June 1993) was a British novelist, playwright, and poet. Best known for his debut novel ''Lord of the Flies'' (1954), he published another twelve volumes of fiction in his lifetime. In 1980 ...
and Lawrence Durrell were doing was more important to me than what Golding or Durrell ''were'' doing", Byatt said in her interview for '' The Paris Reviews "The Art of Fiction" series.


Writing


Fiction

Byatt wrote a lot whilst attending boarding school but had most of it burnt before she left. She began writing her first novel whilst at the University of Cambridge, where she did not attend many lectures but when she did passed the time attempting to write a novel, which — given her limited experience of life — involved a young woman at university trying to write a novel, a novel, her novel, which — she knew — was "no good". She left it in a drawer when she was done. After departing Cambridge, she spent one year as a postgraduate student in the United States and there began her second novel, ''The Game'', continuing to write it at Oxford when she returned to England. After getting married in 1959 and moving to Durham, she left ''The Game'' aside and resumed work on her earlier novel. She sent it to literary critic John Beer, whom she had befriended whilst at Cambridge and, she later said, "whose ideas, I think, run through almost everything I write". Beer sent Byatt's novel to the independent book publishing company
Chatto & Windus Chatto & Windus is an imprint of Penguin Random House that was formerly an independent book publishing company founded in London in 1855 by John Camden Hotten. Following Hotten's death, the firm would reorganize under the names of his business ...
. From there
Cecil Day-Lewis Cecil Day-Lewis (or Day Lewis; 27 April 1904 – 22 May 1972), often written as C. Day-Lewis, was an Irish-born British poet and Poet Laureate from 1968 until his death in 1972. He also wrote mystery stories under the pseudonym of Nicholas Bla ...
wrote her a response and invited her to lunch at The Athenaeum, where he shared his thoughts on "poetry and Yeats and Auden and Shakespeare, and it was the literary conversation I had never had. When we got out on the pavement I rather tremblingly said, Might you be thinking of publishing this novel? He said, Oh yes, of course, of course". Day-Lewis was Byatt's first editor;
D. J. Enright Dennis Joseph Enright Order of the British Empire, OBE FRSL (11 March 1920 – 31 December 2002) was a British academic, poet, novelist and critic. He authored ''Academic Year'' (1955), ''Memoirs of a Mendicant Professor'' (1969) and a wide ran ...
would succeed him. ''Shadow of a Sun'', Byatt's first novel, is about a girl and her father and was published in 1964. It was reprinted in 1991 with its originally intended title, ''The Shadow of the Sun'', intact. ''The Game'', published in 1967, concerned the dynamics between two sisters. The reception for Byatt's first books became confused with her sister's writing, as well as her sister's quicker rate of publication. The family theme is continued in ''The Quartet'', Byatt's
tetralogy A tetralogy (from Greek τετρα- ''tetra-'', "four" and -λογία ''-logia'', "discourse") is a compound work that is made up of four distinct works. The name comes from the Attic theater, in which a tetralogy was a group of three tragedies ...
of novels, which begins with ''
The Virgin in the Garden ''The Virgin in the Garden'' is a 1978 realist novel by English novelist A. S. Byatt. Set during the same year as the coronation of Elizabeth II, the novel revolves around a play about Elizabeth I of England. The novel features a strong use of ...
'' (1978) and continues with ''
Still Life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...
'' (1985), ''
Babel Tower ''Babel Tower'' is a novel by A. S. Byatt, published by Chatto & Windus in 1996. It was the third part in a tetralogy, following ''The Virgin in the Garden'' (1978) and '' Still Life'' (1985) and preceding ''A Whistling Woman ''A Whistling Wo ...
'' (1996) and ''
A Whistling Woman ''A Whistling Woman'' is a 2002 novel by A. S. Byatt. The novel was published by Chatto & Windus in 2002. The novel is the final in a sequence of four books, preceded by '' The Virgin in the Garden'' (1978), '' Still Life'' (1985), and '' Bab ...
'' (2002). Her quartet is inspired by
D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
, particularly '' The Rainbow'' and ''
Women in Love ''Women in Love'' (1920) is a novel by English author D. H. Lawrence. It is a sequel to his earlier novel ''The Rainbow'' (1915) and follows the continuing loves and lives of the Brangwen sisters, Gudrun and Ursula. Gudrun Brangwen, an artist, ...
''. The family portrayed in the quartet are from Yorkshire. Byatt said the idea for ''The Virgin in the Garden'' came in part from an class she taught in which she had read Tolstoy and
Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский, Fyódor Mikháylovich Dostoyévskiy, p=ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ dəstɐˈjefskʲɪj, a=ru-Dostoevsky.ogg, links=yes; 11 November 18219 ...
and in part from her time living in Durham in 1961, the year in which her son was born. The book was an attempt to understand what could be achieved if '' Middlemarch'' were written in the middle of the twentieth century. Byatt's book features a powerful death scene, which she invented in 1961 (inspired by Byatt's reading of
Angus Wilson Sir Angus Frank Johnstone-Wilson, CBE (11 August 191331 May 1991) was an English novelist and short story writer. He was one of England's first openly gay authors. He was awarded the 1958 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for ''The Middle Age of ...
's book ''
The Middle Age of Mrs Eliot ''The Middle Age of Mrs Eliot'' is a novel by Angus Wilson, first published in 1958 in literature, 1958. It won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for that year, and has been regularly reprinted ever since. It describes the fortunes of Meg Eli ...
'' and the accident in its opening), a death scene which has drawn complaints from numerous readers for its vividness. Describing mid-20th-century Britain, the books follow the life of Frederica Potter, a young intellectual studying at Cambridge at a time when women were heavily outnumbered by men at that university, and then tracing her journey as a
divorcée Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...
with a young son as he makes a new life for herself in London. Byatt says some of the characters in her fiction represent her "greatest terror which is simple domesticity... I had this image of coming out from under and seeing the light for a bit and then being shut in a kitchen, which I think happened to women of my generation." Like ''Babel Tower'', ''A Whistling Woman'' touches on the utopian and revolutionary dreams of the 1960s. Byatt described herself as "a naturally pessimistic animal": "I don't believe that human beings are basically good, so I think all utopian movements are doomed to fail, but I am interested in them." Also an accomplished short story writer, Byatt's first published collection was ''Sugar and Other Stories'' (1987). ''The Matisse Stories'' (1993) features three pieces, each describing a painting by the eponymous painter, each the tale of an initially smaller crisis that shows the long-present unravelling in the protagonists' lives. '' The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye'', published in 1994, is a collection of
fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...
s. Byatt's other short story collections are ''Elementals: Stories of Fire and Ice'', published in 1998, and ''Little Black Book of Stories'', published in 2003. Her books reflect a continuous interest in zoology,
entomology Entomology () is the science, scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such ...
, geology, and
Darwinism Darwinism is a scientific theory, theory of Biology, biological evolution developed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of smal ...
among other repeated themes. She is also interested in linguistics and takes a keen interest in the translation of her books. Byatt said: "I can't say how important it was to me when Angela Carter said 'I grew up on fairy stories — they're much more important to me than realist narratives'. I hadn't had the nerve to think that until she said it, and I owe her a great deal". Carter, in an earlier (first) meeting with Byatt after a Stevie Smith poetry reading, had dismissed Byatt's work, so this change of heart vindicated Byatt's approach to writing and Byatt readily acknowledged it. ''
Possession Possession may refer to: Law * Dependent territory, an area of land over which another country exercises sovereignty, but which does not have the full right of participation in that country's governance * Drug possession, a crime * Ownership * ...
'' (1990) parallels the emerging relationship of two contemporary academics with the lives of two (fictional) 19th-century poets whom they are researching. It won the 1990
Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...
and was adapted for a film released in 2002. Byatt's novella ''
Morpho Eugenia ''Morpho Eugenia'' is a 1992 novella by A. S. Byatt first published in complete form with ''The Conjugal Angel'' as ''Angels & Insects''. Named after a butterfly species, it details the key events of the life of a Victorian naturalist, William ...
'' was included in ''Angels & Insects'' (1992), which was turned into the eponymous 1995 film; that film received an
Academy Award for Best Costume Design The Academy Award for Best Costume Design is one of the Academy Awards presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) for achievement in film costume design. The award was first given in 1949, for films made in 194 ...
nomination in 1997. Byatt's novel '' The Biographer's Tale'', published in 2000, she originally intended as a short story titled "The Biography of a Biographer", based on her notion of a biographer's life in a library investigating another person's life. This she developed into writing about a character called Phineas G. Nanson, who is attempting to learn about a biographer for a book he intends to write but who can only locate fragments of his three unwritten biographies instead: on Galton,
Ibsen Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. As one of the founders of modernism in theatre, Ibsen is often referred to as "the father of realism" and one of the most influential playw ...
and Linnaeus. Phineas Gilbert Nanson (to give him his full name) is called after an insect and is a near
anagram An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once. For example, the word ''anagram'' itself can be rearranged into ''nag a ram'', also the word ...
of Galton, Ibsen and Linnaeus, though Byatt said this was an "uncanny" coincidence which she did not realise until afterwards. '' The Children's Book'', published in 2009, is a novel spanning from 1895 until the end of the First World War and centring on the fictional writer Olive Wellwood. She is based upon E. Nesbit. Another character — Herbert Methley — is a combination of H. G. Wells and
D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English writer, novelist, poet and essayist. His works reflect on modernity, industrialization, sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity and instinct. His best-k ...
, according to Byatt. The novel also features
Rupert Brooke Rupert Chawner Brooke (3 August 1887 – 23 April 1915)The date of Brooke's death and burial under the Julian calendar that applied in Greece at the time was 10 April. The Julian calendar was 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar. was an En ...
,
Emma Goldman Emma Goldman (June 27, 1869 – May 14, 1940) was a Russian-born anarchist political activist and writer. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the ...
,
Auguste Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor, generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a uniqu ...
, George Bernard Shaw, Virginia Woolf and
Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...
, all appearing as themselves. Byatt initially intended to title the book as ''The Hedgehog, the White Goose and the Mad March Hare''. Byatt said in 2009: "I think of writing simply in terms of pleasure. It's the most important thing in my life, making things. Much as I love my husband and my children, I love them only because I am the person who makes these things. I, who I am, is the person that has the project of making a thing. Well, that's putting it pompously — but constructing. I do see it in sort of three-dimensional structures. And because that person does that all the time, that person is able to love all these people." Her preference for "making things" is also present in a 2003 interview, when she said: "I don't like to talk about creative writing, which is a vestigial religious tic in me. If anything is created, God does it. I don't. I make things--making is a nice word". She writes at her home in West London and at another house in the Cévennes in
Southern France Southern France, also known as the South of France or colloquially in French language, French as , is a defined geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Marais Poitevin,Louis Papy, ''Le midi ...
, where she spends her summers. She does not write her fiction on a computer, she does so by hand, though she has deployed a computer for non-fiction articles. According to a 1991 unpublished interview with the ''
Los Angeles Times Book Review The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'', Byatt said she began her writing day at around 10 a.m., prompting herself by reading something easy and then something harder: "And then after a bit if I read something difficult that's really interesting I get this itch to start writing. So what I like to do is to write from about half past twelve, one, through to about four". At this point, she said, she began reading again.


Criticism

Byatt wrote two critical studies of Dame Iris Murdoch, who was a friend, mentor and another significant influence on her own writing. They were titled ''Degrees of Freedom: The Early Novels of Iris Murdoch'' (1965) and ''Iris Murdoch: A Critical Study'' (1976). " cause I actually didn't want a mentor I found the friendship very difficult to handle... she simply used you as material", Byatt said. "She loved you very much but she would take you out to lunch and just fire questions at you like a clay pigeon shoot". Byatt also described Murdoch's husband John Bayley's decision to publish a memoir of his time with her as "wicked" and "unforgivable", saying: "I knew her enough to know that she would have hated it... it's had a horrible effect on how people feel about her and see her and think about her... Feelings were in her work but it wasn't restricted to feelings. There was thought in it. There was structure in it. An intelligent, complicated world." Byatt's other critical studies include ''Wordsworth and Coleridge in Their Time'' (1970). 2001's ''Portraits in Fiction'' is about painting in novels, and features references to Emile Zola,
Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel ''In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous Eng ...
and Iris Murdoch; Byatt had earlier touched upon this subject in a 2000 lecture she delivered at the
National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: *National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra *National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London, with s ...
in London. She had no time for the so-called " angry young men", e.g.
John Osborne John James Osborne (12 December 1929 – 24 December 1994) was an English playwright, screenwriter and actor, known for his prose that criticized established social and political norms. The success of his 1956 play ''Look Back in Anger'' tra ...
and Kingsley Amis, and had little more time for Evelyn Waugh (though she considers him a superior artist to Amis), and, whilst she initially mistook Anthony Burgess for "another angry young man", she later realised her error and admitted he was "full of rich invention and a complete lack of narrowness". Georgette Heyer's books she finds "deeply moving". Byatt has been a public encourager of the new young generation of British writers, including Philip Hensher (''Kitchen Venom''), Robert Irwin (''Exquisite Corpse''),
A. L. Kennedy Alison Louise Kennedy (born 22 October 1965) is a Scottish writer, academic and stand-up comedian. She writes novels, short stories and non-fiction, and is known for her dark tone and her blending of realism and fantasy. She contributes columns ...
, Lawrence Norfolk, David Mitchell (''
Ghostwritten ''Ghostwritten'' is the first novel published by English author David Mitchell. Published in 1999, it won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and was widely acclaimed. The story takes place mainly around East Asia, but also moves through Russia, B ...
''), Ali Smith ('' Hotel World''), Zadie Smith (''
White Teeth ''White Teeth'' is a 2000 novel by the British author Zadie Smith. It focuses on the later lives of two wartime friends—the Bangladeshi Samad Iqbal and the Englishman Archie Jones—and their families in London. The novel centres on Britain' ...
'') and
Adam Thirlwell Adam Thirlwell (born 22 August 1978) is a British novelist. His work has been translated into thirty languages. He has twice been named as one of ''Granta''s Best of Young British Novelists. In 2015 he received the E.M. Forster Award from the Am ...
, saying in 2009 that she was "not entirely disinterested, because I wish there to be a literary world in which people are not writing books only about people's feelings... all the ones I like write also about ideas". She contrasted some of those preferences with the work of
Martin Amis Martin Louis Amis (born 25 August 1949) is a British novelist, essayist, memoirist, and screenwriter. He is best known for his novels ''Money'' (1984) and ''London Fields'' (1989). He received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his memoir '' ...
, Julian Barnes, Ian McEwan and
Graham Swift Graham Colin Swift FRSL (born 4 May 1949) is an English writer. Born in London, England, he was educated at Dulwich College, London, Queens' College, Cambridge, and later the University of York. Career Some of Swift's books have been filmed, ...
— then added, "In fact I admire all four of those writers... they don't only do people's feelings... nevertheless it's become ossified". Norfolk she described in 2003 as "the best of the young novelists now writing". She also spoke of her admiration for American writer Helen DeWitt's book '' The Last Samurai''. Hensher, who counts Byatt as a friend, said: "She's very unusual for an English person, in that she's quite suspicious of comedy. With most people, sooner or later, every intellectual position comes down to a joke — it never does with her. This is where I think she fights with Kingsley Amis". Questioned about whether her writing was " gendered", Byatt responded:
"I've played with trying to understand what the word means, but use either "
sex Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones (ova, oft ...
" or "men and women" instead, partly because the word gendered has caused a great many of my friends to write work that is bordering on not saying anything. I have always had a romantic idea that the writer or the artist was, as Coleridge and Virginia Woolf said,
androgynous Androgyny is the possession of both masculine and feminine characteristics. Androgyny may be expressed with regard to biological sex, gender identity, or gender expression. When ''androgyny'' refers to mixed biological sex characteristics i ...
. The whole of ''
The Virgin in the Garden ''The Virgin in the Garden'' is a 1978 realist novel by English novelist A. S. Byatt. Set during the same year as the coronation of Elizabeth II, the novel revolves around a play about Elizabeth I of England. The novel features a strong use of ...
'' quartet is about the desirability of an androgynous mind. I am too old for the women's movement in America or this country. I was fighting battles for the freedom of women, all by myself as I saw it, in the Fifties. I was partly amazed by the organised fight and partly appalled, because freedoms it had been hard for us to win--to be taken seriously by men as equal people to talk to--were suddenly thrown away by the idea that women should band together and talk to each other about each other, about women, and have Women's Studies in women's buildings. I learnt never to write a list of my favourite painters or writers without women in, but equally I would never write one without men in. I don't think you can live in the world i
the battle between the sexes
is more important than communication between the sexes. It never was, to me--I like men. My father was one of the most important presences in my life and he was rational and sane and liked women".
Byatt has been a judge on many literary award panels, including the
Betty Trask Award The Betty Trask Prize and Awards are for first novels written by authors under the age of 35, who reside in a current or former Commonwealth nation. Each year the awards total £20,000, with one author receiving a larger prize amount, called the ...
, the
David Higham Prize for Fiction The David Higham Prize for Fiction was inaugurated in 1975 to mark the 80th birthday of David Higham, literary agent, and was awarded annually to a citizen of the Commonwealth, Republic of Ireland, Pakistan, or South Africa for a first novel or boo ...
, the Hawthornden Prize and the Booker. She has also written for media, including for '' The Times Literary Supplement'', British journal ''
Prospect Prospect may refer to: General * Prospect (marketing), a marketing term describing a potential customer * Prospect (sports), any player whose rights are owned by a professional team, but who has yet to play a game for the team * Prospect (mining ...
'' and newspapers '' The Guardian'', '' The Independent'' and '' The Sunday Times''.


Awards and honours

Byatt was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the
1990 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1990 were appointments by most of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, and honorary ones to citizens of other countries ...
, and was promoted to
Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
(DBE), "for services to Literature", in Elizabeth II's
1999 Birthday Honours The 1999 Queen's Birthday Honours to celebrate the Queen's Official Birthday were announced on 7 June 1999 in New Zealand and Niue, and on 12 June 1999 in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms.Tuvalu list: The recipients of honours a ...
. She has been mentioned as a candidate for the
Nobel Prize in Literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...
. In 2008, '' The Times'' named her on its list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. *1986: PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award, for ''Still Life'' *1990: Booker Prize for Fiction, for ''Possession: A Romance'' *1990: '' The Irish Times'' International Fiction Prize, for ''Possession: A Romance'' *1991:
Commonwealth Writers Prize Commonwealth Foundation presented a number of prizes between 1987 and 2011. The main award was called the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was composed of two prizes: the Best Book Prize (overall and regional) was awarded from 1987 to 2011; the Best ...
(Eurasia Region, Best Book), for ''Possession: A Romance'' *1991: Honorary
DLitt Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or ') is a terminal degree in the humanities that, depending on the country, is a higher doctorate after the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree or equivalent to a higher doctorate, such as the Doctor ...
from the University of Durham *1993: Honorary
LittD Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or ') is a terminal degree in the humanities that, depending on the country, is a higher doctorate after the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree or equivalent to a higher doctorate, such as the Doctor ...
from the University of Liverpool *1994: Honorary Doctorate from the
University of Portsmouth The University of Portsmouth is a public university in Portsmouth, England. It is one of only four universities in the South East England, South East of England rated as Gold in the Government's Teaching Excellence Framework. With approximately 28 ...
*1995: Honorary Doctorate from the University of London *1995: Premio Malaparte (Italy) *1995: Aga Khan Prize for Fiction, for ''The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye'' *1998: Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature, for ''The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye'' *1999: Honorary DLitt from the University of Cambridge *1999: Honorary Fellow, Newnham College, Cambridge *2002: Shakespeare Prize (Germany) *2004: Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Kent *2004: Honorary Fellow, University College London *2009:
Blue Metropolis Blue Metropolis (also known as Blue Met) is an international literary festival held annually in Montreal since 1999. Founded by Montreal writer Linda Leith, it is one of the world's first multilingual literary festival. In early 2011, Leith depar ...
International Literary Grand Prix (Canada) *2009:
Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...
shortlist, for ''The Children's Book'' *2010: Honorary doctorate from
Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince o ...
(Netherlands) *2010: James Tait Black Memorial Prize, for ''The Children's Book'' *2016: Erasmus Prize (Netherlands), for "exceptional contribution to literature" *2017:
Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in the United Kingdom # C ...
of the British Academy *2017: Park Kyong-ni Prize (South Korea) *2017: Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement *2018: Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award (Denmark)


Memberships

* 1987–1988: Kingman Committee of Inquiry into the teaching of English Language, (Department of Education and Science) * 1984–1988: Management Committee, Society of Authors (Deputy chairman, 1986, Chairman, 1986–1988) * 1993–1998: Board, British Council (Member of Literature Advisory Panel, 1990–1998) * 2014: American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Foreign Honorary Member


Works


Novels

The following books form a
tetralogy A tetralogy (from Greek τετρα- ''tetra-'', "four" and -λογία ''-logia'', "discourse") is a compound work that is made up of four distinct works. The name comes from the Attic theater, in which a tetralogy was a group of three tragedies ...
known as ''The Quartet'': ''
The Virgin in the Garden ''The Virgin in the Garden'' is a 1978 realist novel by English novelist A. S. Byatt. Set during the same year as the coronation of Elizabeth II, the novel revolves around a play about Elizabeth I of England. The novel features a strong use of ...
'' (1978), ''
Still Life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...
'' (1985), ''
Babel Tower ''Babel Tower'' is a novel by A. S. Byatt, published by Chatto & Windus in 1996. It was the third part in a tetralogy, following ''The Virgin in the Garden'' (1978) and '' Still Life'' (1985) and preceding ''A Whistling Woman ''A Whistling Wo ...
'' (1996) and ''
A Whistling Woman ''A Whistling Woman'' is a 2002 novel by A. S. Byatt. The novel was published by Chatto & Windus in 2002. The novel is the final in a sequence of four books, preceded by '' The Virgin in the Garden'' (1978), '' Still Life'' (1985), and '' Bab ...
'' (2002). * 1964 – ''Shadow of a Sun'',
Chatto & Windus Chatto & Windus is an imprint of Penguin Random House that was formerly an independent book publishing company founded in London in 1855 by John Camden Hotten. Following Hotten's death, the firm would reorganize under the names of his business ...
reprinted in 1991 with originally intended title ''The Shadow of the Sun'' * 1967 – ''The Game'', Chatto & Windus * 1978 – ''
The Virgin in the Garden ''The Virgin in the Garden'' is a 1978 realist novel by English novelist A. S. Byatt. Set during the same year as the coronation of Elizabeth II, the novel revolves around a play about Elizabeth I of England. The novel features a strong use of ...
'', Chatto & Windus * 1985 – ''
Still Life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...
'', Chatto & Windus * 1990 – '' Possession: A Romance'', Chatto & Windus * 1996 – ''
Babel Tower ''Babel Tower'' is a novel by A. S. Byatt, published by Chatto & Windus in 1996. It was the third part in a tetralogy, following ''The Virgin in the Garden'' (1978) and '' Still Life'' (1985) and preceding ''A Whistling Woman ''A Whistling Wo ...
'', Chatto & Windus * 2000 – '' The Biographer's Tale'', Chatto & Windus * 2002 – ''
A Whistling Woman ''A Whistling Woman'' is a 2002 novel by A. S. Byatt. The novel was published by Chatto & Windus in 2002. The novel is the final in a sequence of four books, preceded by '' The Virgin in the Garden'' (1978), '' Still Life'' (1985), and '' Bab ...
'', Chatto & Windus * 2009 – '' The Children's Book'', Chatto & Windus * 2011 – ''Ragnarok: The End of the Gods'',
Canongate The Canongate is a street and associated district in central Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland. The street forms the main eastern length of the Royal Mile while the district is the main eastern section of Edinburgh's Old Town. It began ...


Short story collections

* 1987 – ''Sugar and Other Stories'',
Chatto & Windus Chatto & Windus is an imprint of Penguin Random House that was formerly an independent book publishing company founded in London in 1855 by John Camden Hotten. Following Hotten's death, the firm would reorganize under the names of his business ...
* 1993 – ''The Matisse Stories'', Chatto & Windus * 1994 – '' The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye'', Chatto & Windus * 1998 – ''Elementals: Stories of Fire and Ice'', Chatto & Windus * 2003 – ''Little Black Book of Stories'', Chatto & Windus


Novellas

* 1992 – ''Angels and Insects'',
Chatto & Windus Chatto & Windus is an imprint of Penguin Random House that was formerly an independent book publishing company founded in London in 1855 by John Camden Hotten. Following Hotten's death, the firm would reorganize under the names of his business ...
; comprises a pair of
novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...
s: ** ''
Morpho Eugenia ''Morpho Eugenia'' is a 1992 novella by A. S. Byatt first published in complete form with ''The Conjugal Angel'' as ''Angels & Insects''. Named after a butterfly species, it details the key events of the life of a Victorian naturalist, William ...
'' ** ''The Conjugial Angel''


Essays and biographies

* 1965 – ''Degrees of Freedom: The Early Novels of Iris Murdoch'',
Chatto & Windus Chatto & Windus is an imprint of Penguin Random House that was formerly an independent book publishing company founded in London in 1855 by John Camden Hotten. Following Hotten's death, the firm would reorganize under the names of his business ...
* 1970 – ''Wordsworth and Coleridge in their Time'', Nelson * 1976 – ''Iris Murdoch: A Critical Study'', Longman * 1989 – ''Unruly Times: Wordsworth and Coleridge, Poetry and Life'', Hogarth Press * 1991 – ''Passions of the Mind: Selected Writings'', Chatto & Windus * 1995 – ''Imagining Characters: Six Conversations about Women Writers'' (with Ignes Sodre), Chatto & Windus * 2000 – ''On Histories and Stories: Selected Essays'', Chatto & Windus * 2001 – ''Portraits in Fiction'', Chatto & Windus * 2016 – ''Peacock & Vine: On William Morris and Mariano Fortuny'', Knopf


Texts edited

* 1989 – ''George Eliot: Selected Essays, Poems and Other Writings'' (editor with Nicholas Warren),
Penguin Penguins (order (biology), order List of Sphenisciformes by population, Sphenisciformes , family (biology), family Spheniscidae ) are a group of Water bird, aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: on ...
* 1995 – ''New Writing Volume 4'' (editor with Alan Hollinghurst), Vintage * 1997 – ''New Writing Volume 6'' (editor with Peter Porter), Vintage * 1998 – ''Oxford Book of English Short Stories'' (editor), Oxford University Press * 2001 – ''The Bird Hand Book'' (with photographs by Victor Schrager),
Graphis Inc. ''Graphis, Inc.'' is an international publisher of books and awards for the visual communications industry. Based in New York City, Graphis presents and promotes the best submitted work in Graphic Design, Advertising, Photography and Art/Illust ...
(New York)


See also


References


Further reading

* Mundler, Helen E. (2003). Intertextualité dans l’œuvre d’A. S. Byatt (Intertextuality in the work of A. S. Byatt). Paris, Harmattan, 2003. * Hicks, Elizabeth (2010). ''The Still Life in the Fiction of A. S. Byatt.'' Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. * Mundler, Helen E. "Time to murder and create? The Bible as intertext in A. S. Byatt’s Elementals: Stories of Fire and Ice". FAAAM, no. 4, 2010: 65–77. * Gorski, Hedwig (2018). ''The Riddle of Correspondences in A. S. Byatt's Possession: A Romance with H. D.'s Trilogy.'' New Orleans: Jadzia Books.


External links

* * * * * * ;Audio interviews and readings * * * Download: * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Byatt, A. S. 1936 births Living people Academics of University College London Academics of the Central School of Art and Design Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford Booker Prize winners British women short story writers Bryn Mawr College alumni Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire English agnostics English women novelists English short story writers Fellows of Newnham College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Fellows of Somerville College, Oxford Honorary Fellows of the British Academy James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients O. Henry Award winners People educated at Sheffield High School, South Yorkshire People educated at The Mount School, York Pseudonymous women writers The Guardian people The Independent people The Sunday Times people 20th-century British short story writers 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English women writers 20th-century pseudonymous writers 21st-century British short story writers 21st-century English novelists 21st-century English women writers 21st-century pseudonymous writers Writers from Sheffield