As a fourth read from her, this helps confirm Byatt as among my favorite authors. All complex, rich, and mesmerizing. This pair of novellas was published together in 1992, soon after Booker Prize winner “Possession.” The blurb on the cover did a good job hooking me (and mystifying me with semi-spoilers in distorted compression):

Mr.Hawke, Mrs Papagay thought would theorise if a huge red Cherub with a fiery sword were advancing on him to burn him to the bone; he would explain the circumstances, whilst the stars fell out of the sky into the sea like ripe figs from a shaken fig-tree. Morpho Eugenia challenges the notion of human uniqueness. It also questions the distinction between civilization and barbarism. Again, Adamson’s first encounter with the Alabasters introduces this theme. The family is hosting a dance, and Lady Alabaster encourages Adamson to participate. Her son Edgar adds, “Not much dancing in the jungle.” Adamson replies that Christian festivals in Brazil involve weeks of dancing, and the Indians have their own versions that last for hours. The English ball provokes memories of a festa in South America, and Adamson recognizes beneath the fancy dress and decorous posing the same mating impulse that underlies the Brazilian palm-wine dance. A few reviewers have commented on the loud and gaudy costumes of the film. Although the designers are taking a few liberties, and clearly want us to associate the costumes with various insects, like bees, in fact they are not as bizarre as first impression would indicate. We often think that 19th century costumes were very grim and dark, but this is largely because we only see them in B&W photos of the period, or the few faded examples that have survived. In fact, the bright fabric dyes of the period WERE very loud and gaudy, and the taste of the time was for big prints, contrasting colors and lots of elaborate fringes, ruffles, etc. (I studied fashion history in design school, and I can vouch for this!) It IS startling, because we have been largely misled by "tasteful" costume dramas, but I found the picture of the 19th century represented here to be fresh and authentic. Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: The point where Edgar goes from simply being a snobbish jerk to truly despicable human being is when William discovers him raping a teenage servant in a stable.

Gorgeous Period Dress: The costumes worn by Eugenia, Matty and the other female characters, designed in bright colors and bold patterns, which would even earn the film an Academy Award nomination for Best Costume Design. But in the midst of it all to curl up with a book like Angels and Insects is a pure delight. I must confess that A.S. Byatt is a favorite of mine, and I came in these novellas expecting a lot, of sensuousness in words, of depth in insight and mystery in story telling. I got more - in fact, about possibly everything, death, life, love and betrayal, and the afterlife, and so much more. Which all made me pause in awe, what a fine mind this lady has...

In Morpho Eugenia ciò che ho amato di più è tutto il sapere naturalistico che la Byatt mette in ogni pagina. Il fascino delle prime osservazioni sul regno naturale e il dibattito che ne viene fuori. Tags: A. S. Byatt, A. S. Byatt’s Angels and Insects, A. S. Byatt’s Angels and Insects appreciation, A. S. Byatt’s Angels and Insects essays, A. S. Byatt’s Angels and Insects guide, A. S. Byatt’s Angels and Insects notes, A. S. Byatt’s Angels and Insects plot, A. S. Byatt’s Angels and Insects structure, A. S. Byatt’s Angels and Insects themes, Analysis of A. S. Byatt’s Angels and Insects, appreciation of A. S. Byatt’s Angels and Insects, criticism of A. S. Byatt’s Angels and Insects, essays of A. S. Byatt’s Angels and Insects, guide of A. S. Byatt’s Angels and Insects, notes of A. S. Byatt’s Angels and Insects, plot of A. S. Byatt’s Angels and Insects, structure of A. S. Byatt’s Angels and Insects, summary of A. S. Byatt’s Angels and Insects, themes of A. S. Byatt’s Angels and Insects Related Articles The novella nicely compares civilization with the way animals (specifically insects) live; Byatt does this very well, and from the role of women to laws of nature she offers some remarkable examples, always nicely contrasted with the strange Alabaster world. The account of Emily Tennyson’s—and her brother Alfred’s—love of Arthur Hallam is well told, but Byatt’s treatment of spiritualism strains the reader’s credulity. One expects a debunking of automatic writing, table rapping, and spectral visions. Instead, Mrs. Hearnshaw’s dead children reveal what none of the others at the Jesse seance can know, that their mother is pregnant again. Separated by many miles, Sophy Sheekby and Alfred, Lord Tennyson have coinciding visions. When Mrs. Papagay transcribes from spiritual dictation, her handwriting resembles that of the dead speaker.

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No se podía convertir a un hombre en un poema, ni al cantante ni a la canción, ni a la garganta trémula ni al rígido cadáver." Angels and Insects consists of two decent-sized novellas, Morpho Eugenia (that would be the insects) and The Conjugial Angel (more obviously: the angels). En aquel entonces, allí todo tenía dos caras: era verdadero y querido, cercano y actual, y a la vez relucía mágicamente y despedía un vago perfume frío a mundo perdido, a huerto de rey, al jardín de Harum-al-Raschid." But it is Eugenia (Patsy Kensit) who is the focus of the film. A poor naturalist (Mark Rylance) is madly in love with her, but her racist brother (Douglas Henshall) warns him that he is not of the right class and should be real. William (Rylance) flits ever so cautiously towards Eugenia's web and is ensnared. I am sure there is something beneath the surface here; maybe the same something that caused Eugenia's former fiancée to kill himself. But one day instead of going on the fox hunt he comes home early to find his wife and her brother naked in bed, engaged in sex. He figures out that all of their children were products of the incestuous relationship, which had started when they were children and she just couldn't break out of. Understandably he leaves, and takes with him Kristin Scott Thomas's character, with whom he had made a platonic bond while they studied nature together, and she wrote a book.