- Paperback: 400 pages
- Publisher: Scribner; 1st Scribner Paperback Fiction Ed edition (28 April 1997)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0684835037
- ISBN-13: 978-0684835037
- Product Dimensions: 14 x 21.3 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 360,169 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"A major novel...a marvellous and most unusual work." -- "Iris Murdoch"
"Affords enormous and continuous pleasure." -- Anita Brookner --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
"Affords enormous and continuous pleasure." -- Anita Brookner --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Book Description
'A major novel- a marvellous and most unusual work' Iris Murdoch
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"Still Life" is shorter than either "The Virgin in the Garden" or "Babel Tower", but feels longer. I don't necessarily intend this as a criticism: this is, however, a darker and more contemplative book than its predecessor.
Byatt's superscription, a passage from Bede, is not only apposite but cuts to the heart of the matter. Imagine, says Bede, that you're dining with friends on a winter's evening (Christmas dinner, maybe?), when a sparrow flies in from the darkness, crosses the room and flies out again into the dark. Such is the life of man.
Where "The Virgin in the Garden" was all overheated summer, there is a wintry chill here: the book opens and closes with preparations for Christmas, but there is little festive cheer. Frederica has now left school and embarked on a colourful undergraduate career at Cambridge. Meanwhile, her sister Stephanie, who is just as bright but lacks Frederica's ferocity, is feeling increasingly trapped by pregnancy and motherhood. There is a new post-feminist edge here: the most memorable passages for me concerned the way Stephanie's horizons, and even her vocabulary, are constricted by her domestic set-up, even with a loving husband and family support. Motherhood is always about loss as well as gain.
The third strand running through the book is the life of Vincent Van Gogh, about whom Frederica's nearly-lover Alexander Wedderburn is writing a play. Van Gogh has become such a cultural icon that this could easily have become a bit maudlin (Dame Antonia leads us in a rousing chorus of "Starry Starry Night"?), but in fact the Van Gogh elements are handled with subtlety and allow Byatt to explore her fascination with visionary experiences and different ways of "seeing".
The unifying theme is one of loss: the book closes with a shockingly random death and its aftermath. Certainly darker than the other Frederica novels; but the characters are as vivid as ever, and linger in the reader's mind long after the book is shut.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
One thing I have to say about Byatt's books is that while I'm reading them, I do nothing else. Both this book and Possession were all-nighters for me. Still Life was fun for me because of the Van Gogh connection and seeing one of the characters fall hopelessly in love with a Cambridge don. But when it was all over, I felt empty. The ending is eerily sad, my favorite character remains ungrounded, other characters end up hanging out in strange places, and I ask myself, why bother? Having said all this, I don't hesitate recommending it to any past Byatt reader who wants more tale telling.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I must disagree with the reviewer who found it ultimately "empty," perhaps because my favorite character is different. Yes, it is sad. One of the main characters dies. I knew this was going to happen, but I still mourned for her; the death affected me more than any fictional character since Alcott's Beth. Odd, since there is nothing sentimental or cloying about Byatt's writing. I would recommend this book highly, although I think readers should start with the first in the series, _The Virgin in the Garden._
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Gorgeous descriptions, too much scholarly detail
A.S. Byatt's second novel in the 'Frederica' tetralogy is both an easier and a tougher read than 'The Virgin in the Garden'. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Kate Hopkins
Beautifully Written
I was introduced to A.S. Byatt through 'Possession' a number of years ago and I still remember the power of that novel and its ultimate descent into the realms of almost diabolical... Read more
Published on 22 May 2010 by Loupop
A fine evocation of the social and cultural landscape of 1950s...
Following on from The Virgin in the Garden, the second volume in the `Frederica Quartet' sees Frederica Potter having left the stifling provincialism of Blesford and headed off to... Read more
Published on 29 Jan 2009 by Trevor Coote
Fascinating, intriguing, masterful.
I loved this book. The characters are as complex and contradictory as real people. It's a challenging book -- Byatt never talks down to her readers. I highly recommend it.
Published on 22 Dec 1998
feeling colours
Oh, Ms. Byatt, you are so fine. Your use of words for colours is truly sublime. (And, of course, the story's divine.)
Published on 25 Oct 1998
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192198663_.gif){kind=small}
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
