Product Description

Morpho Eugenia and The Conjugial Angel are two fascinating novellas and like A. S. Byatt's Booker Prize-winning novel, POSSESSION, they are set in the mid-nineteenth century, weaving fact and fiction, reality and romance.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #35667 in Books
• Published on: 1993-10-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Review
In the form of two linked novellas, Byatt explores the background to Tennyson's poetic series 'In Memoriam', and also tells the story of how a passion for entomological travel and scientific discovery combines with the daily rituals of wealthy family life. As with all of Byatt's writing, there is strong physical sense of setting. In the first piece, Morpho Eugenia, Eugenia negotiates various romantic advances below a canopy of palm leaves in the Alabaster's conservatory. The sense of burgeoning and not entirely healthy desire contained within the cast-iron skeleton of the glass house is exploited perfectly. Forces beyond the artifice of polite conversation continue to pulse through The Conjugial Angel as Byatt explores the hold mesmerism and table rapping had on lonely, dispossessed ladies of the time. Byatt's narrative skill and artistry are underpinned by her awe-inspiring academic knowledge and she challenges our understanding of the Victorian period as well as delivering a first-class piece of fiction. (Kirkus UK)

Synopsis
Morpho Eugenia and The Conjugial Angel are two fascinating novellas and like A. S. Byatt's Booker Prize-winning novel, POSSESSION, they are set in the mid-nineteenth century, weaving fact and fiction, reality and romance.

From the Back Cover
Morpho Eugenia and The Conjugial Angel are two fascinating novellas and like A. S. Byatt's Booker Prize-winning novel, POSSESSION, they are set in the mid-nineteenth century, weaving fact and fiction, reality and romance.
'Her plot is as compelling as that of a classical detective story, but it is the quality of the writing - its use and unity of metaphor, its sensuous language, its wit and intellectual playfulness - which renders it remarkable' Amanda Craig, Literary Review
'A. S. Byatt is one of our finest living novelists, who manages to tease and to satisfy both the intellect and the imagination ... I am already a convinced admirer of the works of A. S. Byatt. ANGELS & INSECTS should win over many more enthusiasts' Caroline Moore, Daily Telegraph
'Victorian and fun ... marvellous and maddening ... a display and a delight' Nicci Gerrard, Observer
'Her best work to date' Times Literary Supplement

Customer Reviews

Prisoners of ideology
Angels and Insects is an intriguing pair of novellas. At one level it examines the complexities of human relationships, especially those incorporated within marriage and the family. It identifies tension, dissipates it, anticipates expectations and then seeks resolution of conflict when they are not realised. In Morpho Eugenia, William, a suitor, pursues his beloved and she becomes his wife. They breed with regular success, but there is a darkness that separates them in their marriage, a darkness that becomes light when William comes home from the hunt unexpectedly.

In The Conjugal Angel we enter a spirit world. For the inhabitants of the world, the spirit reality is as tangible, as rational a universe as any other. It is a world with familiar landmarks that reveal themselves easily to the accepting mind. Powerfully and engagingly interpreted by an influential writer, their significance enters the participants' assumptions, their existence never questioned.

Angels and Insects is set in the mid-nineteenth century and, as such, deals with concepts, both social and intellectual, which are quite foreign, quite removed from those of the contemporary reader. In Morpho Eugenia, we have a scientist exploring the revolutionary ideas of evolution and applying these not only to the natural world he researches, but also the private human world, both physical and emotional, that he inhabits. Needless to say, his radical ideas are not shared by many close to him. In The Conjugal Angel, we encounter a group of people motivated by a reality they all share. But, for the contemporary reader, it is a reality that is utterly foreign, its literature and its analysis both apparently bogus in today's judgment.

Thus, eventually Angels and Insects is a novel about ideology. It illustrates how ideological assumptions about the nature of existence can drive an individual's and a society's approach to life, and how it can convince people of the truth of illusion, or vice versa. And in considering the works of contemporary poets, Angels and Insects illustrate how the literature of an age can become suffused with its ideology and, indeed, how this can feed back into the substance of life to reinforce assumptions.

As ever, A S Byatt's use of language is virtuosic, making the process of reading Angels and Insects a delight throughout. It is an ambitious project which almost achieves its design. The shortfall, however, becomes a frustration.

Sex, death and fantasy
Having not long finished Possession there could be no doubting the authorship of Angels & Insects: A S Byatt, surely our greatest living `Victorian' writer. Once again we are treated through delightful writing to a study of the twin Victorian obsessions of sex and death. The two charming novellas which comprise this book are both dreamy romantic-fantasies very much in the nineteenth century mould but with a darker twist. The first concerns a poor young naturalist who marries into the gentry, accepted on the grounds that he has qualities more important than financial resources. We learn eventually that his wife doesn't. The second takes place in the world of séances and looks at the haunting power of lost love and the need for some to cling to it. I am familiar with Victorian literature (novels) and with mid-nineteenth century attitudes towards nature and its origins and can vouch for the authenticity of this work from these two perspectives. As for poetry and spiritualism I cannot say but they certainly read authentically. I can recommend this book strongly to those with a literary bent and an interest in the Victorian era. Others may find the stories a little long-winded and somewhat difficult.

Fly like an angel, sting like a bee
A.S. Byatt is best known for her lush, time-spanning historical romance "Possession." In "Angels and Insects: Two Novellas," Byatt revisits the intellectuals of the Victorian era. She dips into Victorian interests in spiritualism, insects, poetry and love -- not to mention their darker sides as well.

"Morpho Eugenia" introduces us to a young naturalist named William, who until recently had been studying insects in the Amazon. He was shipwrecked, then rescued by the wealthy Alabaster family. While continuing to study butterflies, he marries the beautiful eldest daughter Eugenia and for a time, lives the good life. The only problem is that unknown to him, Eugenia is wrapped up in a lifelong tangle of obsession and incest.

"The Conjugial Angel" introduces us to a group of mediums who gather to call up spirits. Mrs. Papagay is still in love with the dead Arturo. Emily mourns her dead lover, immortalized in her brother Alfred Tennyson's "In Memoriam" -- except she has married again. Now she struggles with her past emotions, her present doubts, and her longing to communicate with her love again.

As in her prior works, Byatt's writing is almost dizzily lush. She has a good sense of detail, describing ribbons, moths, butterfly wings, and the flames of gaslights. But pretty words are not all that Byatt has to offer -- she makes use of poetry (her own, and that of others), Darwinism and religious faith, Swedenborg, a family whose opulence covers their decay, and the nuances of love. Not to mention the dialogue: Eugenia's rambling explanation about her relationship with her brother is chilling.

Perhaps best of this collection is that Byatt has a fantastic grasp on period descriptions and dialogue -- it all sounds like a novel from the 19th centuy, with the polish of a modern book. Which is not to say that "Angels and Insects" is perfect. Byatt spends a little too much time on the moths and too little on the Alabaster family. And she's not at her best in "Conjugial Angel," which lacks the punch of the first novella. It's moving at the end, but takes awhile to get there.

Delving into such topics as survival of the fittest, poetry and love, Byatt produces a solid pair of novellas written in her usual sensuous prose. Despite some flaws that bog it down, this is a unique read.