Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
A. S. Byatt
Standard Name: Byatt, A. S.
Birth Name: Antonia Susan Drabble
Married Name: Antonia Susan Byatt
Married Name: Antonia Susan Duffy
ASB
, publishing in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, is predominantly a novelist of ideas. Her works (stories and criticism as well as novels) are intellectually demanding, typically spinning a complex web of literary and cultural allusions. She likes depicting extreme personal situations: critic Hilary Spurling has said she is adept at rendering disintegration.
Byatt, A. S. The Matisse Stories. Chatto and Windus.
HM
already features in critical surveys of the modern British novel, such as that by Nick Rennison
, 2004. A. S. Byatt
discusses her (among writers of both sexes including predecessors Elizabeth Bowen
and Muriel Spark
Literary responses
Alice Munro
The Selected Stories was hailed as an important literary event, and produced particularly interesting reviews from A. S. Byatt
and John Updike
. Byatt wrote that Munro was the equal of Chekhov
or de Maupassant
Literary responses
Alice Munro
After it won the O. Henry Prize (in the first year in which Canadians were eligible for this award) Munro described the genesis of the title story in an actual occurrence where a woman and...
Literary responses
Alice Munro
Among a rich harvest of prizes and honours, AM
won the Giller Prize in both 1998 and 2004. In 2002 an Alice Munro Literary Garden, just beside the museum, was dedicated in Wingham, Ontario...
Textual Production
Iris Murdoch
IM
spoke with her younger fellow-novelist A. S. Byatt
about aspects of her craft, in an interview for BBC
Radio Four which is now available on the internet.
“BBC Audio Interviews”. BBC Radio 4.
Literary responses
Iris Murdoch
The first monograph on IM
was that of 1965 by A. S. Byatt
, who faulted her for the inconsistency of her fiction with her expressed philosophic views. This study provoked further academic discussion, and...
Literary responses
Barbara Pym
Initial comment included reviews or articles by A. S. Byatt
and Marghanita Laski
.
Allen, Orphia Jane. Barbara Pym: Writing a Life. Scarecrow Press.
Allen, Orphia Jane. Barbara Pym: Writing a Life. Scarecrow Press.
40
but effectively ironic, witty view of academia. Anne Wyatt-Brown
Literary responses
Barbara Pym
Pym is not one of those women writers whose stock has risen through feminist re-evaluation. Five years after the influential Times Literary Supplement article was published, Penelope Lively
wrote, I am always surprised that the...
Theme or Topic Treated in Text
Michèle Roberts
This volume brings together pieces from various occasions and venues. In them MR
discusses many of her favourite topics—the food, sex and god named in her title, the second and third often involving the relation...
Literary responses
Kamila Shamsie
A Library Journal review called the novel a beautifully-written tale that is equal parts A. S. Byatt
-style mystery and mother-daughter saga and the compelling angle that post-9/11 Pakistani politics add to themes of responsibility...
Literary responses
Evelyn Sharp
In the early twenty-first century A. S. Byatt
discovered ES
when, working on her novel The Children's Book, she asked scholar Jack Zipes
for links between fairy stories and turn-of-the-century socialism and he mentioned Sharp.
Byatt, A. S. “Freedom won’t wait”. guardian.co.uk.
Literary responses
Evelyn Sharp
A. S. Byatt
in early 2008 found herself interested and excited by this book (then about to be reprinted). She described Sharp as perspicacious, witty and a very good writer.
“Back—due to popular demand”. The Guardian, pp. Review 4 - 6.
4
A year later she...
Reception
Evelyn Sharp
In 2009 A. S. Byatt
hoped for the publication of Sharp's diaries
Byatt, A. S. “Freedom won’t wait”. guardian.co.uk.
Violence
Elizabeth Siddal
As Marsh
puts it, this deeply transgressive act has since then been a symbol of religious, poetic and personal violation.
Marsh, Jan. The Legend of Elizabeth Siddal. Quartet Books.
21
Rossetti himself justified his action to Swinburne
as follows: no one so much as...
Literary responses
Ali Smith
A. S. Byatt
praised Smith's novel as sharp, witty, innovatory and moving,
Byatt, A. S. “An exciting event this year has been the publication. ”. The Times Literary Supplement, No. 5670, p. 9.
9
while Lionel Shriver
, reviewing for the Financial Times, was especially taken with the photo researcher's story, particularly the hilariously awkward...
