The Children's Book

By A. S. Byatt

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • MAN BOOKER PRIZE NOMINEE • From the Booker Prize-winning, bestselling author of Possession: a story that spans the Victorian era through World War I about a children’s author and the passions, betrayals, and secrets that tear apart the lives of her family and loved ones.

“Majestic ... Dazzling ... Wonderful.” —The San Francisco Chronicle
 
When children’s book author Olive Wellwood’s oldest son discovers a runaway named Philip sketching in the basement of a museum, she takes him into the storybook world of her family and friends. But the joyful bacchanals Olive hosts at her rambling country house—and the separate, private books she writes for each of her seven children—conceal more treachery and darkness than Philip has ever imagined. The Wellwoods’ personal struggles and hidden desires unravel against a breathtaking backdrop of the cliff-lined shores of England to Paris, Munich, and the trenches of the Somme, as the Edwardian period dissolves into World War I and Europe’s golden era comes to an end.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Oct 6, 2009
• ISBN: 9780307272959

A. S. Byatt

A. S. Byatt is famed for her short fiction, collected in Sugar and Other Stories, The Matisse Stories, and The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye. Her full-length novels include the Booker Prize-winning Possession, The Biographer's Tale, The Shadow of the Sun and the quartet of novels including The Virgin in the Garden, Still Life, Babel Tower, and soon to be completed by A Whistling Woman. She has also published es of critical work, of which On Histories & Stories is the most recent. She lives in London.

Reviews for The Children's Book

[eoin-311239 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A huge and beautifully complex book about many people in interacting families in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I was a little underwhelmed by the last 50 pages, though the Great War is certainly historically acurate. The flaw, for me, was not stopping soon enough. Worth it for the shocking action of the suffragettes.

[rdra1962 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

So many - everything : characters, plots and sub-plots, historical moments, poems, plays. puppet shows, political movements, pieces of pottery, philosophical movements, couplings, acts of incest, creepy characters, admirable characters, boring characters, barely developed characters, dropped characters, etc. Get the point? This is a brilliant writer who did way too much research, tried to cram too much into one huge book, and was never edited. Still an amazing read, but could have been 200 pages shorter and that much better!

[bookhookgeek · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This was a slow read. I found it hard to get into the lives of these unhappy people, who stay unhappy for their entire lives.

[jamiebh-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This book, I struggled, it felt like a chore to finish it. Too many characters, too many historical tangents that felt displaced and unnecessary. The plot itself was interesting and though at times disturbing, I enjoyed the parts of the novel that focused on the "main" characters. That being said, I've never felt so relieved to have finished a book because it was such a struggle at times to stay focused.

[alisony-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wow. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.I very nearly abandoned this amazing book early on. The first couple of chapters were great - totally engaging - but then Byatt chose a midsummer party to introduce a crazy amount of characters. Their families were all interlinked in some way, and it was important to know who was who, and for a good hundred pages I grew tired of continually flicking back to the party scene to remind myself who was related to who and how. Why the editors didn't think a short character guide at the start of the book would be useful is beyond me.The 'children's book' (or rather a collection of children's books the author character writes for her children) is really quite a minor part of the book. This is a sweeping, complex, intellectual family saga of sorts, telling the interconnecting stories of 6 English families from the late Victorian era up to WWI. Art - in the form of ceramics and dark fairy story writing - is an important backdrop to this novel, as well as intellectual and political thought from the era. I feared that this might be a book that tries too hard to be "intellectual" and ends up irritating me, but by the end this was one of the things I loved most about it. Byatt's depth of research is simply vast, and this novel fuelled a continual thirst for knowledge in me simply because she made all these backdrop reference points so interesting. In between reads I was Googling everything from Palissy pottery to the Fabian Society to the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1900, as she brought them to life so well. In fact, this book is so well researched it's difficult to believe at times that this isn't a novel written during that period.It's a complex book with a lot of depth, but the characters are fabulous and I was hooked right up to the end. In fact I spent a good bit of the last 50 pages wiping away tears.If you enjoy writers such as Alan Hollinghurst, or McEwan's Atonement, or even the likes of Woolf's To the Lighthouse, then I think you'll enjoy this.5 stars - easily this will be my book of the year (even if it is only April). A modern classic.

[randalrh · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A thirty-year span covering a couple of families and numerous social and political tides in an era--except for WW1 near the end--that doesn't get as much literary coverage as some others. The span is vast, but the magic here is in the detailed portrayal the characters somehow get, given that there are so many of them. They in turn contribute back to the vision of the broad sweep of an age in a way that works very well.

[m.belljackson · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

"The way to read a fairy tale is to throw yourself in." -- W.H.AudenThe Children's Book definitely does THAT and expects that readers will join in.It's not that I don't enjoy little stories, but the ones here interwoven with factual and imagined history, philosophy, puppetry, romance, children's books, families, anarchists, Fabians, clothes, clothes, and more clothes...are more often tedious and never-ending, as is the plot and the character developments which eventually dissolve into predictable recitations. There are also too many "had had."The trajectory of Phillip's entry into the too good to be true lives of the Wellwoods defines the redeeming soul of the way-too-many characters, the boring history, and the plodding plot.His exciting explorations into the art and science of pottery making enliven the well-crafted, yet ultimately too dense story. The Grand Exposition in Paris is enlightening! How welcome photographs and drawings would for Phillip, Benedict, and Paris!What to make of a step father's attempted rape followed by the step daughter's avowal of love?What to make of Julian's transition from actively gay to pursuit of Griselda as his loving wife?What to make of wapping up all the character and plot twists with the horrors of World War I?

[ghr4 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A. S. Byatt's The Children's Book is a sprawling historical novel that spans approximately a quarter century from the late Victorian Era through the end of World War I. The book chronicles several dozen characters within intertwined families and the deep secrets that lie beneath their staid veneer of refinement. Byatt weaves in many themes, including women's rights, free love (and its often ironically high cost), and Fabian socialism. The book additionally serves as an homage to theatre, the creative process, museums, and the inherent beauty of form and design, largely seen through the vivid descriptions of pottery. But as the title suggests, this is also a book about children, and the writing of books for children. With a keen eye, Byatt explores elements of the childhood and adolsecent experience: innocence and its loss; the first thoughts and tingles of sexuality and its furtive initial explorations; relationships with parents and siblings; anxiety and alienation. The narrative also ponders children from the parent's viewpoint, particularly regarding the loss of a child.As such, there is a lot packed into the book - indeed, too much. It was a failed struggle to maintain a coherent understanding of the plotlines and relationships of all the characters (although given some of the family secrets revealed, perhaps that latter difficulty is indeed deliberate and thematic). Only a handful of characters held my interest throughout. While there are some truly fine insights, this is a tedious read as the narrative structure inevitably bogs down under its own weight.

[lkernagh · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What to say... what to say. The arts and crafts movement - covering the last ten years of the Victorian period, through the Edwardian period and into the House of Windsor period - is richly captured. Byatt brings minute details to focus, allowing this reader to "experience" the industry of potters, metals workers, puppeteers, play dramatists and writers against the backdrop of the Fabian and Suffragettes movements. The lifestyles of Byatt's characters are languid, steeped in a kind of drunkenness a warm summer day in a fragrant garden can produce. Beneath that outward display of calm roils deep set frustrations and a desire for.... something different. One one level, this book is a masterpiece depicting time and place. The weaving of fairy tales in to the story-line imbues the story with as sense of magic and wonder, but the characters are for the most part unappealing in their aimlessness. I get that the times being depicted were a mix of heady escapism and rising socialistic purpose but I found myself getting lost in the descriptions and losing the tenuous plot threads. All emotion comes across as muted, or as a bit of hysterics. Even the more horrifying elements of WWI appear to have been written to cloak the resulting image as being veiled, removing some of the sharp focus certain parts of the story call for. One reviewer has commented that [The Children's Book] is a human story of responsibility, with the characters "attempting to define their responsibilities, whether to fulfill them or to evade them; with those in pursuit of enlightenment or seeking to manipulate it; and with some simply attempting to unearth who they are and what they should do to survive." From that perspective, Byatt has delved deep and produced results that may appeal to readers seeking a story about the human condition and all its flaws. While I loved the details depicted in the story, I never felt a connection to any of the characters, expect for Philip Warren, one of the few characters who knew all along what he wanted to accomplish. Overall, a good read but I felt like an observer peering in from afar as a group of actors fumble their way through their roles.

[hruo-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A. S. Byatt's The Children's Book is one of the greatest reading experiences I've had in the past few years. To just mention one of my favourite things in the book: I loved the title in all its ambiguity. The optimistic and artistic adults from the Edwardian era are maybe more childish in many ways than their children, who have to face the realities of the world that is on the threshold of the World War I. I should read the book again, as I believe that there are probably more and more layers to be found.

[big_bang_gorilla · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

When an author tries to entertain and enlighten us with long descriptions of three puppet shows in the first hundred pages of a 900-page book, this reader is unlikely to finish her book, or try to. At that the puppeteering was arguably more interesting than her interminable sequence describing in minute detail what several dozen guests were wearing to a lawn party. It doesn't help that all the while most readers will be sent to the dictionary multiple times per page. This book is so overwritten that it makes Look Homeward Angel look like flash fiction. Which is a pity, for the author builds great characters and has a nice feel and affinity for the doings of the artistic and intellectual elite of late-Victorian London. But reading this book is a chore. And I refuse to turn reading into a chore.

[cbl_tn · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Fabians and the social scientists, writers and teachers saw, in a way earlier generations had not, that children were people, with identities and desires and intelligences. They saw that they were neither dolls nor toys, nor miniature adults. They saw, many of them, that children needed freedom, needed not only to learn, and be good, but to play and be wild.But they saw this, so many of them, out of a desire of their own for a perpetual childhood, a Silver Age.The children in the Wellwood, Cain, and Fludd families were born in the late Victorian era and came of age in the Edwardian era. Their extended childhood ended with the Great War. The Basil Wellwoods were a respectable middle class family while the Humphrey Wellwoods were bohemians, supported by Olive Wellwood's authorship of children's fantasy stories. The Fludds lived at the mercy of master potter Benedict Fludd's moods, while the Cains lived at the South Kensington Museum (which later became the V&A), where Prosper Cain was one of the Keepers. The book's themes include art, literature, socialism, and women's education and occupations. Byatt anchors the family drama in the social culture of Great Britain and, to an extent, Germany, at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.It's not often that I reach the end of a nearly 700 page book and wish for more, but it happened with this one. The characters are so well drawn that they seem just as real as the historical figures they mix with in the novel. It has the feel of an E. M. Forster novel. Highly recommended.

[serogers02-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is a stunning portrayal of English socialists, stretching throughout the Victorian Era and up to the post-World War 1 years. Dealing with the everyday life of five interconnected families, this novel focuses on both the beauty in and loss of childhood.

[dark_phoenix54 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I eagerly awaited Byatt’s latest novel for some time, and received it at the library- first in line to check it out- like I would a 10 lb box of dark chocolates. Which some people might find an apt simile in more ways than one- it’s a huge book. But while some people have said it was *too* long, I found myself wishing it went on longer. Set in the last years of the Victoria era through the Edwardian era, the epic story follows four families as they interact and grow. On the surface, most of them appear reasonably conventional. But these are people who are not following societies rules; we have free thinkers, we have women who want an education, a woman who is the main wage earner in the family, sex outside of marriage- lots of that-, homosexuality, people crossing class boundaries, Socialists, anarchists, laudanum addicts and child abusers. Of course, this is an era when the rules were changing. New technologies, new philosophies, were springing up all around. But while the world was, in many ways, changing for the better, these families were, in many ways, unraveling. Byatt fills the book with intense detail about everything she touches on (the author is an avid researcher)- the meals, the clothing, the art, the politics. She creates an atmosphere that immerses the reader completely. Was there too much detail? I don’t think so- I only found myself starting to skim a couple of times, when the subject was politics- but I know other readers will disagree. I enjoyed my lushly described trip back in time. This lushness is part of the author’s technique- the first parts of the novel are described in this way; the last section, which deals with WW 2, is not. It is drawn with harsh, spare strokes that slash at the reader’s emotions. As innocence is lost, year by year, so is the lush beauty. Very well done, I say.

[tmph_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Seemed pretty highly recommended; it was available amongst the small number of e-books at my library. Tried it out. Eggggghhh. Don't care about the kid, don't care about the family taking him under their wing, don't care about that period (late 1800s), can't stand those people.

[curious_squid · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book covered so many subjects it is hard to describe succinctly.
Fairy tales, Women's Suffrage, Socialism, Arts and Crafts movement, sexual liberation (?), World War I... and more.

The only part I didn't get was Tom's real life story. Very vague and unsatisfying.

But overall very interesting and engaging book.

[candyschultz · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It's presumptuous of me to think I can speak of this book but I'll do my best. Byatt's book is a cornucopia of sensual delight. It is also massive in scope; both historically and character-wise. If you can visualize internally, as I do, you will see pottery, textiles, puppets and people all in a rich pageant which begins in the waning days of Victoria and culminates in the mud and blood of the Somme and Passchendaele.In some ways I was reminded of The Forsyte Saga. The Children's Book revolves around multiple generations of several families. The book begins with Tom Wellwood and Julian Cain discovering Phillip Warren hiding in the basement of the Victoria & Albert museum where Julian's father curates. Phillip, a child of indigence, wants to make pots and he is dutifully conveyed to the care of Benedict Fludd, a renowned potter of the age. This simple device brings all the major families together - the Fludds, Cains and Wellwoods.The Wellwood clan is presided over by Olive, a writer of children's stories, several of which are included in the book. She writes for money and also for each of her children who have a book of their own she adds to periodically. Her stories are frequently about a lost child or a trip through the underworld to rescue someone or something. This is a theme throughout the book as well. Many of the characters have to make their own way through a personal hell to come out whole. Many succomb. It is used effectively when speaking of sexuality in that period. Surprisingly there is a lot of promiscuity among the adults in this book. In a period before ready contraception this has some devastating results for the offspring of these unions.Olive and her clan, along with the London Wellwoods, the Cains and ultimately the Fludds, are introduced to German puppeteers who begin to play a major role in the story. There are plays devised, lovely stories crafted, textiles embroidered, luscious pottery created and eventually jewelry as well. In time it is discovered that these Germans are related.The Fludds are presided over by Benedict, a volatile man whose many moods control his household of mainly women, seriously cowed. He makes pots of brilliance which are treasured throughout Europe but his private life is a shambles. Phillip's quiet presence and effectiveness slowly begin to work a change on the group and eventually he becomes the world renowned potter. Benedict's effect on his daughters is long lasting and is exemplified by a locked closet's contents, a true descent into an underworld when discovered.The historical scope of this novel is breathtaking and explains why it was so long in coming. Byatt's writing is so effective you feel you are in England in the late Nineteenth Century. This is the period of the Fabian Society, the rise of anarchy and the beginning of the women's suffrage movement. The pastoral scenes depict a lost England, before the fall of empire and the devastation of the Great War. She takes us on a tour of the Paris Exhibition of 1900 and it feels as if you are there. Her descriptions of the luminaries of the time feel very accurate - and there are a lot of luminaries. You will run into H. G. Wells, H.H. Hudson, Carl Jung, Herman Hesse, the Pankhursts, Emma Goldman, G. B. Shaw, Isadora Duncan, J. M. Barrie and William Morris, to mention only a few.The book is truly about the children in these families as they grow from quite young to middle age. The adults are there to explain their development. In the case of Olive's many children she practices a form of benign neglect. There is, however, a very fine line between benign and real neglect with devastating consequences. The British school system of the time is exposed with its damaging hypocrisy: "Keep out of Hunter's way, Julian wanted to say, keep out of his way, my dear. Tom's innocent mouth was perfection. It said 'there is so much to learn, and no one tells you what it is.' 'They knock it into you,' said Julian. 'As it was knocked into them.' "At the beginning of the story each of the children are asked to say what they want to do with their lives. Surprisingly one of Olive's daughters expresses the desire to become a doctor. One of the fathers "remarked to the surrounding bushes that women's education simply made them dissatisfied. He did not say with what." The issue of women's education, even the existence of their minds (god forbid) is a strong theme in the book as well. "These women were different. They had asserted their desire - indeed, their need - to use their minds, to understand the nature of things, from mathematical forms to currency and banking, from Greek drama to the history of Europe. This generation, in the first ten years of the twentieth century - was neither as austere nor as single-minded as the pioneers of the 1870s and 1880s. They worked less hard, frequently, and were often more frivolous, as well as more uncertain, in many cases, of what would be the outcome of what they were doing. And as Virginia Woolf observed, in a book which begain as a lecture in the College, they liked each other. They made friends." And " 'Don't you think that after twenty years of studying Cinderella you might be seized by the idea of the children you never had?' 'Quite probably,' said Griselda . . . . . 'But after twenty years of childbearing and fever and confinement and being shut in a house I might be seized by the idea of Cinderella.' "The pivotal point in the book takes place midway during a summer camp in which all the major characters participate. It is the point at which childhood is left behind for most of the children and adulthood and the future contemplated: "Julian sat on the little pier . . . . . and looked on. He thought, we are such fools. We cannot imagine we shall grow old, and we shall grow old, year by year, all this pretty - more than pretty - flesh will be damaged and diminished, one way or another. He puts his chin in his hands, and from below the water Tom pulled him down by the ankles, and laughing wildly, smeared him all over with mud." From here on the group of children face and deal with adult challenges. Dorothy Wellwood goes on to medical school, Geraint Fludd goes into a bank, Phillip takes over the pottery studio. Florence Cain and Griselda Wellwood go on to college. Hedda Wellwood becomes enamored of the suffrage movement and suffers for her devotion. "She learned to speak at meetings. She went to a meeting in Sutton where someone emptied a sack of live rats into an audience. . . . . . Men at meetings clutched respectable women by the breasts, or pushed beer-breathing mouths into their faces, pretending the women had invited it."It was not difficult for me to keep track of this huge cast but I think it might be for some readers. You might want to make charts. The parental relationships shift during the course of the story as do the fraternal ones. I have so far outlined the basic themes of the book but it is impossible to explain the fairytale and fantastic aspects. The story is wound round by Olive's tales, by Anderson and Grimm, by plays put on with puppets and the sheer magicality of the childhood the children are blessed with. This makes the climax, which hits you like a bludgeon, all the more dramatic. The fourth section of the book is extremely short but it packs in all the suffering and death of the Great War and its effect on the several families. And, of course, there is the writing. The tale itself is masterly but when coupled with Byatt's writing it is a masterpiece. With sentences like: "She looked like the white wax of a candle, lit by a golden flame." And dialogue like this: " 'I was training to be a psychoanalyst,' he said. 'And now?' A smile lurked in his beard. 'I am recovering from training to be a psychoanalyst.' " you are constantly entertained.I would find it difficult to believe that you could read this book and not come away profoundly moved by either the story, the beauty of the writing or the characters themselves who embody the spirit of the period. This has to be nominated for the Booker prize and if it doesn't win I will be amazed.

[kaethe_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Byatt is curiously prone to report the behavior of her characters, rather than just show them. If she weren't dealing with so much: fairy tales and folklore, the Arts and Crafts movement, the rise of Fabianism and social justice movements of all kinds; if not for all that it'd be a dud. And while I'm listing faults, there is a singular lack of joy. None of these people are ever shown being happy; all of their happy moments occur offstage. Sex, for example, is traumatic, not just, adequate. It makes for an overall depressing reading experience. And referring to "Charles/Karl" is just annoying, without every giving us a sense of who calls him by which name.

Those are my complaints. It is, nevertheless, a marvelous book. While the large cast may keep us from seeing anyone's high moments, it does enable us to see what life was like at the time for a broad array of people. Byatt is more interested in social and political activism, so the cast is broader in political views than in class: this is not Downton Abbey with half the time spent upstairs and half the time spent down.

I'm glad I read it, and I think Byatt's synthesis of culture in an historical context is awesome. But the unrelenting misery of all the characters means this is a deeply unhappy book even before you get to the war.

Library copy.

[amerynth · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I was talking to someone very recently about the whole "which sister is a better writer" question when it comes to A.S. Byatt and Margaret Drabble. I said that I very much disliked the single book I've read by Drabble so I was going to come down on Byatt's side, even though I hadn't read anything by her. Now that I've read Byatt's wonder novel "The Children's Book" I can say I came down on the side of the correct sister."The Children's Book" tells a great story. It's about several loosely connected families and the secrets they keep. It's about how growing up in incredibly creative families seems like such fun from the outside, but isn't so much fun if you're living it. It's about the changing times from Victorian England to the devastation brought by World War I.Byatt packs a lot into this novel, which can only be described as sprawling. As the story goes, it pulls you deeper and deeper into the dynamics of the families, which are populated by interesting people. I look forward to reading more by Byatt, for sure.

[maureencean · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This might qualify for a spoiler - if someone reads it and thinks I should hide it, please message me. I don't think I am being that specific. This is really a 2.5...I have a hard time going under a 3 on my stars unless I really dislike something, and if I finish 24 cd's, then I didn't hate it. There are three parts to this book as I see it. The story of the actual characters, the history that appears at the beginning of some of the chapters, and the pieces of fairy tales written by the matriarch of the book. In reverse order, the fairy tales were interesting, and more of it would have been fine. Learning how the tale written for Dorothy mimicked events that occurred in real life at the time of her conception was well done. The history was interesting, I decided the next big achievement in publishing/electronics would be for there to be a way for me to pull out all of those parts and let me read them together. It was a little hard to follow it in the audio version - if I had it in preint I would have gone back over some parts. And for the actual characters...it occurred to me while listening to this that I tend to view all historical fiction as representative of the reality of that time. I think the better way would be to think the story may not be representative, but the context should be. In this case, if the story was totally representative of the time, once could conclude that middle-aged English males of this time period are predominantly adulterous, lecherous or incestuous, depending on their family constellation. There was hardly a decent one among them. And educational institutions for males are abusive hotbeds for breeding homosexuality. The women were presented largely as a variety of extremes, from bright and driven, to abused and in denial.I hope that the lives of most English families were NOT like this. While there were people that were likeable, the ravages of WWI, which I did assume to be fairly accurate, left everyone pretty much a shambles if they manages to survive at all. If you don't deal well with lots of death and sadness, this may not be for you.

[cygnet81 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Finishing this was a feat since it is very long but I believe it is the best book that I've read by Byatt.

[marse_4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"The Children's Book" is the story of an extended artistic English family and their acquaintances from 1895 to 1919. At the center is the Wellwood family. Olive Wellwood, the mother, is a successful writer of children's stories about fairies, mythological creatures and strange worlds--she also writes a personalized on-going fairytale for each of her children. But it is the real, everyday, lives of the children as they grow up during this wonderfully complex and fascinating time that make the plot of this novel. A.S. Byatt, as she did in "Possession," creates such a vivid picture of this time period and setting, that you feel like you were part of that era. She gives us titles of what they were reading, the philosophies, the art movements, the political discussions, all of it interesting and intriguing. It took me a long time to finish, but I enjoyed it very much. Though this book did not have the satisfying ending that "Possession" had, it is well worth reading.

[starbox_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

'the children running wild in safe woods, in dappled sunlight, the parents smilingly there when they came home', 14 January 2015This review is from: The Children's Book (Paperback)Wonderful novel, set over the years 1895-1919. The main families are the Wellwoods - mother an E Nesbit-like character, the several children leading an apparently idyllic life with a tree house and wonderful Midsummer parties - and their wealthy (and half-German) cousins. Their circle includes various other households: the artistic Fludds; the Cains, whose father is curator at the V & A Museum; a local theatre director. But life is not always what it seems: one of the daughters becomes aware of 'horrible secrets bubbling up around her like hot geysers out of a lava-field.'While the lives of the individuals move on (and it feels like a large cast at first - I had to write down the various family trees), so does the outside world. While Arts and Crafts and literature occupies some, others are caught up in society's problems, investigating Fabianism, anarchy, Women's Suffrage... The reader is immersed in history as 'The Golden age' of Edwardian times moves into 'The Age of Lead' of war.In the earlier stages this seemed at times like an over-long, excessively detailed work, but as you come towards the end, and the it's absolutely beautiful and exquisitely sad for many of the characters.

[ssellis-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love this book, it is interesting on so many levels, historically, socially and is just a really good tale. Have now read it three times and each time find something I missed.one to keep

[ashleyk44 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I haven't read much Byatt since I finished my thesis last spring, and I didn't realize how much I missed her writing. This was somewhat different (for me, at least) from her other works that I've read, in a way I can't quite put my finger on. It spans social and political changes over a rather large period of time, centering primarily on the Wellwood family and others that have entered their social circles at some point or another. The large cast of characters could make it a bit difficult to remember who was who at some points, but overall I think I enjoyed all of them - they all had their roles to play in the big picture.

Now, my thesis was on her use of fairy tales and fairy tale elements - if she's written this novel a few years ago, I probably could have centered the whole thesis on it! Fairy tales are vital to this story. Olive Wellwood is a writer of children's stories in Victorian (and later, Edwardian) England, and her fairy stories and themes almost define her family.

I especially loved her portrayal of women in this novel. Olive's children (and their childhood playmates) are growing up in a time when it is becoming accepted for "respectable" women to hold "real" jobs - but often at the cost of any romantic desires or chances of marriage. Dorothy (who wants to pursue the career of a doctor/surgeon) is perhaps the most affected by the double standard, observing that although there are female doctors with husbands, those are few and far between. Griselda and Florence grapple with this decision as well. One can pursue a career, but by the time her studies are through in her late 20's, she would would be considered something of an old maid. One of my favorite passages in the novel that sums this struggle up nicely comes on page 495:

Florence was in a turmoil. She had promised herself to Geraint, and she was now promising herself to years of study. She did not think Newnham College would care for married students. She wished to disturb her father, at some ferocious girlish level, and felt - she was not really thinking - that the engagement would do that.
And yet - like Griselda, she did want to think. And she did see her future as, perhaps, the choice between thinking and sex."

Byatt has always done a wonderful job of exploring the roles that women play in various situations, past and present. This novel is no exception.

[wandering_star_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What a read. The Children's Book is about the lives of an interlocking group of families at the very start of the twentieth century. The central family is the Wellwoods, artistic and Fabian, with many children swirling around Olive Wellwood (a writer), her husband Humphry and her sister Violet. Other families are linked to them by family, friendship or coincidences. The stories are densely told, in prose which is as ornamented as the art of the Victorian era but at the same time, every word seems to be absolutely essential to the depiction of these complex characters and their relationships with each other.I think this book is really about creation. The creation of pieces of art: stories, theatrical events and physical artworks. Byatt's writing vividly conveys both the beauty and impact of the art and the visceral hunger of the artist to create, and to draw inspiration from everything around them. The political ferment of the time and its desire to create new kinds of people, of societies, of relations between the sexes. And above all, the creation of individuals: the way that parents try (and fail) to shape their children's lives, and the way those children create themselves into the adults they become. Of course, the other side of creation is destruction, and we see plenty of that too - the genius artist who destroys his own masterpieces, the destruction of people's lives by the thoughtless or evil actions of others, the destructive ferment of anarchism. And at the very end, the First World War.So this book is also about the period of time in which it was set, a time in which so many of the changes which have created our modern world were set in train, but perhaps also a world of hope and possibility, whose gilded nature was impossible to recover after those four years of blood and devastation.I found this a wonderful read. It reminded me a little of my experience of reading Byatt's Possession when I was about 18, which I felt really opened my eyes to the richness and depth of good writing (as opposed to just reading for the story).Incidentally, the cover is excellent. A turquoise Lalique brooch, surrounded by curlicues and ornamentations which somehow bring to mind both William Morris and the Victoria and Albert Museum, one of the key settings in the book. And on the back, a faint black silhouette against a dark blue background, of WWI soldiers marching raggedly across the battlefields.

[janebow · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A wonderful book, beautifully written, with very strong characters, about Britain in the early 20th Century.

[dylkit · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Dark and dense, with intertwining characters and a strong sense of time and place. It is about families, and hidden depths. Most of all, the book is about creation : creating pots and puppets, fairy tales
and stage plays and a museum to house decorative arts. It is also about invention and re-creation: inventing a new identity, a new name, a hidden world in a tree house where time stands still, the appearance of a happy family.

Olive, the matriarch of the book, grew up with her sister Violet as a miner's daughter. She becomes a best -selling author of fairy tales that appeal to children and adults. Violet becomes part of the wallpaper and has no life of her own. Olive writes personal fairy tales for each of her children - the longest and most complicated for her oldest son, Tom, about a boy who loses his shadow and goes underground to seek it. She eventually mines the story for ideas for publications, and does not notice that Tom has not lost his shadow but his soul.

It is about how destructive creativity can be, especially for those close to the creator. In an interview about the book, AS Byatt mentions Kenneth Grahame : The Wind in the Willows was born out of letters to his son, but the young man laid himself down on the railway tracks before his twentieth birthday.

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A. S. Byatt wrote one of my favourite books of all time, Possession. I didn't know if this book would live up to Possession and I was almost afraid to read it in case it didn't. In fact, the other Byatt book I have read, Angels and Insects, was a disappointment for me. However, I am happy to report that I loved this book. It was well worth the ten or so days it took me to read it.The book is set at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century. England, coming to the end of Victoria's reign, was in a time of flux. The main characters in this book, the Wellwoods, were socialists and raised their children rather more liberally than might have been normal. Olive Wellwood came from a coal mining area but while in London she met Humphry who worked for the Bank of England and they fell in love. Olive's sister, Violet, keeps house for them while Olive writes children's stories. When Humphry resigns his position in the Bank of England due to philosophical differences with his brother, Basil, who also works there Olive's stories provide the money to keep their household afloat. There are seven living children and for each of them Olive writes a continuing story. Tom, the eldest, is loved best by Olive and Dorothy, the oldest girl, resents this.Other children figure into the story. There is Philip, found hiding in the basement of a museum by Julian Cain (son of one of the museum's curators) and Tom. Philip ran away from his home in the pottery making region but desperately wants to make pots himself. There are the other Wellwoods, Charles and Griselda, born with silver spoons in their mouths but not really wanting to be part of the upper class. In fact, Charles changes his name to Karl, after Karl Marx, when his tutor allows him to read some of his books.There's really too many characters to explore them all in a brief review. They intermingle over the years and, sometimes, if it had been a while since a character was mentioned, I would have to think for a few minutes to remember where they belonged. That's not necessarily a bad thing; it was like meeting an old friend after not hearing from them for years.As the new century unfolds and the children get older they discover things about themselves, their parents, their comrades and "what they want to be when they grow up". Women were fighting for the vote and to be admitted to Universities and professional callings and to be taken seriously. Looking at that time from this vantage point it is hard to fathom why these aspirations had to be fought for as it seems obvious now that women should be equal with men.There is also a backdrop of the Arts and Crafts movement to this book which was quite fascinating to me. The gorgeous cover shows a brooch that was on display at the Paris Exhibition which indicates the creativity in existence. I would like to learn more about William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement.Of course, World War I caught all these people in its maw and chewed them up. Some died, some were physically mangled and all were psychologically damaged. It seemed appropriate to finish this up as we kept Remembrance Day.Highly recommended.

[stuart10er_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

There was a point in reading this that I had to set it down because my head hurt from the density of what was happening. The point that it occured, and there are many similar moments throughout the novel, was where it finally dawned on me the allusions to King Lear. The allusion hit me squarely between the eyes and I had to put the book down while I worked that through my brain and watched it recolor all that I had read up to that point. That is how good this book is - as I moved through the long narrative events in the book caused me to readdress things that I had read previously in another light.
The story is at once both simple and impossible to describe. A 20 year journey, give or take, through the lives of a series of interlocked families in turn of the century England. We watch them live and grow through the late Victorian era and the founding of the Victoria and Albert Museum (which figures prominently in the book) through the Edwardian and into the reign of George V and WWI. Not giving away a lot of plot to remind readers that WWI killed off a majority of young (and not-so-young) men and it would be inaccurate to say that the same didn't happen to the characters. To summarize that it is a soap opera type plot that follows these people through 20 years is to do it a disservice - but that is basically what happens. A lot of other very interesting things are layered into it; what is art? what does it mean to be an artist? German and ur-text folk tales, Freudian analysis, what does it mean to be a mother? a father? a parent? Lots of stuff in this very densly packed but quite readable and approachable book.