The Booker Prize-winning author of Possession presents a stunning, contemporary story set against the clashing politics, passionate ideals, and shifting sexual roles of the early 1960s. In Byatt's vision, the presiding genius of the day seems to be a blend of the Marquis de Sade and The Hobbit. Peopled with weird and colorful characters, charted with brilliant, imaginative sympathy, Babel Tower is as comic as it is threatening and bizarre.
Review
Chronicling a cultural watershed, Ms. Byatt has tackled a very large--and yet also a notably self-reflexive--subject: What exactly can a novel hope to do these days? She shows her usual impressive command of slippery ideas and the solidest of details. -- The New York Times Book Review, Ann Hulbert
From the Inside Flap
rize-winning author of Possession presents a stunning, contemporary story set against the clashing politics, passionate ideals, and shifting sexual roles of the early 1960s. In Byatt's vision, the presiding genius of the day seems to be a blend of the Marquis de Sade and The Hobbit. Peopled with weird and colorful characters, charted with brilliant, imaginative sympathy, Babel Tower is as comic as it is threatening and bizarre.
About the Author
A.S. Byatt is the author of Possession, winner of the Booker Prize and a national bestseller. Her two novels that lead up to Babel Tower, tracing the fortunes of Frederica and her family through the 1950's, are The Virgin in the Garden and Still Life, and her other fiction includes The Shadow of the Sun, The Game, Angels and Insects and two collections of shorter works: Sugar and Other Stories and The Matisse Stories. She has also published three volumes of critical work, of which Passions of the Mindis the most recent. She has taught English and American literature at University College, London, and is a distinguished critic and reviewer. She lives in London.
Product details
- Publisher : Random House; 1st U.S. ed edition (April 23, 1996)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 623 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0679405135
- ISBN-13 : 978-0679405139
- Item Weight : 2.29 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.75 x 2.25 x 10 inches
