She didn't convince me it was all necessary, even though it did seem to have a point, which I dislike noticing in a novel. Very meta. Along the way he comes to rely on two women, one of whom may be the guide he needs out of the dizzying labyrinth of his research and back into his own life. He was quoting Empedocles, in his plangent, airy voice. I have heard of her... but I think I always assumed she was a bit too "literary" for my tastes, which in my head means snobby and convoluted kinda-real-life and not that interesting. Advanced embedding details, examples, and help! It was so-so. And I won Tash Hearts Tolstoy in @brightbeautifulthings Valentine’s Day giveaway! For a book where the character is having an affair with two different women, I can't help but question if anyone is really having any fun. Falconer. He obtains a number of essays written by the biographer, presented to us by Byatt, as she did with the poetry in, The Maelstrom: how evocative that name is, the Charybdis that tempts you, the whirlpool that draws you down into its watery depths, a volatile spiral maze from which there is no escape. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. The interesting thing is the weird, dark undercurrents that seem to go along with this journey. Similarly, we learn that a biographer may himself be a "genius"--here, I believe, the word is applied by a dissertation direc. |. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size. While reading this book I became quite confused after a while as to whether this was meant as a full-length biography or a work of fiction. I've read a few of Byatt's books, and have been thinking about how to summarize my experience with them. In practice, I got bogged down by all of. In theory, I admire the elegance of a composite novel about a man researching a biographer who was working on a composite biography of three men who were obsessed in some way with the idea of the composite. "We are held together by threads of dependence," writes A. S. Byatt's protagonist, Phineas G. Nanson, in her new novel The Biographer's Tale.This idea, as it applies to the characters' interlaced lives, underscores both the structure and narrative trajectory of Byatt's spiraling plot. Orlando and The Biographer’s Tale I bought at one of my favorite local bookstores, The Portsmouth Book and Bar. November 20, 2004 — 11.00am. The Biographer’s Tale: ... both within the contexts of the 1750s and as a province of the biographer’s and historian’s field of vision. 2001 by A S Byatt (Author) › Visit Amazon's A S Byatt Page. Both novels have as their hero a young academic studying an unfashionable branch of literature; both feature a quest to solve a (fictional) literary mystery; both have a heavy Victorian influence; both involve the interpolation of excerpts from inv. The story is good with a lot of information but it is not a straight forward tale. Refresh and try again. About The Biographer’s Tale From the award-winning author of Possession comes an ingenious novel about love and literary sleuthing: a dazzling fiction woven out of one man’s search for fact. By the time he finally agreed, three years later, he was about to embark on his Churchill biography and I was about to start working for Tony Blair. You may admire their intricacies, but you can never feel like you get close to them. Nature in this book always feels like a studied facsimile of the real thing. Order within 15 hrs 36 mins Details. The biographer’s tale In 1994 I asked Roy Jenkins if I could write his biography. the biographer’s tale by A.S. Byatt ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 24, 2000 An academic who forsakes the realm of concepts and theories for the quotidian world of “things” is the unlikely—and quite likable—protagonist of Byatt’s formidably learned latest, which echoes rather loudly her Booker Prize–winning Possession (1999). From the Trade Paperback edition. I read this as a delightful satirical novel that cast a sidelong glance at some of the odder foibles not only of scholars, but the scholars they study. Doing nothing by halves, he sets out to write a biography of a great biographer. I read this as a delightful satirical novel that cast a sidelong glance at some of the odder foibles not only of scholars, but the scholars they study. The Biographer's Tale by AS Byatt (Chatto, £15.99) condensed in the style of the original by John Crace Thu 15 Jun 2000 20.46 EDT First published on Thu 15 Jun 2000 20.46 EDT It's too cerebral; it's too dry; I just don't care about the fact that the main character is reading about how the biographer wrote about some other guy who was "particularly fond of the contrast between red apples and green apples" (p. 21). Honestly, I had to force myself to finish this book and I only did that because of Vera, Fulla and the men from Puck’s Girdle. Log in, register or subscribe to save articles for later. You may admire their intricacies, but you can never feel like you get close to them. Huge chunks of the book are devoted to bits of random research which you plod through hoping it will mean something later - only to find that it doesn’t really and could have been cut out completely. Thank you so much, Carrie! In the end, I wish she were nicer, not smarter. The Maelstrom, or Moskstraumen as the Norwegian original should really be called, features only sporadically in. The biographer's tale Item Preview remove-circle Share or Embed This Item. In the novel, graduate student Phineas G. Nanson drops his work in literary theory to pursue the “real,” embodied in his attempt to write a biography of biographer Scholes Destry-Scholes. Thus, in Byatt’s fiction, text and theory combine to illuminate issues surrounding the relationship between history, fiction and life writing, which coalesce around the issue of identity. I became witness to a fascinating friendship across the generations between two politicians . BIOGRAPHER'S TALE is a tough read. Fastest delivery: Tomorrow. A tantalizing yarn of detection and desire, The Biographer's Tale is a provocative look at "truth" in biography and our perennial quest for certainty. Reader's Warehouse. In this witty, Borges-like novel, A.S. Byatt weaves a dazzling fiction out of one man's search for fact. Possession. Since I liked Babel Tower (and long before that, Possession) so much, I thought I would read some other Byatt and found this one. search results for this author. A portrait of Chaucer. The Biographer's Tale: A. S. Byatt: 9780099283935: Books - Amazon.ca. A.M. Juster. The main characters of this fiction, literature story are , . Surprisingly, I gave up on this one. International Fiction. by A. S. Byatt. It isn't - but maybe I shouldn't have expected that, as a writer like AS Byatt isn't likely to write the same book twice! So, we have a distraught central character swinging from one end of the academic spectrum, the well-satirized, over-determined tedium of post-structuralism, to the other, the out-of-date, fifties-era scholarship of biography. The Biographer's Tale : A S Byatt : 9780099283935 We use cookies to give you the best possible experience. Even though A.S. Byatt has made a fine literary career setting up stories about the men and women who choose a life of the mind over a life of physical pleasures, it A.S. Byatt never surpassed the acclaim that greeted her 1990 novel Possession, a literary detective story composed of equal parts richly rendered period detail and page-turning suspense, with an involving love story thrown in for good measure. Other titles by this author . During the course of his research he fails to learn much about the actual subject of his biography, but discovers a lot of Destry-Scholes' unpublished research about real historical figures Carl Linnaeus, Francis Galton and Henrik Ibsen. You can shop for books AND drink! See all formats and editions Hide other formats and editions. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group A tantalizing yarn of detection and desire, The Biographer’s Tale is a provocative look at “truth” in biography and our perennial quest for certainty. The Biographer's Tale. The abandon that the prim Phineas (the main character) supposedly feels with Fulla plays out far too meticulously. Source: aliteraryprincess. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Biographer%27s_Tale&oldid=781006206, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 18 May 2017, at 14:24. This was a tough one. But I finished it nevertheless. Byatt has a way of making her characters seem like butterfly specimens pinned to a display. I did enjoy it, all the same, although some of the long sections with little bits of the main character's research, as he aims to write a biography of the ultimate biographer, can be heavy going. The Biographer's Tale is a book by A. S. Byatt. He begins his research. Still interesting, though! A portrait of Chaucer. Hello Select your address All Hello, Sign in. Nature in this book alw. Both novels have as their hero a young academic studying an unfashionable branch of literature; both feature a quest to solve a (fictional) literary mystery; both have a heavy Victorian influence; both involve the interpolation of excerpts from invented works by invented authors (a Byatt specialty, and something that she does about as well as anybody this side of Borges), though the excerpts from never-completed biographies that feature in "A Biographer's Tale" are probably less likely to be skipped over by the average reader than the poetry that features heavily in "Possession"; and both have an exceedingly academic-literary atmosphere (it's possible to read and enjoy "A Biographer's Tale" even if you've never heard of Foucault or have no real idea of what post-structuralism is, but a passing familiarity with literary theory certainly doesn't hurt). A.S.Byatt, indeed, is worth much more, much more than this confusing hodge-podge of literary detection and immaculate research. The Biographer's Tale by A.S. Byatt My rating: 3 of 5 stars A.S. Byatt is a writer of great erudition, a Victorianist who does Victorian studies by writing intelligent fiction for the general public. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. The biographer's tale by Byatt, A. S. (Antonia Susan), 1936-Publication date 2001 Topics Biography as a literary form, Biographers, Young men Publisher New York : A.A. Knopf Collection inlibrary; printdisabled; internetarchivebooks; china Digitizing sponsor Internet Archive Contributor Internet Archive Language English. How do we put the idea of a person together? Any references to sex felt a little strained and unintentionally comical. Phineas G. Nanson sets out to write a biography of a great biographer, only to discover that the fragmentary facts and bits of information are difficult to put together, a discovery that becomes a metaphor for his own complex life She seems concerned with intellectual people (I think of all her characters having an I in their Mayer-Briggs classification) who, though some sort of academic or research-related journey, make strides in their romantic, sexual and emotional lives. by Vintage. Huge chunks of the book are devoted to bits of random research which you plod through hoping it will mean something later - only to find that it doesn’t really and could have been cut out completely. Cart Actually, Byatt lovers--a broader question--what are your favorites of hers? A.S. Byatt is a novelist, short-story writer and critic of international renown. Perhaps genius is the wrong word here, but something worthy of scholarly biography. The Thirteenth Tale (2006) by Diane Setterfield is a gothic suspense novel, the author's first published book. Free 2-day shipping on qualified orders over $35. I love her work with her actual characters so much more than her imitation of scholarly works or her character-created fictions. Or live your own life rather than someone else's. I've read a few of Byatt's books, and have been thinking about how to summarize my experience with them. I became witness to a fascinating … The biographer's tale by A. S. Byatt, 2001, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group edition, Electronic resource in English The Biographer's Tale by AS Byatt (Chatto, £15.99) condensed in the style of the original by John Crace Thu 15 Jun 2000 20.46 EDT First published on Thu 15 Jun 2000 20.46 EDT The story is about a postgraduate student, Phineas G. Nanson, who decides to write a biography about an obscure biographer, Scholes Destry-Scholes. EMBED (for wordpress.com hosted blogs and archive.org item
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