La torre di Babele

by A.S. Byatt, Anna Nadotti (translator), Fausto Naduzzi (translator)

book data

673 ratings, 3.80 average rating, 48 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		26%
4		37%
3		27%
2		6%
1		2%

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published

1997 by einaudi (first published 1996)

details

Hardcover, 617 pages

url

http://www.einaudi.it/libri/libro/a-s-by...

characters

Frederica Potter

isbn13

9788806144135

description

Babel Tower follows The Virgin in the Gardenand Still Life in tracing Frederica Potter, a lover of books who reflects the author's life and times. It…more

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Feb 11, 2007

Feather Stolzenbach rated it:

(review of isbn 0517277743)

Probably my favorite of the four - intense and fun to read.

From the Publisher
At the heart of the novel are two law cases, twin strands of the Establishment's web, that shape the story: a painful divorce and custody suit and the prosecution of an "obscene" book. Frederica, the independent young heroine, is involved in both. She startled her intellectual circle of friends by marrying a young country squire, whose violent streak has now been turned against her. Fleeing ...more

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Jul 26, 2007

Carol rated it:

(review of isbn 0679736808)

This is a very ambitious book, weaving together about 5 storylines on subjects as diverse as domestic violence, snail biology, educational reform, Britain in the '60s, and the question of obscenity in literature. It is painfully literary in spots, rather dull in others, and slightly snigger-inducing from time to time (the fantasy novel-within-in-a-novel did not work well for me). However, I ended up finishing all 600-some pages, and that says something, because I'm not one to finish a book that ...more

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1 comment

Oct 14, 2007

Amanda rated it:

(review of isbn 0517277743)

Read in November, 2007

AS Byatt is a goddess of language. This book was sharp and dangerous in its exploration of human desire, education, language, love, and power. It was a bit of a shock after Still Life, in which the language was warm, full, sonorous - Still Life was complete and still, like Stephanie; Babel Tower is edgy and driven like Frederica. Jude Mason's book was difficult to read, but Byatt makes you believe in its value. If ever there was a book that encompasses everything that is important, I think this ...more

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Jan 22, 2009

Lea rated it:

(review of isbn 0517277743)

This novel is dense, and is full of literary reference, but for those of us who are not so well-read, we do not miss out. The story enthralls and holds, as it looks at power and evil against a backdrop of the beginning of the psychadelic era of the late fifties & early sixties. Two stories are written in tandem - the fanciful tale of a group of people who set out with high hopes of creating utopia, and the disturbing decay of this society. This story is written by Jude, one of the characters in ...more

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Nov 09, 2009

Emily M. rated it:

(review of isbn 0517277743)

bookshelves: 2006

Read in September, 2006

One of the targets of my ongoing self-indulgent re-reading spree has been A.S. Byatt's novel Babel Tower. This is the third book in a tetraology that also includes The Virigin in the Garden, Still Life, and A Whistling Woman and that takes place in the England of the '50s and '60s. I used to like the earlier books better than the later ones, but perhaps this wasn't fair of me; each book seems to improve as I get closer to Frederica's age in it.

The first two books followed all three chi...more One of the targets of my ongoing self-indulgent re-reading spree has been A.S. Byatt's novel Babel Tower. This is the third book in a tetraology that also includes The Virigin in the Garden, Still Life, and A Whistling Woman and that takes place in the England of the '50s and '60s. I used to like the earlier books better than the later ones, but perhaps this wasn't fair of me; each book seems to improve as I get closer to Frederica's age in it.

The first two books followed all three children of the Potter family, but the second two are really only about Frederica, the middle child, who in this book is unhappily married to an uncultured, brutish nob, whom she would leave if it weren't for their small son.( Her reasons for marrying him are hard to explain without spoiling the second book of the series, but it seems that their relationship was based on sex and his apparently unique ability to stand up to her daunting intellect.) Once they are married, he expects her to stay home and do nothing while he works and travels. After a series of "marital disputes" which culminate in Nigel throwing an ax at her, Frederica disappears back to London, where she finds various scraps of work thanks to her plugged-in friends. She files for a divorce and Nigel counters by seeking custody of their son.

In the meantime, Frederica "discovers" a new author, well-read but personally repugnant, who has written a book called Babbletower. The blurb on my paperback describes this as either "an exercise in Sadeian pornography or a corrosive fable of the consequences of pure freedom" (which is better than anything I could come up with). The publication of this book and the ensuing obscenity trial unfold alongside Frederica's attempts to understand her marriage and explain (to herself and the courts) why she has to escape it. The novel, therefore, is preoccupied with the fine line between strong love and cruelty; the ways people inflict pain on each other, either intentionally or inadvertantly; self-abnegation in relationships; and the attempt to reconcile the differing goals and methods of love and lust.

This is the first book in the tetraology that Byatt wrote after Possession, and it contains the same sort of interpolated texts (in this case, Babbletower and an adventure story for children) but without the academic dryness that undermined Possession for me. Here, Byatt more convincingly blends the life of the mind with everday life. The layers and "laminations" and stories build up in rather baroque fashion, but there is something seamy, complicated, and visceral at the heart of this novel, unlike the previous two, that I don't think I could approach the first time I read this (when I was barely out of high school).(less)

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Jun 07, 2009

Jesse rated it:

(review of isbn 0517277743)

Read in July, 2009

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

If you picked this up and read it in 1998 when it was first published, it may have had more relevance to you. But by 2009, the themes of 60s events, 60s poor-me feminism, education and the life of intellectuals are so dry and played out, Babel Tower has nothing left to offer.

Byatt's Babel Tower gains two stars for the sheer scope of it. Unfortunately, most of the sub-stories, and in particular the defenses of children's education and the tedious court room dramas, were so dry that I...more

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Apr 23, 2009

Brigid rated it:

(review of isbn 0517277743)

Read in March, 2009

Really this should have three and a half stars, since parts of this book were tedious and/or (to me) pointless. BUT - the rest, especially Frederica and her marriage and relationship to her son were so compulsively, grippingly compelling and realistic that they were almost unbearable to read. Those sections, so full of emotional truth, redeemed the rest of the book for me.

I was unaware when I read it that this is the third novel about these characters, something I wish I had known w...more

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Dec 20, 2009

Mag rated it:

(review of isbn 0679405135)

bookshelves: british, fiction

Owns a copy — Read in August, 2005

recommended to Mag by: Cristina

It is a novel of ideas. It was a pleasure to read, and I could go back to the beginning right away, start reading again and still find interesting issues to think about. It reflects and discusses issues which were topical in the 60s, like women's rights, new trends in education, changes in what was designated obscene and sexual revolution. It is also paradise for those who like literary analysis, and discussions in philosophy and ethics. It is dense with ideas on and from Nietzsche, Blake, Fouri...more

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Aug 15, 2007

Wade rated it:

(review of isbn 0679736808)

Read in July, 2007

recommends it for: idealists

My ethics professor, Dr. Gabriella Lettini, suggested this book to me -- suggesting i need a better understanding of how desire can harm -- after reading my paper on the ethics of queer religious leaders publicly speaking about their sex lives.

this book is certainly about that, about desire and freedom, the limits of utopian freedom, the sort of intellectual space between Charles Fourier and the Marquis de Sade -- about whether indulging in human desires is liberative or destructive,...more

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Jul 12, 2007

Jessica rated it:

(review of isbn 0679736808)

This remarkable third entry in the Frederica Potter series finds Frederica married and miserable, in the country home of her wealthy and controlling husband. It is now 1964, and the Frederica who wanted the life of an intellectual is virtually imprisoned in her home, with only her deep love for her small son to sustain her. As her relationship grows violent, her Cambridge friends help her and the boy flee to London, where she slowly creates an expanding circle of friends who involve her in art, ...more

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Apr 21, 2009

Karl Steel rated it:

(review of isbn 0517277743)

bookshelves: postmedieval_fiction

Read in May, 2009

You get:

* Charles Fourier vs. Sade (in the novel, babbletower, within a novel)
* An affectionate send-up of the medievalism and attractions to Apocalyptic Blake in 60s counterculture (and a perhaps less affectionate send up of the countercultural psychology of Laing and Marcuse)
* A wondering exploration of the 60s developments in pedagogy
* a harrowing feminist account of domestic violence
* TWO courtroom dramas (first divorce, and then an obscenity charge, durin...more

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Jul 06, 2008

Siria rated it:

(review of isbn 0099743418)

bookshelves: 20th-century, british-fiction

Read in January, 2003

Babel Tower is an immensely pleasurable reading experience. Not because it's a particularly cheery book—god, it's not—but because it demands such intensity, such devotion of the reader and repays it all with interest. The intertextuality of it all is such a delight—books within books, Babbletower hidden within Babel Tower, the stories, the letters, the references to other novels—all giving rise to a level of introspection which feels organic rather than forced. Her characters are all incredibl...more

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Jan 01, 2010

Linda Tuplin rated it:

(review of isbn 0517277743)

Owns a copy — Read in January, 2006

I read it quite awhile ago and only remember being engrossed by it but also somewhat confused. I do recall being awed by the research and knowledge of the author, to be able to have her characters discuss topics in such depth. It deserves a second read.

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Oct 09, 2007

Betsy rated it:

(review of isbn 0679405135)

Read in October, 2007

recommends it for: people I want to be play a mean prank on.

This gets a star for skill. It loses four for:
1. Not keeping my interest. Between it and staring at whatever is in front of me in a dingy bus, I increasingly chose the back of the head in front of me.
2. Being hard to read. And not in a good way. I read for pleasure, not sheer discomfort. Can't get comfortable in this one.
3. Neglecting threads of the three stories for far too long at times.
4. Causing me to owe the Cleveland Park Branch Library $2.50 in overdue fines. ...more

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Feb 03, 2009

Dan Crews rated it:

(review of isbn 0679736808)

Read in January, 2004

This is a very complicated novel, written for just about every reader. There are different kinds of writing; novel with in a novel; story within a story; excerpts.

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Oct 04, 2009

Jennifer rated it:

(review of isbn 0517277743)

I read this 4 or 5 years ago, sold my copy to a used bookstore, and yet I still think about it sometimes.

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Jan 11, 2009

Ryo rated it:

(review of isbn 0517277743)

Read in November, 2007

one of the most interesting books ever written. incredible

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Jan 04, 2010

Karen Powell added it (review of isbn 0679736808)

Babel Tower by A.S. Byatt (1997)

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Jun 05, 2007

nicebutnubbly rated it:

(review of isbn 0679736808)

bookshelves: favorites, fiction

Read in January, 1998

Frederica Potter is one of the most memorable heroines of twentieth-century literature. The other books in this series are good, but this one is outstanding, and despite the split narrative, very compelling. I related so much to Frederica's sexual, professional, and feminist struggles with her life, and when I got pregnant, I though about her a lot. He's wonderfully drawn, and even the hyper-ridiculous backdrop of early seventies avant-garde insanity Byatt uses as her setting doesn't ruin this b...more

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Nov 26, 2007

Siobhann marked it as to-read (review of isbn 0517277743)

bookshelves: to-read

Read in January, 2007

I just started this one, but already like it better than Still Life and Virgin in the Garden. If you haven't read any Byatt yet, start with Possession, one of my favorite books of all time. Her writing is amazing and intelligent and very dense--it took me about 4 months to get through Still Life and Virgin in the Garden, mostly because you need to set aside a two-hour block of time to really focus on what you're reading. It's not one of those pick-up-on-the-bus-and-read-on-your-way-to-work kind ...more

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