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The Virgin in the Garden (The Frederica Quartet #1)

3.68 of 5 stars 3.68 · rating details · 1,615 ratings · 126 reviews

The Virgin in the Garden is a wonderfully erudite entertainment in which enlightenment and sexuality, Elizabethan drama and contemporary comedy, intersect richly and unpredictably.

Paperback, 428 pages

Published January 15th 1992 by Vintage (first published 1978)

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Aug 06, 2010 Stephen rated it 4 of 5 stars

To me, reading Byatt is an event, and this novel is no exception. I've already read, before this one, two of hers: Possession and The Children's Book, both of which I love for the depth of the life portraits, the poetry, the sensual imagery, and the many other elements that are all proof of her literary genius. With this novel, the things that I have come to love from her are hardly visible; it wasn't that there was a lack of intelligence in it, quite the opposite in fact, since half of the nove...more

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Jun 05, 2007 Siria rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 20th-century, british-fiction

I love revisiting Byatt's style, whether re-reading or reading new works for the first time, and The Virgin in the Garden doesn't disappoint. Her work is never light reading, but it is beautifully layered and textured, erudite without being overpowering, funny but never really light-hearted; it's language to lose yourself in.

Frederica is the character who goes on to become central in the later books - hence why this forms the first part of the Frederica quartet - but here she's much more part of...more

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Jan 08, 2013 Nicole Fergusson rated it 3 of 5 stars

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

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Oct 19, 2012 Brandy rated it 3 of 5 stars

There are some books which you come across at just the right time in your life for them to become part of you. Something in the book--a character, the language, the curious and nimble mind of the author--grabs you because it reflects something nebulous in yourself at that moment, crystallizes it, makes the abstract real and tangible. A. S. Byatt's book Possession was like that for me when I was twenty years old, and I've never forgotten the experience of reading it. It was a story about academia...more There are some books which you come across at just the right time in your life for them to become part of you. Something in the book--a character, the language, the curious and nimble mind of the author--grabs you because it reflects something nebulous in yourself at that moment, crystallizes it, makes the abstract real and tangible. A. S. Byatt's book Possession was like that for me when I was twenty years old, and I've never forgotten the experience of reading it. It was a story about academia, romance, and the English canon which came to me at a time when I was deciding to embrace my own longstanding interests and become an English major with the hopes of someday teaching others about the things I loved to read. Everything was shifting into place, sharp and clear on the wintery plains of northern Illinois, and Byatt was one lens which helped me feel I was seeing things more clearly. Ah, the wild romanticism of youth.

Sadly, this entry is not about Possession, but it is about A.S. Byatt's work. In all the years since I first read that novel, through all the books I've encountered, I've only read a very few other books by her. The Virgin in the Garden is my most recent reading of Byatt. It's the first in a quartet of books, set in the mid-20th century and centered around the Potter family, with its three gifted children and, its overbearingly polemical father, and its accommodating, rather meek mother. However important the parents are to understanding the fates of their offspring, though, it's the children who are center stage here.

The eldest child is Stephanie, a gifted academic in her own right who appalls her father by returning to her home town to teach at the girls' grammar school rather than taking a more ambitious approach elsewhere. The second child, Frederica, is preparing to graduate from the same grammar school and settle for nothing less than glamour and excitement. The youngest child is Marcus, sixteen and overly sensitive, a student at the school where his father is headmaster. Each of the Potter children is at a turning point in his or her life, making transformative decisions and learning to face the consequences. Stephanie’s decision to return home is sharpened by her provincial (in her father’s opinion) choice to marry the town vicar. Frederica’s ambitions as an actress almost overtake her as when she is cast as Elizabeth Astraea, the virgin queen, in a regional verse pageant. And Marcus narrowly avoids disaster when he is taken under the wing of a teacher who promises spiritual revelation.

The domestic and private life, the sensual and public life, and the interior spiritual life are all revolving, then—perhaps even wobbling wildly—around the same familial axis. This revolution and transformation is paralleled by the political shift occurring as England welcomes her new Queen, the second Elizabeth. And this, friends, is where things get complicated. Of course, I’m a fan of the complicated, messy novel, but many folks out there disagree with me. Online reviews of *Virgin* tend to either focus entirely on the character drama, or vaguely complain that there is too much going on, or that half of the book is readable and half is not.

And the truth is that more does happen in the novel than would be fair to try to cover in this brief response. The book is character and language driven, as most of Byatt’s work is. Maybe “language-driven” isn’t even the right descriptor here; Byatt’s work may perhaps be closer in fact to “literacy-driven.” But the layering of social commentary almost seems to fight against the other aspects of the narrative at times, even as it knits the disparate stories together. This book is not a perfect piece, but I’m finding that, even months after reading it, I am landing upon new threads of understanding. My complaints are that the tripartite balancing act mentioned above seems dangerously out of balance at times, but most of those complaints are tempered by the deep insights into the characters. They’re not always likeable, but they’re real people in a complex world. And that talent, along with the miniaturist’s sense of detail which sometimes makes Virgin feel so discursive, is exactly the strength which later developed into the masterpiece which was Possession.(less)

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Mar 11, 2012 Lisa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

CONTAINS LOTS OF SPOILERS.
"Look at the pretty goddesses, Frederica." Frederica looked at the pretty goddesses - but it is not only from period plasterwork (Diana slaying a chanceless Actaeon and Venus chasing the errant cupid who has caused some stuccoed hearts to ache) that one of the book's two main characters, 17-year-old Federica Potter (a name telling in its mixture of sweeping Germanic fierceness and potterish petit-bourgeoisie) sets out, in a way not much unlike one imagines the young Mad...more CONTAINS LOTS OF SPOILERS.
"Look at the pretty goddesses, Frederica." Frederica looked at the pretty goddesses - but it is not only from period plasterwork (Diana slaying a chanceless Actaeon and Venus chasing the errant cupid who has caused some stuccoed hearts to ache) that one of the book's two main characters, 17-year-old Federica Potter (a name telling in its mixture of sweeping Germanic fierceness and potterish petit-bourgeoisie) sets out, in a way not much unlike one imagines the young Madonna, to lose her virginity, as some sort of intellectual carreer move, so she be done with it, and can go one conquering the world - first stop Cambridge, that is. As with most things, at the age of seventeen one imagines them to be easier than they factually are, when all her surroundings seem to unfurl into a great metaphorical fugue - not just plasterworks, but also bedspreads embroidered by hapless maidens bedding the queen's favourites, and most importantly, the PLAY itself, in which she is to act, representing the young queen, Elizabeth, the First.
The play- and here the second half of the storyline rushes in to unite with the first, is composed by Alexander Wedderburn, non other than everybody's secret crush, good-looking, intellectual to boot, over-sensitive, over-reclusive bud burdened with some complex sexual longing, wishing to take hold of the ultimate queen bitch, no matter whether he tries to bring her in by modernization of truly "Elizabethan" drama by ways of T.S. Eliot, shortly settling for a colleagues's wife, who gets carried away by violent impulse, till he finally gets a good look at ambitious-to-the-teeth Frederica, and is stirred, if by nothing but her raw energy-that...and her intellectual ability to backtrack the motives that run through his play, as we alwyas tend to like the people that make us feel smart. How it resolves...it resolves in a way that is more or less satisfactory, Frederica settles the bill with her petit-bourgeois part by way of a nature morte of a "come-to-my-house-and-let-me-seduce-you" evening meal arranged on the table, and is carried of, in a slight of hand as if construed by Hermes himself, by a psychologist, speaking cleverly, wearing goggles of various hues, and conveniently unencumbered by love or any sort of messy feelings for Frederica, who certainly also feels that he is more suited to the task than, er, a traveler in dolls one meets on the bus, for example.

The book cites the sister-sister pair that graces some D.H. Lawrence novels, "Women in Love" and "the Rainbow" (Gudrun and Ursula), not without cause, even though there is a good deal of mockery going on at the cost of the good D.H., it is plainly clear, that, for now, A.S. Byatt takes a new approach to the same topic, nodding reverence by ways of germanic namesand all. The second sister, Stephanie, is described, more or less shortly, and does not arouse great compassion or sympathy (but will, in the next volume of the tale, at least)- in this book, at least: Apparently she ist troubled, troubled by intellect, by photographic memory, troubled by love for the Deacon (in a family of strictly atheists), troubled by men proposing to her out of the blue, troubled by the housing situation, by her brother's distress.
It is so much easier to disregard those troubles, and follow along Frederica, who we want to be like, if we do not like her. (less)

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Feb 16, 2012 Geoff rated it 2 of 5 stars

Let me get this out of the way: A.S. Byatt is a great writer. Her prose sparkles with learned intelligence, and her characters are sketched so well they feel like living, breathing people. She is unafraid to mix in literary allusions or linger for extended periods of time over one subject or another. Normally, these are qualities I admire in a novelist, and in a different book (this being my first Byatt), I can easily imagine these qualities working brilliantly in her favor.

However, file this o...more

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Dec 28, 2011 Jo rated it 3 of 5 stars

Byatt is a great author, but, like many great authors, she is often hard work. The Virgin in the Garden is no exception.

The first thing you need to know about this book is that there are just so many things going on, there are several characters with a significant storyline, but nothing is really resolved by the end of the book.

For example, the prologue is actually something of an epilogue. Three of the main characters meet to attend a performance. At the time, we learn very little about the rel...more Byatt is a great author, but, like many great authors, she is often hard work. The Virgin in the Garden is no exception.

The first thing you need to know about this book is that there are just so many things going on, there are several characters with a significant storyline, but nothing is really resolved by the end of the book.

For example, the prologue is actually something of an epilogue. Three of the main characters meet to attend a performance. At the time, we learn very little about the relationships between them, apart from the fact they were at an "ill-sorted dinner party" recently and that the woman, Frederica, has some sort of hold (implied: sexual) over one of the men, Alexander. We also learn that Alexander likes and appreciates clothes and fashion and that he is some kind of writer.

We then jump back 15 years to 1953, and the rest of the book is set over a period of about six months in that year.

Alexander, a teacher at a private boys' school, has just written a play. He has the support of a local philanthrope to stage it, and would like the support of his Head of Department, Bill Potter. Bill is a difficult man, who is also very active in adult education in the area. He has a wife and three children: Stephanie (who has graduated from Cambridge and now teaches at the local girls' grammar school, which she attended and which her sister attends), Frederica (in her final year of school) and Marcus (who attends the boys' school). Bill has set ideas about what his children will do and achieve. Stephanie teaching at the girls' grammar is not part of that.

We follow four storylines: Alexander, Stephanie, Frederica and Marcus (and, to a limited extent, that of Daniel, the local curate, who was the other man who attended the performance in the prologue). Stephanie and Frederica are both in love with Alexander. Marcus has something very strange going on. Alexander is trying to juggle his affair with the wife of a colleague, the play, teaching, and the Potters. Frederica wants to get involved in the play. Stephanie is looking for a way out.

Nobody ends up entirely satisfied.

There are some interesting themes in this book, and some problematic ones. However, my overwhelming impression is that I am overwhelmed. There is simply too much crammed in, too much happening at once. It is simply not possible, at least, not on a first reading and not this soon after it, to tease out any cogent reaction to it.

One reason for this is maybe that, despite the length of the book, the number of storylines and the number of events, the reader is left hanging at the end. If not for the prologue, this would be unremarkable. However, there is no explanation of the prologue; no elucidation of the existing relationships between Frederica, Alexander and Daniel (is it the first time they have seen one another since 1953? Presumably not, but if not, what has happened since then?); no explanation of who else was at the ill-sorted dinner party. One side of me would have liked some resolution of these things, perhaps because the prologue led me to expect it. However, without the prologue, I would not even have been looking for that kind of resolution, as the books I like best tend to leave those questions open anyway.

Having said all that, this book is an excellent reflection of the complexity of real life, including the fact that real life often lacks a resolution. It is easy to criticise many other stories for being too neat; that this is not gives it something of the character of a candid action photograph.

Perhaps one point is that people have their own storylines; that the people you tend to think of as characters in your narrative in fact have things going on of their own and may not always be there to serve your narrative in the way you expect.(less)

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Aug 04, 2007 Robin rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who liked Possession

Shelves: cont-fiction

A dear friend recommended this to me since I liked Possession, and I fell for it at first blush. The first of a quartet about, hate to be trite here, but the making of a modern Englishwoman. The way each book treats different aspects of art (theater, painting, etc.) is engaging, as is following this cast of characters through -- what, over a decade? You will know these people inside and out and find yourself loving and yelling at them.

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Apr 22, 2012 Coleen rated it 2 of 5 stars

5/26/08 - Phew! Difficult read for me, this one was. I haven't read anything quite this "heavy" in a long time. Having not previously read anything else by Byatt (I have Possesion on Mt. TBR), I guess I wasn't quite prepared for the writing style. Indeed -- long, descriptive sentences that went on and on and on. I appreciate good descriptive writing -- I do, but I can only take so much at a time, and thus it took me much longer than expected to get through this book. I found myself skimming thro...more

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Oct 30, 2012 Ubik 2.0 rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: british-literature

"La vergine del giardino" (1979), benchè edito in Italia solo nel 2002, è il primo libro di una quadrilogia ["Frederica", dal nome della protagonista] che comprende "Natura morta" (1985), "La torre di Babele" (1996) senza dubbio il migliore dei quattro e "Una donna che fischia" (2001).

Diciassette anni prima di "La Torre di Babele" (e dieci prima del suo capolavoro "Possession") la Byatt non sembra in questo "La vergine del giardino" avere ancora trovato un equilibrio fra la sua erudizione e pass...more

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Apr 25, 2009 Susan rated it 5 of 5 stars

If the test of a great novel is that you want to read it again, or pick up the next one (this is the first of a quartet) then this is a good novel. If Still Life—the next title in the quartet—had been right here on the shelf I'd have started it right after I reread the Prologue.

The present time of the novel is 1953, the year of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and, in the world of the novel, of a verse drama about the first Queen Elizabeth enacted on the grounds of an old and elegant estate...more If the test of a great novel is that you want to read it again, or pick up the next one (this is the first of a quartet) then this is a good novel. If Still Life—the next title in the quartet—had been right here on the shelf I'd have started it right after I reread the Prologue.

The present time of the novel is 1953, the year of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and, in the world of the novel, of a verse drama about the first Queen Elizabeth enacted on the grounds of an old and elegant estate in Yorkshire. The story is that of a Yorkshire family: father Bill Potter who’s reputed to be a magnetic teacher at Blesford Ride, a public school, but we see him primarily as a dogmatic liberal who terrorizes his family while promoting his ideas on education (he’s for it) and religion (he’s against it). Winifred, his wife, caters and defers, of necessity becoming exactly the kind of woman he deplores and whose life her daughters (Stephanie and Frederica) seek to escape. Marcus, the youngest and his mother’s favorite, is inner-directed, even spiritual, awkward with just about everyone, observant of phenomena of his world--and becomes prey for a disturbed science teacher.

The novel, which in general is slow moving and highly allusive has a surprisingly dramatic closing sequence for a writer who says she didn’t think she could tell stories. I had to laugh, though, at the very end: the scene is between Daniel, the fat, unkempt priest who marries the elder Potter daughter against the wishes of her parents, and Frederica in the small flat where the pregnant Stephanie is comforting the very disturbed Marcus.

Here's the last paragraph: "Waiting and patience, of this inactive kind, did not come easily to him. Or to Frederica, he decided, without much sympathy for her. He gave her a cup of tea and the two of them sat together in uncommunicative silence, considering the still and passive pair on the sofa. That was not the end, but since it went on for a considerable time, is as good a place to stop as any."

I loved that ending and asked myself why:

1. It caused me to consider the title of the second book in the quartet, Still Life. Stephanie and Marcus were "still" in their way but that was not true of Frederica and Daniel about whom "stillness" is almost the last word that would occur in any description of their characters.

2. It sent me immediately back to reread the prologue where I rediscovered that Daniel was one of the guests at the celebration in the Portrait Gallery in 1968---long after the New Elizabethan Age furor is over. Alexander Wedderburn, who wrote the 1953 verse play as a budding writer teaching at Blesford Ride, is also there, signaling perhaps that these two, and Frederica who invited them are of most interest in the novel.

3. The implication that there's more to the history of these characters made me want to continue immediately with the next book. And that reminds me that I absolutely loved the way Byatt handled time in the novel, the constant references to what different characters would do or think in the future, often with a date attached, usually in the 1970s. So you know the story goes on beyond the 1968 prologue. That's not an end to the story. AND that Byatt must have had the sequence fairly well planned out.

4. It reminded me that I liked the third person omniscient narrator which since Henry James has been used less frequently in serious fiction. I think Byatt uses it brilliantly and this ending paragraph is an example. SHE knows what happens to them all and will tell you if you're patient. The ostensible third person narrative showcases the author’s extraordinary insight into so many different characters. Before the novel is over, we know all the Potters well, and even have some insights into the extraordinarily bad father. And 4 or 5 additional characters as well.

There is a narrator, though, in this novel and one who gradually makes us realize that Frederica is the main character. Some readers see Frederica as the narrator, and that is possible if one assumes a Frederica observing at some point in the future and if one assumes, as I do, that Frederica is capable of considerable detachment. But I prefer to think it's Byatt's re-incarnation of the 19th century 3rd person omniscient narrator who, as the novel goes on, focuses on the awkward, studious 17-year old ready to catapult herself into "real life". In addition, it's this narrator--definitely female--who provides the considerable humor in the novel.

My argument that the narrative is essentially (if not strictly) third person centers around the intimate (and convincing) inside view of so many different characters. What makes this a strong novel it seems to me is that Frederica is NOT Byatt thinly disguised, even though the family does seem quite similar (but then it also seems similar to the Bröntes, a point of view some in the novel espouse). In the "real" family she was the eldest and she even says that killing off Stephanie (which happens in another novel) seems, in retrospect, killing off herself. But she also says that she was shy and uncommunicative as a child, with interests in science—and that Marcus is in many ways a portrait of herself.(less)

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Mar 02, 2012 Gitte rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, english, written-in-1970s

I really enjoyed reading about these characters. I may not like them all the time, but I always believe in them! They seem so real. It was particularly amusing to encounter Frederica as an annoying teenager - I got to know her as an adult in Babel Tower a couple of years ago and was curious to see what she was like 'before'.

I didn't get all the references, but I've decided it doesn't really matter, as the characters were so passionate about their work and studies that I enjoyed reading about it...more

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Jan 19, 2013 Mandy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die, books-read-2013

I enjoyed this book for so many reasons. Looking at the start end dates for reading this book you could perhaps think it was difficult book to read but nothing is further from the truth. In fact I stayed up later than i really should have some nights.

The setting is very comfortable for me, born and raised in Yorkshire, many of the places mentioned were favourite haunts for me (Mother Shiptons Cave in Knaresborough, the beautiful Whitby Abbey and bracing Scarborough)- so I had the advantage of kn...more

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Dec 11, 2009 veronica rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Only the very patient

The Virgin in the Garden was really painful at times. I seriously skipped entire chunks of pages, skimming quickly, and realizing I wasn't missing anything important. Byatt takes herself so. Damn. Seriously. Some authors, like Melville, are difficult without being a pain in the ass, but Byatt can't pull it off. The overindulgent "I'm so smart" allusions, the needlessly confusing action description... so tiresome. But, pieces of the plot were intriguing, and Byatt made a somewhat respectable atte...more

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Aug 31, 2009 Mike rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009, favorites

This book took forever to finish. I have no idea why, the dialog was brilliant, Byatt's character development was sound, and the plot interesting. I guess I wasn't in a 1950's-coming-of-age-story sort of mood.

But all that aside, Byatt really has created something special. Yes, part of it is a coming of age story, but it goes beyond that. The characters are so awesomely developed and intertwined that they played off each other so well. And Byatt does such a good job delving into the character's p...more

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Oct 06, 2009 Rochelle rated it 5 of 5 stars

Long novel, difficult in parts for the American reader, but kept me reading for a week. Byatt is a brainy novelist along with being an acute observer of everyday lives, especially of women. I kept a dictionary handy. The story centers on three offspring (late teens to early twenties) of a prep school teacher as they come to terms with others in their lives in dramatic ways (no pun intended, although presenting a theatrical work is a mainspring of the action). The description of Stephanie and Dan...more

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Nov 18, 2010 Jackie Posek rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: labor-of-love

This is the first of the four-book series, and ironically, the last one I read. Each book can stand on its own, but once I finished Virgin, I decided that I had to re-read the other three books in the series, in light of having finally read the first. I loved this book because it opened up vistas of history in England that I had never considered before, and juxtaposed the coronation year of Elizabeth II with the story of Elizabeth I (portrayed through a play written by one of the characters) in...more

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May 12, 2012 Susan rated it 3 of 5 stars

I had loved A.S. Byatt's Possession so apparently, I had purchased this book in 1996 and recently, in a longing to purge out books I probably would never read, I came across this book. I decided to read it. Well, I found that although I love the writing style of the author, the style was so dense that I struggled to keep track of what was happening as I was so distracted by the use of language and how it all held together.

I did read the reviews here at Goodreads and have concluded that I wasn't...more

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Mar 12, 2011 Claire Haeg rated it 5 of 5 stars

It took me many months to wade through this one - it's very dense but utterly beautiful.
An astounding tour-de-force, and since it is both beautifully written and dense as War and Peace I feel justifiably proud of having worked through it!

The story centers on the family of a brilliant, bullying teacher, his two brilliant but very different daughters, and the mentally unbalanced son. The "Virgin" refers to the play at the center of the novel (a pageant for the coronation of QEII) as well as, at v...more

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Apr 01, 2009 Karl Steel rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: postmedieval_fiction

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

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Jan 05, 2009 Mike rated it 5 of 5 stars

Another great scholarly novel by Byatt. Like Posession, this book is built around a massive literary construction: the staging of a play about Queen Elizabeth. It's the first novel in a tetralogy and, unfortunately, each novel in the series is a bit weaker than its predecessor. (I haven't read the last in the series, and I'm not planning to). Frederica Potter as an overly-bright teenager trying hard to discover sexuality is a wonderful and interesting character. Frederica Potter as a progressiv...more

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Apr 05, 2012 Amy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, 2012-reads

A.S. Byatt is one of my favourite authors and so when I found out she had written a quartet of novels I was eager to begin reading them. This first part of the quartet takes place in 1953 (although there is a prologue featuring Frederica, Alexander and Daniel in 1968), the year of the Queen’s coronation and follows a number of characters. There’s Alexander Wedderburn, a teacher & playwright who is also having an affair with a married woman and with whom seemingly every female character is in...more A.S. Byatt is one of my favourite authors and so when I found out she had written a quartet of novels I was eager to begin reading them. This first part of the quartet takes place in 1953 (although there is a prologue featuring Frederica, Alexander and Daniel in 1968), the year of the Queen’s coronation and follows a number of characters. There’s Alexander Wedderburn, a teacher & playwright who is also having an affair with a married woman and with whom seemingly every female character is in love with. His play on Elizabeth I is the catalyst for much of the plays events. Then there’s Stephanie Potter and Daniel Orton, the latter is a junior vicar who falls in love with Stephanie, the university graduate teacher and daughter of a staunch Athiest. The novel also follows Marcus Potter, the young son, who experiences weird fits and attracts the attention of Lucas, a teacher at his school. Finally is Frederica Potter herself, a 17-year-old in her last year at school and apparently resolute on having a sexual experience.

I definitely didn’t like this novel nearly as much as I enjoyed The Children’s Book or Possession. It was almost as there was something slightly ‘off’ about the whole thing. I did love Frederica, a character who isn’t necessarily the most likeable character in the world and who is incredibly daring in her sexual explorations, considering the period in which the novel is set. She’s also incredibly intelligent and a character that I certainly would not mind spending the next three books with. I also enjoyed Byatt’s discussion of contemporary events, the scene where everyone watches the coronation in particular. Her writing about the suffacting qualities of marriage was also incredibly interesting and very well done. As was her more comedic writing about the putting together of the great pageant which holds Alexander’s play at the centre. I also enjoyed the way she painted Bill Potter, the father of Stephanie, Frederica & Marcus, a staunch atheist who claimed to believe in freedom of thought, but banned his children from reading anything he doesn’t agree with, mercilessly mocks religion and is also opposed to the establishment of a new university in York.

However, I really had some problems with it. The novel was incredibly slow moving, mostly due to the fact that frequently the action would come to a halt for descriptive passages, many of which are beautiful but not really necessary. I will also admit that the plotline featuring Marcus was just a little bit…weird…and I found myself skipping much of the writing that involved him. I also felt that for a character that was apparently incredibly attractive to all around him, Alexander was a bit of a wet fish. His play didn’t really seem that genius and he also didn’t really seem that much of an interesting character.

Byatt generally being a compelling writer and the character of Frederica are really the only reasons why I wish to continue onto Still Life; but the fact that some reviews claim that the earlier books are the best is slightly concerning to me.(less)

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Feb 03, 2013 Susan rated it 2 of 5 stars

I tried reading this book a couple years ago and really struggled with it. It was returned to the library when my 3 weeks were up; only half-read. The problem is, it's the first in a series of which I own the third book. There are too many references in "Babel Tower" to characters introduced in "The Virgin in the Garden" for me to read with any pleasure, so here I am reading "Virgin" again. It's more enjoyable this time for some reason. Maybe it has something to do with my child being older, all...more

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Dec 31, 2012 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Probably my least favourite Byatt that I've read, though still enjoyable. I suspect with Byatt it makes a huge difference how familiar you are with whatever art & literature she's channeling for each particular work. In this case, Elizabethan verse is not my thing. Not even ASB can get me excited about the Fairie Queene, it seems. To be fair though, this also probably suffered because I accidentally read the sequel first and therefore knew exactly where all the characters were going to end u...more

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Dec 22, 2009 Kristy rated it 1 of 5 stars

I did not enjoy this book. The symbolism of Elizabeth/Frederica was unbelievably heavy handed and though I liked her character and the relationship between her and Alexander I thought her brother and sister were incredibly uninteresting. I barely skimmed the sections about Lucas and Marcus--it was so obvious where it was going and really hard to care. I wanted to like this more because it had a lot of what I loved about Possession, namely the exegesis of a written work of art as a character reve...more

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Jan 18, 2009 Margaret Ellis rated it 5 of 5 stars

I just love A.S. Byatt. She's a geeky author who writes novels about academicians and other book nerds. I haven't read a lot of the stuff she alludes to, including much victorian and ancient greek poetry, but I always enjoy her books. This is the first in a trilogy about a young woman growing up, going to college and settling into adulthood. I have already read the third book, Babel Tower, which focuses on legal attempts to ban a so-called obscene book in 1960s England as well as on the main cha...more

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Feb 07, 2012 Vic rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2012

Whenever I read A.S. Byatt I feel as Mitchell does in the opening chapter of Possession, reading Ash's notes in the library: her words make me extremely aware of how much I don't know, yet I'm no less captivated by them. I loved -- well, how she writes, how she uses words, her sentences. The way she realistically describes characters' inner thoughts and feelings as they go about their lives and interact with others; how incredibly literary the Potters, Alexander, Wilkie, etc. are (Frederica, hop...more

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Jun 20, 2011 Rowena rated it 4 of 5 stars

Reading A.S. Byatt is a revelation. While this may not be one of her better works, even a sub-par work from Byatt is a grillion times better than the works of other prominent fiction writers today. The Virgin in the Garden tells the story of the Potter family, in particular the youngest daughter Frederica, and a deeply thoughtful playwright who becomes awkwardly enmeshed in the family's affairs. Meanwhile, his play about Elizabeth I (who he seems to have a rather unhealthy obsession with) is bei...more

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May 03, 2011 Courtney Johnston rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: own, fiction, books-about-books

Oh my gawd y'all - I just downgraded A.S. Byatt by two stars.

I'm a big Byatt fan. 'Possession' and 'The Biographer's Tale' would probably both make my Top 25 list, if I ever drew it up. But I think my love for some of her books perhaps clouded my retrospective judgement.

Today, 'The Virgin in the Garden' feels over-worked and a bit clunky (the obvious bits of authorial voice most particularly). And the plot around Marcus Potter and Lucas Simmonds just bored me this time round; the denouement is s...more

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Jun 08, 2011 Jamie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1001-books, read-in-2011

Know that, as with many of Byatt's other long novels (admittedly, this is only my third foray into these), the first hundred pages are going to be excruciating. Know that if you hate 'pretentious' writing, you're looking in the wrong place. (I wouldn't call Byatt pretentious, at any rate; she's just really smart, and it shows. Many readers don't want to do the work that she requires. Believe me, though, you'll definitely glean some fantastic vocab & factoids from Byatt.) Know that the charac...more Know that, as with many of Byatt's other long novels (admittedly, this is only my third foray into these), the first hundred pages are going to be excruciating. Know that if you hate 'pretentious' writing, you're looking in the wrong place. (I wouldn't call Byatt pretentious, at any rate; she's just really smart, and it shows. Many readers don't want to do the work that she requires. Believe me, though, you'll definitely glean some fantastic vocab & factoids from Byatt.) Know that the characters aren't often particularly sympathetic. Realist fiction is a tougher sell with Byatt than her magical realism or fairytales (I think because she sometimes comes off as a kind of misanthrope).

Byatt seems to do so much better in allowing the reader to enjoy a character when that character--as in a fairytale or a kind of allegory--is an archetype. Which is funny, because I find her to be, in actuality, a really perceptive writer of inner psychology. That's not quite the phrase I'm looking for-inner depth? Psyche? She draws out so intensely the way people think and feel, not entirely unlike Lessing, to my mind. Nevertheless, by the end of Virgin, you'll at least feel that you know Frederica, Stephanie, Daniel, and even Marcus - though whether you'll want to keep knowing them remains to be seen. I'm tempted to pick up the next book in the series now, while I'm in the Byatt-zone.

Though this novel supposedly draws its influence most significantly from Lawrence (allusions to Chatterley & Women in Love abound; but I wouldn't know, as I've (un)successfully avoided ol' D.H. altogether), it has a kind of Midsummer Night's Dream premise, or perhaps even a Between the Acts hinge: small community comes together to put on a pageant-esque play that focuses on English history and the Virgin Queen, and in the process, a great deal of misfortune and revelation transpires. Characters lose themselves in the dream of another life; find themselves, once again, in the miserable pragmatisms of the life they were already leading. The tension between the development of Stephanie and Frederica feels very intentionally Oedipal in sensibility, and I was often struck by Bill Potter's resemblance to another literary patriarchal tyrant - Woolf's Mr. Ramsay.

As a coming-of-sexual-age tale, the narrative is really wonderfully drawn, in the sense that it doesn't feel typical; the plot rises and falls don't follow any sort of conventional structure (particularly as the climaxes, forgive the pun, always feel premature or underwhelming). Frederica seems to be the most unlikable figure in the world of the novel, but ended up striking me as the most compelling figure (perhaps this is why Byatt decided to continue the quartet around her?). She's infuriating and contradictory and often very very wrong in how she goes about making decisions - but this is why she feels in many ways like the most 'real' character. I won't spoil a plot point here, but Stephanie was also really interesting up until a particular point (I imagine those of you who've read it will guess what I'm referring to). The real chore of the novel, I think, was having to read through the Marcus/Lucas Simmonds sections, which only became interesting towards the very end.

At any rate, I'm looking forward to reading the next installment. If you like Byatt, I'd recommend a read; if not, this novel probably underscores all your least favorite qualities regarding her work.

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About A.S. Byatt

A.S. Byatt (Antonia Susan Byatt) is internationally known for her novels and short stories. Her novels include the Booker Prize-winning Possession, The Biographer’s Tale and the quartet, The Virgin in the Garden, Still Life, Babel Tower and A Whistling Woman, and her highly acclaimed collections of short stories include Sugar and Other Stories, The Matisse Stories, The Djinn in the Nightingale’s E...more

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“Lists are a form of power.” — 16 people liked it

“...it is not possible to create the opposite of what one has always known, simply because the opposite is believed to be desired. Human beings need what they already know, even horrors.” — 9 people liked it

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The Virgin in the Garden (The Frederica Quartet #1)

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