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Babel Tower (The Frederica Quartet #3)

3.73 of 5 stars 3.73 · rating details · 1,607 ratings · 103 reviews

Babel Tower follows The Virgin in the Garden and Still Life in tracing Frederica Potter, a lover of books who reflects the author's life and times. It centers around two lawsuits: in one, Frederica -- a young intellectual who has married outside her social set -- is challenging her wealthy and violent husband for custody of their child; in the other, an unkempt but charism...more

Hardcover, 619 pages

Published April 23rd 1996 by Random House Value Publishing (first published 1996)

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Feb 12, 2007 Feather Stolzenbach rated it 5 of 5 stars

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 to London with their young s...more

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Sep 20, 2007 Carol rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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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Nov 04, 2007 Amanda rated it 5 of 5 stars

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 5 of 5 stars

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...more

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Sep 16, 2012 Ria rated it 5 of 5 stars

I think of many things! This book is an absolute "MUST READ!"

Firstly, in Babel Tower I recognise the author I know and love. She is somehow matured and matriculated. Ah, this book is about the failure of language. It centres around Fredericka, although it is easier to think about it as a stand-alone book. The book is full of quotations, a sure sign of A. S. Byatt handiwork. French, German, Critiques, pop culture and many, many other things. It is as much a book about the barrier in language: wit...more

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Apr 13, 2012 Lo rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Meh.

Honestly, I don't have a very high opinion of this book, but I think a good part of that derives from the fact that I felt like I missed the point to this book. Babel Tower seemed unduly long to me (by about 400 pages), with quotations from other books and trivial conversations filling up the bulk of the book. It also is written, in my opinion, incongruously, the storyline fluctuating rapidly and character's actions unjustified. For example, it irked me that in Frederica's trial that the fact t...more Honestly, I don't have a very high opinion of this book, but I think a good part of that derives from the fact that I felt like I missed the point to this book. Babel Tower seemed unduly long to me (by about 400 pages), with quotations from other books and trivial conversations filling up the bulk of the book. It also is written, in my opinion, incongruously, the storyline fluctuating rapidly and character's actions unjustified. For example, it irked me that in Frederica's trial that the fact that Nigel assaulted her father and her brother in law was largely disregarded (it was mentioned once) and instead the court focused on the hearsay evidence about Nigel throwing an axe at Frederica. Why wasn't her family in court defending her? Why wasn't the instance when Nigel came to her family's home and called her a bitch mentioned? Nigel is allowed 3 witness who clearly would never side against him, while Frederica has no one (but her family is 'supportive' of her). It makes no sense, and I chalk it up to a flaw in the author to present a fictional reality as she saw fit, rather than a work of fiction based in reality.
The story line itself had potential, Frederica is the epitome of a 'modern' woman in the late 1960s, well educated, career driven, and sexually free, and after filing for divorce with her husband, she demands custody of her child, who it is questionable how much she loves him and would actually provide a good home at times. There are definitely two sides of the coin: Nigel, a violent and unstable wealthy man, could provide Leo (their son) with a stable and loving environment between him and his three stables. However, Nigel is gone for long stretches of time, and as I mentioned before, he is of a violent nature, prone to temper tantrums, and would use Leo as bait to bring Frederica back.
Yet, Frederica, although emotionally stable and affectionate towards Leo, is barely financially stable and has questionable morals (it isn't a stable environment for a child if you are sleeping with different men based on your mood). I wouldn't want Leo to live with either of them, honestly, but if I had to choose, I would probably choose Frederica just on the premise that she lives with Agatha and Saskia, who are a stable and happy mother daughter pair and would provide a positive influence for Leo.
The book also goes into another subplot about a controversial book published at the same time. Honestly, I didn't follow that plot line as well because it seemed to just be 'added' on later in the book to add more excitement.
I honestly wouldn't recommend this book to people who follow my literary tastes. I guess if you like books about human emotions (and not necessarily their veracity) and drama, this might be a good read for you.(less)

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Nov 09, 2009 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 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 children of t...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 25, 2012 Helen Kitson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

I do find Frederica rather a frustrating character - a bit limp - or maybe I'm just annoyed by her liking for DH Lawrence (whom I can stand in only very, very small doses); and I find her marriage to Nigel rather hard to take - why someone described by others as feisty and intelligent should be taken in by someone like him without biting back until it's (almost?) too late...If anything I find the internal Babbletower story more interesting - perhaps the ideas seem clearer? Though I'm quite enjoy...more I do find Frederica rather a frustrating character - a bit limp - or maybe I'm just annoyed by her liking for DH Lawrence (whom I can stand in only very, very small doses); and I find her marriage to Nigel rather hard to take - why someone described by others as feisty and intelligent should be taken in by someone like him without biting back until it's (almost?) too late...If anything I find the internal Babbletower story more interesting - perhaps the ideas seem clearer? Though I'm quite enjoying Daniel's strand of the story.

Two-thirds of the way through "Babel Tower" and I'm finding it hugely satisfying - the intertextuality (when Byatt mentions Justine, we don't know if she means Durrell or Sade, since both writers are namechecked); the texts themselves - "Babbletower", Agatha's story, the letters, the cut-ups, Frederica's reader's reports, her musings on Howard's End and DH Lawrence; the babel of voices - Frederica and her family, friends, and all their various combinations; Jude Mason - who's both loathsome and also, at some level, the foul-smelling, foul-natured cynic who sees things as they are. Like Samson Origen in his own novel. All the symbols and clues - Blake, snails, memory, the punning names (which in themselves could be irritating if it weren't for the fact that everything in this novel seems to connect - seems to thus far, but I'm wary of the feeling of connectedness as Frederica is...).

It's just such a massive book in terms of what it's trying to do, but at the same time it doesn't come across as a dry intellectual exercise - it is very intellectual, but there's a playfulness at work, too, and despite the tight plotting it also feels organically right, it doesn't feel contrived (or rather, if it is contrived, it's explicitly so). Tigers, the twins...And even its deficiencies I'm tending to come to see as deliberately so - i.e. Frederica, a bit feeble at time, but a product of her times? Nigel, black villain, but he is he meant to be that? The "romantic hero" figure who's not actually any good for any real woman?
[Dec 2002] (less)

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Oct 25, 2012 Ubik 2.0 rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: british-literature

Il romanzo è essenzialmente un lavoro sul tema della comunicazione, dell'educazione e della libertà, donde il titolo: molteplici personaggi secondari operano in questo campo e, tanto per esemplificare, la compagna di casa di Frederica è la segretaria di una commissione ministeriale sull'educazione scolastica che esegue ispezioni conoscitive e il cui dibattito interno, sempre incentrato sul dualismo regole/libertà, occupa interi capitoli del libro dando modo all'autrice di sfoggiare la notevole e...more Il romanzo è essenzialmente un lavoro sul tema della comunicazione, dell'educazione e della libertà, donde il titolo: molteplici personaggi secondari operano in questo campo e, tanto per esemplificare, la compagna di casa di Frederica è la segretaria di una commissione ministeriale sull'educazione scolastica che esegue ispezioni conoscitive e il cui dibattito interno, sempre incentrato sul dualismo regole/libertà, occupa interi capitoli del libro dando modo all'autrice di sfoggiare la notevole erudizione che ne caratterizza l'opera, così come già appariva evidente nel suo libro più famoso, Possessione (1990).

Le digressioni hanno dunque la duplice conseguenza, da un lato di raffreddare il pathos del racconto che rimane comunque intrigante anche se non vuole essere avvincente, dall'altro di avviluppare il testo in un virtuosismo di stili, di punti di vista, di materiali che la Byatt maneggia con grande padronanza, sorprendendo non di rado il lettore con improvvise e vertiginose virate, degne di un poliziesco.

Eccellenti sono a questo proposito le descrizioni dei due processi, dove la dialettica accusa-difesa, giudice-imputato-testimone, fa continuamente dimenticare che l'oggetto della disputa non è un omicidio o una tragedia, ma un "banale" conflitto coniugale o un'accusa di oscenità di un testo. Molto precise sono le caratterizzazioni dell'intelligenza e dell'oratoria dei due accusatori che, sebbene siano posti a contrapposizione dei personaggi cui il lettore è portato ad immedesimarsi (sicuramente Frederica, ma anche Jude o quanto meno coloro che si contrappongono alla censura), non possono non lasciare affascinati per la capacità professionale.

Apparentemente un libro freddo, secondo lo stereotipo della letteratura inglese, ma nel quale covano pulsioni proprie del passaggio epocale in cui la vicenda si svolge che comincia allorchè una donna emancipata e non scevra da errori e un giovane artista fantasioso, il cui aspetto vuole suscitare repulsione, sembrano destinati a soccombere ma alla fine resuscitano mentre la società, anche attraverso le imprevedibili sentenze dei suoi tutori, sta rapidamente mutando pelle poichè sullo sfondo comincia a comparire il nuovo mondo, con i Beatles, le minigonne, la libertà sessuale e gli altri segnali di libertà che pervadono la swinging London.

Quasi inutile ricordare che la Byatt, fatte salve tutte le caratteristiche peculiari sopra descritte e tutte le differenze (di sesso, età e stile) che la separano dai suoi connazionali McEwan, Coe, Hornby, Amis, come costoro scrive in modo eccellente...(less)

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Jul 28, 2011 Kristen Coppess added it · review of another edition

Stunning. The depth and research that went into this book boggles the mind. Byatt is a literary critic who obviously loves the work she studies (and finds conflict with Blake, Foucault, Sade, etc.) and this is evident in her interlacing of literary quips throughout the text. The protagonist, Felicia, was absolutely captivating. She was intelligent, strong, flawed, and representative of the changes to the 1960's domestic household when the wife is Oxford educated. Richly developed historical back...more

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Mar 27, 2012 Lucy rated it 4 of 5 stars

it's horrible to see frederica potter an abuse victim and then to witness the misogyny and unfairness she experiences in the court system. it's unsettling to see her in this frightening, cool, environment, where an indulgent unintelligent man is coddled by his hideous aunts and housekeeper.

the book within a book, babbel tower, is classed by the powers that be as obscene, and it is somewhat revolting, although actually conservative in its morals. it makes you wonder how people on here complain a...more

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Dec 21, 2011 Madelynp rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Lucy, Don, Anna

Shelves: what-i-own, litera-chah-darling

Great book, although it's difficult to get started. Very much about the lyrical value of language, which sounds pretentious, but only because it matches the pretension in the book. Frederica, the heroine, is at once likeable and disagreeable, and yet you cheer for her throughout. Within the book, you have two trials--one of Frederica's divorce, the other involving a book called "Babeltower" which is on trial for obscenity. Many references are made to the Lady Chatterley's Lover trial. On top of...more Great book, although it's difficult to get started. Very much about the lyrical value of language, which sounds pretentious, but only because it matches the pretension in the book. Frederica, the heroine, is at once likeable and disagreeable, and yet you cheer for her throughout. Within the book, you have two trials--one of Frederica's divorce, the other involving a book called "Babeltower" which is on trial for obscenity. Many references are made to the Lady Chatterley's Lover trial. On top of this, you have Frederica's "Laminations," which is a collection of pertinent and not-so-pertinent quotes, letters, and vignettes that seem to be collected in something of a common place book.

One of the reasons that I was drawn to this book in the first place was the beginning, where Byatt introduces the novel in several ways (and as someone who is unfamiliar with the rest of the series, none of them made sense at the time). I didn't really know where she was going, but the prose is excellent, and when I got to Hugh Pink's thoughts on pomegranates, I was hooked.

Because of Byatt's ability to write so well, there are parts of the book that are really difficult to get through. For example, the very descriptive domestic violence was hard to read, although I appreciate that the most brutal act of violence is not described in such detail. I don't like to think of myself as a prude, but I was also repulsed by the description of break-through bleeding and her love-making with Paul (or was it John?) Ottakar.

I would highly advise this to a) a professor of English, looking for something to analyze; b) a 20-something with academic dreams (me!!!); or c) a retiree with a great deal of patience. Otherwise, the book requires a great deal of time and effort to get through (see: I read the book with a dictionary at my side). That said, I ended up passing this book on to one of my neighbors (he fits into the retiree with a great deal of patience category) and then handed it off to one of my more precocious high school students. Based on her emails, I believe that she is enjoying the book quite a bit, although the domestic violence gave her some trouble.(less)

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Jul 03, 2009 Jesse rated it 2 of 5 stars

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 skipped thr...more

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Apr 23, 2009 Brigid rated it 4 of 5 stars

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 when I starte...more

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Jan 17, 2010 Mag rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Mag by: Cristina

Shelves: british, fiction

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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Jun 26, 2011 Caroline Donaldson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this a long time ago and liked it a lot.

It is concerns a woman embroiled in two law cases: a painful divorce and custody battle and the prosecution of an 'obscene' book. The woman's personal and legal crises mirror the age she lives in (1960s England).

It is a bit of a tome at 600-odd pages and plays around with post-modernism a bit. But it is readable nonetheless and has been called "a gripping story, a literary masterpiece, and a moral analysis all in one". But probably this book requi...more

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Dec 05, 2011 Kate rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a later installment in the same series starring A.S. Byatt's literature maven Frederica Potter--a story told in tandem with another cruder, sexier, dark fairy tale about what happens when you idealize human instinct and pleasure beyond the point of sanity. Except that true insanity would let those characters off the hook. She's a phenomenal writer, in both senses of that word--the language is so precise, so crafted, that you do not see the seams. Part of the pleasure of reading Byatt, un...more

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Sep 06, 2010 Momarriott rated it 3 of 5 stars

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

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Sep 07, 2010 Rowland Bismark rated it 3 of 5 stars

While Babel Tower continues the story of Frederica, begun in The Virgin in the Garden and continued in Still Life, it readily stands on its own. It is a large book, and its sprawl is not necessarily inviting. It does not offer itself as easily to the reader as, say, Possession did, and so our praise comes with the warning that this is not for everyone. The setting is the 1960's, and it is a novel about that decade -- though from a very intellectual point of view (a vista that has not provided ma...more While Babel Tower continues the story of Frederica, begun in The Virgin in the Garden and continued in Still Life, it readily stands on its own. It is a large book, and its sprawl is not necessarily inviting. It does not offer itself as easily to the reader as, say, Possession did, and so our praise comes with the warning that this is not for everyone. The setting is the 1960's, and it is a novel about that decade -- though from a very intellectual point of view (a vista that has not provided many insights into the decade, as even the intellectuals preferred to pretend they were mucking about as everyone else was). Intertwined are the stories of Frederica and her messy divorce from her completely unsuitable husband and Babbletower, a book from which we are presented extensive excerpts.

Babbletower is written by the obscure Jude, a man who lives at the fringes of society and whom Frederica befriends. Frederica is to some extent responsible for getting the book published. It is soon banned on grounds of indecency, and a sizable portion of the novel is devoted to the court proceedings. (Another courtcase, over custody of her son, is also a prominent part of the novel).

Byatt is at her best when she devotes herself to questions of literature and art. Her arguments, interjected forcefully into the novel as a record of the court proceedings, are well-reasoned and interesting, though not all readers enjoy such debate in the pages of their novels. Her characters, though rich, also have some unsatisfactory voids. Worse is that Byatt spends considerable amounts of space on certain characters and they then just fade away, without our knowing what comes of them. Perhaps they'll reappear in the next volume ?

We enjoyed the book, but it can try one's patience. It is well written, and it is a thoughtful book. It is an important contribution as a picture of the 60's (really -- we haven't seen this particular view so well presented previously). It is also a book that is very well constructed -- she is a clever writer -- and it lends itself to a second reading, to enjoy the pleasure of uncovering all the connections she has artfully built in.
(less)

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Mar 08, 2013 Jamie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2013

For whatever reason, no one I know seems really to like Byatt (& this is particularly as a novelist - I know a few who have enjoyed a short story or three), but she consistently shocks in her ability to take basically distant prose stylings and what one might call "dry" material (the academy; literary obscenity trials; pottery-making; Victorian poem-hunting; divorce court) & generate a narrative that I'm incapable of putting down. I neglected a great deal of work in order to chug through...more For whatever reason, no one I know seems really to like Byatt (& this is particularly as a novelist - I know a few who have enjoyed a short story or three), but she consistently shocks in her ability to take basically distant prose stylings and what one might call "dry" material (the academy; literary obscenity trials; pottery-making; Victorian poem-hunting; divorce court) & generate a narrative that I'm incapable of putting down. I neglected a great deal of work in order to chug through this one! Sorry students! Sorry dissertation prospectus! I read this before bed, totally exhausted; I read this between paper-grading shifts; I read on the subway & in my office & in several bars. It did take me a bit over two weeks, but only because I would dash through 100 pages and then reluctantly need to put it away for a few days: rinse, wash, repeat, so forth.

This is the third in the Frederica Quartet, begun with Virgin in the Garden and Still Life. We follow three central threads in this novel: that of Frederica's tumultuous attempts to evade her abusive marriage in London's swinging 60s; that of the novel-within-the-novel 'Babbletower,' a kind of exploration of a utopian world gone-Marquis de Sade; and the two trials, interconnected in some sense, of Frederica's divorce petition and the obscenity one launched against 'Babbletower' - which, as it turns out, is written by a grotesque drifter Frederica encounters in her all-over-the-place teaching duties.

This of course oversimplifies. Several characters from previous books cameo, principally Daniel & some of F's university flames - but she's the real star here, alongside Jude Mason, the author of 'Babbletower.' Byatt's descriptions of his rancidness, his unwashed quality, his self-righteous snobbery & his obsession with Nietzsche are all spot on: somehow he's the most despicable character, physically repugnant to a point where I felt I could smell his odor, even taste it. And yet! She turns the tables much further on, & suddenly, you're rooting for this freakish recluse & actually feel saddened that he's forced to clean himself up for the trial. Frederica seems far more complex here than before, too, as she's placed from the first in a situation one would never have anticipated the Frederica of the previous novels falling into. And yet it doesn't baffle; it merely expands her characterization, enables a recognition (also experienced by figures of the text that know her) of a complexity under-represented before. A situation which is born out of grief's necessity; a moral quandary solved foundationally out of recklessness, which then becomes explored thoughtfully and expansively.

In any case, this is perhaps my favorite of the quartet thus far: I've loved Frederica from the start, so I was excited to see her pushed in to new directions, nuanced and empathetic in novel ways. The novel in general explores questions of literary merit, pornography, the impact of media on the individual moral system, the irrationality of desire & the consequences therein, the notion of "mother-love" (and the challenges that can be made to such a totalizing concept), so on and so forth.

Ugh. Why am I trying to convince you of its "merit"? I feel as if I'm selling you on it as the lawyers do 'Babbletower' in the novel itself. I suppose if you've started the quartet and are wondering whether or not to continue: do! This one's the most thrilling and compulsively readable one of the three I've completed.

I'm sad to hear "Whistling Woman" is supposedly so awful a conclusion to the quartet. Nevertheless, I'm planning to pick it up in the next few weeks. (less)

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Apr 28, 2010 Our Intrepid Heroine rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: england, clever-ladies, old-friends-in-binding, realistic-fiction, book-within-a-book, reviewed, 2012, rereads, summer-reading, devoured-my-brain, frame-narrative, historical-fiction

This is the only book to cause me to miss my stop on the train. I was so engrossed that I blew right past my station and had to call my mother to come pick me up.

Possession will always be my favorite of Byatt's - partly because it was the novel to introduce me to the author, partly because it's a masterpiece - but this is one that really spoke to me the second time around. I somehow missed the unifying dissertation on language last time, only vaguely connecting spoken thought (or the lack of the...more

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Aug 15, 2007 Wade rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition 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, utopian or...more

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Jul 20, 2009 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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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Nov 14, 2010 Brian rated it 3 of 5 stars

I did not like this book quite as much as the others in the pseudo-series (The Virgin in the Garden and Still Life). It was great to continue with the characters, and I was fascinated by the legal issues of obscenity trials and divorce/custody issues in the 1960s, but these last two parts of the book felt overdone to me. Byatt seems to really enjoy writing in many styles and voices, and for me, I sometimes start to miss her main narrative prose. Nevertheless, I'll still read the next book.

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Aug 23, 2010 laura rated it 3 of 5 stars

the language that byatt utilizes in this third book of the quartet is meticulously paired with the images that she creates. the book deals with such themes (amongst others): literary mertit; pushing the limits of societal constraints or norms in order to attain personal happiness or sense of freedom; the consequences of actions past and present that determine thought process and future actions; and exploring the "human condition" relationships encountered. in this tale, byatt empolys various lit...more

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Jan 23, 2013 Kate rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: modern-fic

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

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May 04, 2009 Karl Steel rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: postmedieval_fiction

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, during which Anthony Burgess (!) appears)...more

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Sep 13, 2010 Lisa Mahan rated it 5 of 5 stars

LOVED IT! I actually didn't know until I was over halfway through that this is the third book in a set, but it didn't matter. The characters are so well developed in this book alone that I didn't feel like I was missing information. It made me wish I was in school again so I could discuss it in class. I loved the way it was written-it was very clever and the books within books always surprise me. I would read it again for sure.

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Aug 08, 2012 J. Ewbank rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: novel

T book by Byatt was unfortunately for me, not my cup of tea. Perhaps if I had read the first two I would feel differently but this one did not force me to read it. I had to work to get through the book and that is not the way I enjoy books.

J. Robert Ewbank author "Wesley's Wars" and "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the 'Isms'"

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Jul 06, 2008 Siria rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century, british-fiction

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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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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Babel Tower (The Frederica Quartet #3)

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