She was appointed CBE in 1990 and DBE in 1999, and was awarded the Erasmus Prize 2016 for her ‘inspiring contribution to life writing’ and the Pak Kyongni Prize 2017. And yet, she thought in her bursts of private savagery, it aimed a burning dart at her very heart, it strove to annihilate her, and she felt the pain of it, and could not speak of that pain to a soul.

Authors regularly use real figures in their stories – after all, it is part of the appeal of historical fiction. The plight of William the poor northern Naturalist was a credible enough premise, and I enjoyed the intellectual debates between him and his wealthy father-in-law. Edgar fancies himself as the pinnacle of human breeding and is quite concerned with maintaining the purity of the bloodlines of his horses and of his family. Before starting the second novella, The Conjugial Angel, I was already swarmed by 19th-century women--real, fictional, even hybrids. Byatt has famously been engaged in a long-running feud with her novelist sister, Margaret Drabble, over the alleged appropriation of a family tea-set in one of her novels.Ingrid Barrøy, her father, Hans, mother, Maria, grandfather Martin, and slightly addled aunt Barbro are the owners and sole inhabitants of Barrøy Island, one of numerous small family-owned islands in an area of Norway barely touched by the outside world. But we know that something is there, and if we have the energy for it, certainly the story has a wondrous richness to it that will reward further thought and analysis. I can recommend this book strongly to those with a literary bent and an interest in the Victorian era. It felt playful on her part to let her characters linger on thinking about nature and nuture, instinct and predestination, that presaged modern formulations and debates on sociobiology from the likes of Stephen Jay Gould, E. In The Conjugal Angel, curious individuals – some fictional, others drawn from history – gather to connect with the spirit world.

Its not hard to empathize with Alabaster’s reluctance to relinquish the divine sublime of human art and esthetics.The second novella, whose name I have forgotten, is worth reading, especially if you are a fan of Alfred Tennyson, the nineteenth century poet.

What appears to be William’s unstable psyche is used more effectively for social critique, suggesting that human beings may not be nearly so respectable as our insectoid brethren. Also the role of Edgar, representing the boorish son who clings to the old ways of class hierarchy is finely wrought.

William and Eugenia begin a torrid romance, but as the couple become closer, the young scientist begins to realize that dark, disturbing things are happening behind the closed doors of the Alabaster manor.

I do not want to go into the details of “The Conjugial Angel” – it has an even weaker plot than “Morpho Eugenia”, and the themes do not come together quite so well. At the house and surrounding estate, William works to sort through Lord Alabaster’s collection of scientific specimens – though the old man does not leave the house himself, still he has his passions and interests. S. Byatt’s Booker Prize-winning novel Possession, these two mesmerising novellas are set in the 19th century.

There, he assumes the heinous task of tattooing incoming Jewish prisoners with the dehumanizing numbers their SS captors use to identify them. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions.