The Children’s Book

By A.S. Byatt, Published 2009

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize

 

A.S. Byatt became one of my favorite writers when I read her Booker Prize winning Possession in college, and later her collection of short stories Angels & Insects. I found her writing style to be scholarly and intellectual, which sounds dull, but somehow managed to be a highly enjoyable reading experience.

The two words that come to mind when trying to describe her newest novel, The Children’s Book, are dense and prolific. Spanning decades, the novel takes the reader though the end of the Victorian era, the prosperous Edwardian era and finally, the sudden plunge into the First World War.

While it does not have a single protagonist, its central character would probably be the successful children’s writer Olive Wellwood and her extended family. Byatt ties Olive into the vibrant and growing children’s book movement of the time, even placing her family at the opening of the first showing of Peter Pan in the London theatre. In a recent interview Byatt notes that at the turn of the 20^th century "it was seriously suggested that the great writing of the time was writing for children, which was also read by grown-ups." 

However the focus on children’s writing should not be taken lightly. Byatt says, “The book touches, too, on what Byatt calls "I don't understand why, in my work, writing is always so dangerous. It's very destructive. People who write books are destroyers." Olive’s writing impacts each of her children in a different way.

Byatt admitted to plotting out her timelines on an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of all her characters. The book touches on the growing suffragist movement, politics, literature, changing social classes, and the chemistry and history of pottery. The sheer breadth and width of the information given is astounding.

Lastly, Byatt excels at encapsulating an era, defining the beliefs, goals and fears of an entire age. Regarding the Victorians she says:  

“They were all Victorians, and then in January 1901, the little old woman, the Widow at Windsor, the Queen and Empress died...There was a sense of fun now permitted, was indeed obligatory. The stiff black flounces, the jet necklaces, the pristine caps, the euphemisms and deference, the high seriousness also, the sense of duty and the questioning of the deep meanings of things were there to be mocked, to be turned into scarecrows and Hallowe’en masks...they showed a paradoxical propensity to retreat into childhood, to read and write adventure stories, talks about furry animals, dramas about pre-pubertal children.”  (329-331)

Later on, when Victoria’s son, the womanizing Edward takes the throne: “They looked back. They stared and glared backwards, in an intense, sometimes purposeful nostalgia for an imagined Golden Age.” (431)