Angels and Insects is comprised of two novellas. Morpho Eugenia is the first of such and within it, the hero states, "You may argue anything at all by analogy, Sir, and so consequently nothing." This deft piece had me cheering for Matty Crompton, a real badass, and pondering these lengthy explorations into entomology as a reflection for Victorian (or our own) folly. As noted, I saw the film almost 20 years ago and was prepared for the development which lists the plot akimbo. Such didn't leave the plotting any less beautiful. The Conjugal Angel is the second novella and it concerns a séance a few years after the events of the first section. There is but a thin thread linking the pair of narratives. While the first novella appears ripe and well-paced, the second appear inchoate, a stillborn effort which would one day be realized as [b:The Children's Book|6280379|The Children's Book|A.S. Byatt|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320548114s/6280379.jpg|5768221]

Niemand schrijft over de 19e eeuw als Byatt. Net als haar magnum opus Possession is ook dit weer een meesterlijke mix van een postmoderne fictie in Victoriaanse verpakking die bol staat van de eruditie, maar evengoed spannend en emotioneel meeslepend. De eerste van de twee novelles die het boek omvat, Morpho Eugenia, werkt wel het best, en evolueert op heerlijke wijze van sociaal realisme naar gothic horror die evengoed aan Roald Dahl doet denken.

this book has two stories in it...the first one 'insects' i liked alot, but the 'angel' story, i didn't like at all.

Well. This is it. My first review written since the Electoral College decided the will of the people didn't mean shit. Am I scared? Yes. Am I angry? Yes. Will this interfere with my reading? Rate-wise, probably. Make-up wise, however, I've been practicing my avoidance of white male authored lit for so long that I can't make as much of a dramatic shift in reading habits as I could have a year or two ago. I could start dedicating successive reads to authors whose people are going to have even bigger targets pasted on their backs in the coming years if those Elector types decide to roll with it and over the people that Dump and Penis have professed a hatred for. Between the two, there's a lot to choose from: black people, women of color, women, people of color, muslims, LGBTQIA+, emphasis on trans people, poor people, Latinx, and those are the only ones I can think of in terms of what speeches I've read the transcripts of, so you better throw Jewish people and populations of countries that don't have a lot of white people within their borders. Compared to a lot people I know, A.S. Byatt is better off, but the fact that she writes about Victorian times doesn't mean she wants to return to them.

I have memories of being so swept away by [b:Possession|41219|Possession|A.S. Byatt|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1391124124s/41219.jpg|2246190] that I spent literal hours transcribing the reams of poetry peppering a supposed novel of prose. This time, whether due to the lack of modern day looking back to Victorian day structure in this bifocal piece, or my own enhanced analytical abilities when it comes to the Gothic novel, I admired from more of a distance. There's also the matter that, where once I glanced over the peripheral gleams of worlds beyond England and their merry whites, I now take significant notice of whenever "bronze" or "gold" relating to the matter of skin are thrown around, every moment in which the wealth which riots of the page is delicately traced back to the blood and guts and gouging of an empire in which the sun never sets. The fact that I didn't sink the rating down much for this rather glib coverage of 99% of existence was probably aesthetic more than anything, as how exactly do you quantify a white person covering the experiences of those who are not white in a way that both seriously acknowledges yet leaves the main spotlight to be filled by those who, on a hereditary level, actually have the right to knowing what they're talking about? In a word, you don't, but you keep an eye out for the stuff that looks good and listen to the experts telling you what's good, and eventually you'll come to a world of writing where it's human beings out there, not your goddamn fucking metaphors that convince cohorts they can elect an orange ball of genocide and make it all better by making it all go away.

Anyway. If you know anything about anything going down in the US, you know people are going to be watched and tracked and hunted down a lot more these days. Same goes for the Internet. Considering the things I've put up here for public perusal, I can't promise that I won't take some or all of it down one of these days, depending on how much the public puts its activism where its mouth is. Reading and writing are all fine and well, but we don't remember [b:Les Misérables|24280|Les Misérables|Victor Hugo|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1411852091s/24280.jpg|3208463] for the barricades. We remember the barricades because all that is worth living for depends on them.

You are accompanied through life, Emily Jesse occasionally understood, not only by the beloved and the accusing departed, but by your own ghost too, also accusing, also unappeased.

I read and loved this in my early 20s. (The movie adaptation is good, too.) I tried "Possession" by Byatt after this and didn't like it as well, though maybe I should give it another try.

Every single character in the first novella is writing a book. The novella quotes extensively from each which is a little annoying and, of course, each book is the character's way of trying to tell another character the truth he or she does not see. A little heavy handed but it all comes together in a neat little scandal at the end. I couldn't read the second novella. I barely made it through the first as her prose is a little too lush and descriptive for me.

The movie--"Angels & Insects" was very true to first novella. Both stories were interesting, but not as captivating as other books I've read this past year. Within her stories, Byatt integrates poetry and creative writing of the 1800s. Individuals who enjoy reading period pieces, will enjoy this book.

I learned a new word from this book: gynandrous. I preferred the first novella to the second and overall, prefer Byatt's later work to this endeavor.