Passions of the Mind

From Publishers Weekly

Wide-ranging essays in literary criticism from the Booker Prize-winning author of Possession. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the

Paperback edition.

From Library Journal

Readers of Byatt's Still Life ( LJ 11/15/85) and, to a lesser extent, Possession ( LJ 11/1/90) will find this collection of her criticism true to her quality and themes. The essays range from describing the influences on her own work to analysis of her favorite Victorians, Robert Browning and George Eliot, and such modernist writers as Ford Madox Ford, William Golding, and Iris Murdoch. Some female writers (Willa Cather, Elizabeth Bowen, and Toni Morrison, among others) are treated, as are the relationship of the real and the symbolic, as revealed by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Charles Rycroft, and Vincent Van Gogh. Byatt's interest in the influence of religion on writing shines through. The writing is brilliant, requiring a substantial awareness of English literature and command of the language. For academic and large public libraries. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 10/15/91. - Ann Irvine, Montgomery Cty. P.L., Md. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.