A review by ianbanks
Babel Tower by A.S. Byatt

5.0

Despite relying a little too much on coincidence this is one of the many highlights of Dr Byatt's career. It's the only one of the Frederica Quartet that I've read but I love it. It's steeped perfectly in the era it's trying to recreate and it feels authentic as well: the details aren't thrown in to make you feel as though the author has done her research (and, being Byatt, there's plenty of it to see): y'know, like a Victorian novel has a character walking into Parliament and saying stuff like "Morning Mr Disraeli" for no real reason. The details are meticulous and key to everything. Frederica quotes Howard's End at one point - "Only connect." - and everything does. It links theories of education with social change with the increasing emancipation of women to the growing irrelevance we feel as a society towards censorship to the growing environmental movement. But what it is mostly concerned with is telling a good story well, and it does that in spades.