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roe_ 's review for:

4.0

Morpho Eugenia is stunning. Byatt's trademark blend of meticulous, intricate historical detail woven in with unsettlingly intense, fleshy passion.

The Conjugial Angel feels a little more diluted, but still has the occasional very striking image - for me this is the way Sophy sees the "true" selves of the others in the seance when they are sitting round the table. The ending came as a little bit of a surprise to me, though - I was wondering if we would possibly get a more concrete followup to the
hint of lesbian desire between Mrs Papagay and Sophy, which would've been an interesting parallel to Byatt's tentative musings on Tennyson's feelings for Hallam...
 

I don't agree with people saying the two novellas are only tenuously connected; they complement each other in some fairly obvious ways imo.