THE VIRGIN IN THE GARDEN

Book ID/图书代码： 06580008B23988

English Summary/英文概要： A novel which combines enlightenment and sexuality, Elizabethan drama and contemporary comedy. It is a tale of a brilliant and eccentric family, fatefully divided. The author won the Booker Prize and the "Irish Times"/Aer Lingus International Fiction Prize in 1990 for "Possession".

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 本書合博學與娛樂為一體，啓發和感性為一體，伊莉莎白時的戲劇和當代喜劇相融合的文藝傑作，內容豐富，出人意料。(Celia)

Awards/获奖情况：A. S. Byatt, sister of novelist Margaret Drabble and a student of Iris Murdoch’s fiction, tackles human relations with a vigorous exhaustiveness and an ironic seriousness reminiscent of those more familiar writers. But somehow this revolving close-up of four young people in crisis during Coronation Year, 1953, never quite exerts the emotional tug that often underlies the thoughtful theme-chasing of Murdoch and Drabble. Stephanie, Frederica, and Marcus are the three children of snarling Bill Potter, resident curmudgeon at the progressive Blesford Ride School in Yorkshire, and each of them becomes entwined in a problematic emotional attachment while the school and environs are caught up in an artsy, local Coronation festival. Unmotivated, pliable Stephanie is wooed by a fat, coarse, but blessedly down-to-earth and tender clergyman - and marries him despite her father, who boycotts the wedding, furious that his eldest and brightest is throwing herself away on domesticity with a religious clod. Frederica, feverishly ambitious and itching to lose her virginity, wins the apt role of young Bess in the Coronation festival’s main event, an outdoor play about Elizabeth I by handsome young teacher Alex Wedderburn - who’d be the one to deflower Frederica if not for his uncomfortable affair with a married woman and his own tetchy preoccupations with growing-up. (A swinging fellow-actor accomplishes the job instead; Frederica finds it neither "particularly nice nor particularly nasty, more like incessant Tampax.") And worst off of all is reclusive, terrified, adolescent Marcus, whose disturbing tendencies toward fantasies and visions are pounced upon and churned up by a quietly psychotic teacher; their "experiments" with the paranormal spiral into homosexual advances and a pathetic breakdown. In carefully paced, alternating chapters, Byatt develops each story line, and the parallels among the characters’ varied awakenings are clearly drawn. Perhaps too clearly. Often mannered, occasionally precious, and ever dense with literary allusions and inventories of facts and feelings, Byatt’s rather artificial narrative is never less than readable, rarely less than interesting; an audience hungry for intelligent, layered, literate fiction may hardly mind the lack of spontaneity and passion. (Kirkus Reviews)

About the Author/作者介绍： 對於英國人而言，這是一位舉足輕重的作家。A.S.拜厄特，正式頭銜是安東尼婭•蘇珊•拜厄特女勳爵（Dame Antonia Susan Byatt），1936年8月出生於英國約克郡。她先後在英國劍橋大學紐漢姆學院、美國布林茅爾學院和英國牛津大學瑟蒙威爾學院學習。1990年，她被授予“大英帝國司令勳章”（CBE）；1999年被授予“大英帝國爵級司令勳章”（DBE）。現為英國皇家文學協會會員。原本可以成為語言學家或者哲學家的拜厄特，最終“以獨具一格的想像力與博古通今的智慧享譽當代英美文壇”。 她的《佔有》被評論為“一部完美的作品，從頭到尾都是大師手筆”，“一個時代最激蕩心靈的作品”，同年，該書一舉摘得英語小說界最高榮譽—布克獎。此外，《佔有》還被《紐約時報》譽為“文學史上的華麗壯舉”，被英國《衛報》評為“生命中不可缺少的100部書”，被英國BBC列入“英國人最喜歡的100部文學經典”，被美國《時代週刊》選入“100部世紀最佳英語小說”。2002年，《佔有》還被改編成了電影，因此賺的版稅足夠讓拜厄特在法國買下一所帶游泳池的別墅。 2002年，憑藉對英國文化的傑出貢獻，拜厄特獲得了阿爾弗雷德•特普費爾基金會頒發的“莎士比亞獎”。2008年，她被英國《泰晤士報》評為1945年以來英國最偉大的50位作家之一。

A S Byatt is renowned internationally for her novels and short stories. Her novels include the Booker Prize-winning Possession, The Biographer’s Tale and the quartet, The Virgin in the Garden, Still Life, Babel Tower and A Whistling Woman. Her most recent novel, The Children’s Book is published in 2009. Her highly acclaimed collections of short stories include Sugar and Other Stories, The Matisse Stories, The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye, Elementals and Little Black Book of Stories. A distinguished critic as well as a writer of fiction, A S Byatt was appointed CBE in 1990 and DBE in 1999.
拜雅特（Antonia Susan Byatt），1936年8月24日出生於英國雪菲德〈Sheffield〉。父親為法官，其妹Margaret Drabble亦為知名小說家。知名作家、評論家。曾就讀約克大學以及劍橋大學的紐罕學院，在成為全職作家之前，並曾在中央藝術學院授課。2009年獲得加拿大Blue Metropolis國際文學大獎（Blue Metropolis International Literary Grand Prix）。新書THE CHILDREN’S BOOK也將在4/22舉行的第十一屆公開發行。蒙特婁國際文學節是由Blue Metropolis基金會舉辦。
拜雅特著有多部小說，擅長描繪維多利亞時期文學。小說內容旁徵博引，主要角色多為學界人士或藝術創作者。其中，《迷情書蹤》（時報，2004）榮獲1990年布克獎和愛爾蘭時報∕愛爾蘭航空國際小說獎。該年她並獲頒大英帝國司令勳章（C. B. E.）。 其他著作有小說：《日影》、《遊戲》、《花園處女》、《靜物》、《天使與昆蟲》、《馬蒂斯故事》、《夜鶯眼中的惡靈》、《元素──冰火同融》、《傳記作家的故事》；文學評論：《想像人物》、《自由的等級：論艾瑞絲‧梅鐸的小說》、《不羈的年代：華茲華斯與柯立芝》、《智性之愛：評論選集》等。目前作者作品繁體版權都還在。
拜雅特有兩本作品拍成電影，《迷情書蹤》（1990）與《天使與昆蟲》（Angels and Insects,1992），其中由暢銷作品《迷情書蹤》改編的《無可救藥愛上你》由金球影后葛妮絲派特蘿主演，深獲好評。

Format:TRADE PAPERBACK

Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE(到期可授)

Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE

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