The Matisse Stories

by A. S. Byatt

Overview

These three stories celebrate the eye even as they reveal its unexpected proximity to the heart. For if each of A.S. Byatt's narratives is in some way inspired by a painting of Henri Matisse, each is also about the intimate connection between seeing and feeling—about the ways in which a glance we meant to be casual may suddenly call forth the deepest reserves of our being. Beautifully written, intensely observed, The Matisse Stories is fiction of spellbinding authority.

"Full of delight and humor...The Matisse Stories is studded with brilliantly apt images and a fine sense for subtleties of conversation and emotion."—San Francisco Chronicle

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780307488046
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/23/2009
Series:	Vintage International
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	144
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

A. S. Byatt was the author of numerous novels, including The Children’s Book, The Biographer’s Tale, and Possession, which was awarded the Booker Prize. She also wrote two novellas, published together as Angels & Insects, five collections of short stories, and several works of nonfiction. A distinguished critic and author, and the recipient of the 2016 Erasmus Prize for her “inspiring contribution to ‘life writing,’” she died in 2023.

Hometown:

London, England; France

Date of Birth:

August 24, 1936

Place of Birth:

Sheffield, England

Education:

B.A., Newnham College, Cambridge, 1957; graduate study at Bryn Mawr College and Somerville College

Editorial Reviews

For all their thematic elaboration, Ms. Byatt's stories in "The Matisse Stories" do not feel contrived or didactic. On the contrary, her characters are credible, their encounters authentically complex, their environments vividly delineated. Indeed, these stories are unusually painterly in their particulars of form, color and shadow....These stories are all about human beings: about how little we can know (or may care to know) about the people with whom we spend our lives, and how tragic the results of that ignorance (or indifference) can be. -- New York Times

Bruce Bawer

yatt has drawn on the twin spheres of her literary passions, fiction and criticism, to create a triptych of stunning stories. Each ever-deepening tale revolves around a painting by Matisse. The paintings and the stories are about women, but Byatt's women have none of the abandon of Matisse's serenely voluptuous beauties: her women work, worry, and sacrifice. They are responsible and painfully honest. We gradually realize that they are also simmering with anger and grief as Byatt's strategically neutral tone gives way to ravishing descriptions of sounds, colors, and smells that bring each setting to life and steer each conflict to its eviscerating conclusion. In "Medusa's Ankles," one of Matisse's monumental nudes, a rosy spread of femaleness, graces a hair salon where a distinguished translator hopes to regain a hint of her youthful looks. In "Art Works," Byatt delves into the mysteries of creativity with a brilliant group portrait of three very different artists: a generous wife, her petulant husband, and their regal housekeeper. And finally, in "The Chinese Lobster," Byatt contrasts the tortured self-loathing of an anorexic art student with the smug opulence of Matisse's nudes and ponders the lure of suicide. These are breathtakingly beautiful stories, rendered with precision and poetry.

Donna Seaman

"An elegant collection [filled with] richly resonant prose, which evokes the look and feel of bodies and paintings.... Luminous." —The New York Times Book Review

"A. S. Byatt's three-tale sequence hits the imagination's retina with all the vibrant splatter of an exploding paintbox.... Everywhere, scenes sizzle with chromatic intensity." —Sunday Times

"Full of delight and humor ... The Matisse Stories is studded with brilliantly apt images and a fine sense for subtleties of conversation and emotion." —San Francisco Chronicle

"A writer of dazzling inventiveness." —Time

"Brilliant... Byatt's fiction, like Matisse's art, pays close attention to colours and contours of surfaces, then probes beneath them to reveal further suprises." —Newsday

"Exquisite triptych... The Matisse Stories is richly drawn and touches upon things that matter to people." —People

From the Publisher

A.S. Byatt offers three stories that tantalize the senses. Sounds, colors, tastes and aromas are each part of the vivid imagery Byatt creates. In narrator Virginia Leishman’s interpretation, each of the sensory references becomes even more striking. In “Medusa’s Ankles,” the balancing of the internal thoughts and external dialogue is masterful. In “Art Work,” Leishman uses her crisp, clear British voice to describe the clothes and settings and, in particular, the elaborate, surprising fiber sculptures. Leishman is able to project the careful flow of conversation between characters with unusual subtlety. She uses inflections and pauses to reveal much about the characters. Through this sensitive narration, Byatt’s stories are both soothing and provocative. As listening takes place at a slower pace than one might read, the images seem suspended for an instant before the next sentence continues. R.F.W. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine

NOV/DEC 97 - AudioFile