Title: Still Life - Antonia Susan Byatt - book
Summary :
"The seed of this novel was a fact that was also a metaphor: a young woman, with a child, looking at a tray of earth where unthinned seedlings on pale, etiolated stems are dying in their struggle for life. She held in her hand the image of a flower, the seed packet with its vividly colored image. Giant, climbing nasturtiums, mixed." England, 1960s. Frederica Potter, admitted to Cambridge, embraces the feminist ideas of her time: she intends to make something of her life and not allow herself to be locked into marriage like her sister Stephanie, who is expecting a second child with Daniel. Much courted, Frederica mixes with intellectuals and weaves all sorts of romantic and artistic complicity that will lead her to discover refinement and luxury. She develops a veritable entomology of human characters, both cruel and destructive. In this sequel to The Virgin in the Garden, AS Byatt highlights the inextricable conflicts between ambition, family life and personal achievement while delivering a subtle and corrosive portrait of these years of revolt and liberation of morals.
