The Children's Book

By: A. S. Byatt

Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor

A spellbinding novel, at once sweeping and intimate, from the Booker Prize-winning author of Possession, that spans the Victorian era through the World War I years, and centers around a famous children's book author and the passions, betrayals, and secrets that tear apart the people she loves.

When Olive Wellwood's oldest son discovers a runaway named Philip sketching in the basement of the new Victoria and Albert Museum - a talented working-class boy who could be a character out of one of Olive's magical tales - she takes him into the storybook world of her family and friends.

But the joyful bacchanals Olive hosts at her rambling country house - and the separate, private books she writes for each of her seven children - conceal more treachery and darkness than Philip has ever imagined.

As these lives - of adults and children alike - unfold, lies are revealed, hearts are broken, and the damaging truth about the Wellwoods slowly emerges. But their personal struggles, their hidden desires, will soon be eclipsed by far greater forces, as the tides turn across Europe and a golden era comes to an end.

Taking us from the cliff-lined shores of England to Paris, Munich, and the trenches of the Somme, The Children's Book is a deeply affecting story of a singular family, played out against the great, rippling tides of the day. It is a masterly literary achievement by one of our most essential writers.

©2009 A.S. Byatt (P)2009 Random House

Critic reviews

“Sweeping . . . At the center of this epic are the Wellwoods and their many offspring. Olive, the matriarch, is the author of children’s books, vivid tales of fairies and demons, little people and spirits. . . . Along with other families, they weave in and out of one another’s lives, building an edifice of domestic tranquility that increasingly becomes a house of cards. . . . Byatt fills a huge canvas with the political and social changes that swept the world in those years, and the devastation of war that swept its families. She elicits great compassion for the individual beings caught in that tableau. It’s not a tale you’ll soon forget.” —Susan Kelly, USA Today

“Engaging and rewarding . . . Spanning the two and a half decades before the First World War, [The Children’s Book] centers on the Wellwood family, led by a banker with radical inclinations and his wife, the author of best-selling fairy tales. At their country estate, they preside over a motley brood of children and host midsummer parties for fellow-Fabians, exiled Russian anarchists, and German puppeteers. But the idyll contains dark secrets, as a potter whom the family takes in for a time discovers. Byatt is concerned with the complex, often sinister relationship between parent and child, which she explores through various works of art, using them to refract and illuminate the larger narrative.” —The New Yorker

>“Rich, expansive . . . a portrait of a time of imminent change—the years [in England] when the Victorian golden age depreciated into Edwardian silver and then, with World War I, into an ‘age of lead.’ The novel’s early sections take us to the country home of the Wellwoods, who welcome a lost youth into their midst. . . . In watching Byatt’s characters, especially parents who insist on clear paths for their young though their own lives are anything but clear, the simple message of that story—that no one is ever in total control—shows The Children’s Book is a title that applies to everyone.”
—Nick Owchar, Los Angeles Times Book Review

To follow people’s lives is my favorite thing about this book.

The stories of growth through one’s life. From young children to adulthood. All the trials and goodness

Rich, sweeping depiction of a fascinating period

I tried reading this when it came out and couldn't get into it, but listening made a difference. I loved it and am profoundly impressed with Byatt's great talents. She has remarkable insight into character and the zeitgeist of this time in history, the flowering of arts and crafts at the turn of the century in England and Germany. She mesmerizes with her fairly tales, and slowly reveals darkness and secrets under the lovely surfaces. Artists and art lovers will appreciate the details of the decorative arts and the Paris exhibition of 1900. WWI is always painful to read about but she also adds war poetry by one of the characters that is brilliant.
The narrator does well with the women characters, but all her men sound the same. Unfortunate, but it did not affect my enjoyment of a marvelous book.

That life happens during history…

And is shadowed by the tales we spin to understand it—this book gorgeously, epically portrays that. I had trouble at the start with the many characters, so pay attention during the first midsummer party! Oh Byatt has made a beautiful kaleidoscope here…

Masterful Performance Deepens the Novel's Magic

I read The Children's Book years ago and found it enthralling. Because the setting relates to a project I'm doing for work, I wanted to re-read it, and I did so alternately with listening to this performance on Audible. I found myself coming back to the audiobook again and again and looking forward to my commute so I could plug it in.. Rosalyn Landor is an outstanding reader, able to evoke character, time, and place with her voice alone; her expressive interpretations of multiple characters across age, class, regional accent, and sex distinctions is nothing short of magical. You feel as if each character is real, and as if you are eavesdropping on their lives and conversations. This performance is truly the best one I've experienced in a decade of listening to audible, and I can't recommend Landor as a reader highly enough -- she is marvelous.

The book itself is also a phenomenon. It is a sweeping, Dickensian narrative of the various aesthetic and political movements connected to three families in late Victorian-Edwardian England, using children's literature, ceramics, and puppetry as symbols of innovation, cultural change, and the inner lives and relationships of the characters. Highly recommended for lovers of historical and literary fiction.

I'm in mourning because I finished it

This is a broad sweeping book, and it helps if you are interested in art history and world history of the late 19th and early 20th century, or are interested in making things, or love fairy tales. As with other Byatt novels, some parts are challenging, while others are magical. For me it brought a great revival of my own interest in making things. I also became caught up in the historical changes, which increasingly build with a sense of doom toward World War I. There are a number of theses and themes interwoven in the cycles of childhood and adulthood that I found interesting and will not mention here to avoid spoiling the plots. There are many stories looking backward while time marches forward. There are, perhaps better on paper, somewhat lengthy catalogues of world events for each period of the book. But I've rarely been so unwilling to part with a book and plan to buy it again in paper. The narrator Rosalyn Landor is extraordinary, and manages male, female, children, magical animals, and multiple foreign accents and latin with great success. Highly recommended.

Long and rambling, but I have no regrets!

This is a sweeping, vast novel. Yes, Byatt gets too in the weeds sometimes with teaching us history. But I greatly enjoyed what she taught me, and feel much more informed about the Arts & Crafts movement, and so much more. I would recommend to people who love the 19th C and who are into art history. Rosalyn Landor was brilliant as the narrator. I would definitely suggest "listening" rather than "reading" this book - I suspect Landor's excellence as an actor and narrator helped make the book more engaging than if I was staring at a page.

Byatt at her best

Will re in text on paper and celebrate with marginalia to interact more deeply with this text.

a great little slice of the crafts life

But a little twisted. As in the past, Byatt has a way of showing the dark side of relationships. Between the lines and the fairy tales are some really awful relationships with children and adults. Disturbing almost. Or maybe i was just feeling sensitive that week, but it's not a lighthearted romp despite the fairy tales inserted here and there. it's actually quite sad. and worth the time if you're in the mood for that.

A great Book

I have been an audible subscriber for only two years and this is the best listen so far. Everything about it is great. The reader is perfect for this book. It's long and immersing and so worth the effort. It is life at the turn of the 19th-20th century. I give five stars without hesitation.

Wanted to like it, but didn't

Listening to this book was a little like walking through hip-deep water. It is well written, but so dense. I felt as though I were trying to enjoy it and get into it, but the story wouldn't meet me half way.