"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
The Biographer's Tale is about how a would-be biographer goes in pursuit of his subject, and inadvertently finds himself along the way. A dry, nervous cipher at the outset, Phineas develops into a character as the tale progresses. He goes from loneliness to double love with a taxonomist and a radiologist. The earthy Fulla, "a Scandanavian nature-goddess" inducts him into the sensual exterior of life and the organic links that hold it together. Obsessed with bees and beetles, Fulla shows Phineas how human life is dependent upon a fragile ecosystem that philosophers of the self rarely pause to consider in their flights into the existential nature of being. Radiologist Vera who "photographs our invisible lives" reveals to Phineas the usually invisible world of the inner body, and enables him to venture to the interior of himself.
Entranced with two women, admiring and envious of the love between his peripatetic gay employers and terrified of one of their most important clients, Phineas finds that his biographical subject leads him into the words and worlds of Darwin, Galton, Linnaeus, Ibsen and Pearson. Byatt's theme is, typically, both labyrinthine in its complexity and crystalline in its simplicity. In its complexity, The Biographer's Tale is an investigation into contemporary intellectual currents and their relation to the philosophical and natural truths of nineteenth century thought. In its simplicity, it is a book about how we tell ourselves stories.
This is a novel that pokes fun at the solipsistic excesses of over-serious academe. It is nonetheless scholarly in its own construction, and readers should expect a challenging read. Byatt's particular achievement is to embody the positions of contemporary intellectual thought and make them into characters too. Empiricism becomes a phlegmatic, generally reliable but poseur-like armchair traveller whose failing is to elide cracks and conceal discontinuities in reality. Post-structuralism becomes a pugnacious sceptic querying the premise of selfhood with a weakness for revelling in ambivalence and the shiny surfaces of things--and delightfully annoying in its persistent questioning of the order of everything.
Truth, lies, love, history, self-knowledge--Byatt enables the reader to choose their route through Phineas's Bildungsroman. Pitching headlong into a very topical British cultural obsession with the nature of biography, The Biographer's Tale walks lightly the knotty tightrope between fact and fiction, and leaves the reader to decide on what is the difference between the two. As Phineas discovers, "There are very few human truths and infinite variations on them...Reading and writing extend--not infinitely, but violently, gut giddily--the variations we can perceive on the truths we discover." --Rachel Holmes
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Reissued with a beautiful new illustrative cover. How can you describe a 'whole life'? Booker Prize-winner A. S. Byatt conjures a sparking, colour-filled novel about one man's attempt to do soPhineas G. Nanson, a disenchanted graduate student, decides to immerse himself in the messiness of 'real life' by writing a biography of a great biographer. But a 'whole life' is hard to find. Everywhere he looks he discovers only fragments - strange notes, boxes of marbles, undated postcards.As Phineas's research continues, his mind roams from the deserts of Africa to the maelstroms of the Arctic. Along the way he meets others building wholes from bits and pieces - taxonomists, ecologists, even travel agents - and begins to puzzle out his future. But who will guide him from the labyrinth and back into his own life? Along the way he meets others building wholes from bits and pieces taxonomists, ecologists, even travel agents and begins to puzzle out his future. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780099283935
Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9780099283935
Book Description Paperback. Condition: New. BRAND NEW ** SUPER FAST SHIPPING FROM UK WAREHOUSE ** 30 DAY MONEY BACK GUARANTEE. Seller Inventory # 9780099283935-GDR
Book Description Paperback / softback. Condition: New. New copy - Usually dispatched within 4 working days. Fed up with stultifying criticism, Phineas decides to study the messiness of 'real life'. Doing nothing by halves, he sets out to write a biography of a great biographer. But a 'whole life' is hard to find. How do we put the idea of a person together? Everywhere he looks, he finds fragments and gaps. Trails run cold and mysteries are unresolved. Seller Inventory # B9780099283935
Book Description Condition: New. In. Seller Inventory # ria9780099283935_new
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Brand New. 272 pages. 7.80x5.08x0.87 inches. In Stock. Seller Inventory # __009928393X
Book Description Paperback. Condition: Brand New. 272 pages. 7.80x5.08x0.87 inches. In Stock. Seller Inventory # zk009928393X
Book Description Taschenbuch. Condition: Neu. Neuware - Phineas G. Nanson, a disenchanted graduate student, decides to immerse himself in the messiness of 'real life' by writing a biography of a great biographer. But a 'whole life' is hard to find. Everywhere he looks he discovers only fragments - strange notes, boxes of marbles, undated postcards.As Phineas's research continues, his mind roams from the deserts of Africa to the maelstroms of the Arctic. Along the way he meets others building wholes from bits and pieces - taxonomists, ecologists, even travel agents - and begins to puzzle out his future. But who will guide him from the labyrinth and back into his own life. Seller Inventory # 9780099283935
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Reissued with a beautiful new illustrative cover. How can you describe a 'whole life'? Booker Prize-winner A. S. Byatt conjures a sparking, colour-filled novel about one man's attempt to do soPhineas G. Nanson, a disenchanted graduate student, decides to immerse himself in the messiness of 'real life' by writing a biography of a great biographer. But a 'whole life' is hard to find. Everywhere he looks he discovers only fragments - strange notes, boxes of marbles, undated postcards.As Phineas's research continues, his mind roams from the deserts of Africa to the maelstroms of the Arctic. Along the way he meets others building wholes from bits and pieces - taxonomists, ecologists, even travel agents - and begins to puzzle out his future. But who will guide him from the labyrinth and back into his own life? Along the way he meets others building wholes from bits and pieces taxonomists, ecologists, even travel agents and begins to puzzle out his future. Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780099283935
Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Reissued with a beautiful new illustrative cover. How can you describe a 'whole life'? Booker Prize-winner A. S. Byatt conjures a sparking, colour-filled novel about one man's attempt to do soPhineas G. Nanson, a disenchanted graduate student, decides to immerse himself in the messiness of 'real life' by writing a biography of a great biographer. But a 'whole life' is hard to find. Everywhere he looks he discovers only fragments - strange notes, boxes of marbles, undated postcards.As Phineas's research continues, his mind roams from the deserts of Africa to the maelstroms of the Arctic. Along the way he meets others building wholes from bits and pieces - taxonomists, ecologists, even travel agents - and begins to puzzle out his future. But who will guide him from the labyrinth and back into his own life? Along the way he meets others building wholes from bits and pieces taxonomists, ecologists, even travel agents and begins to puzzle out his future. Shipping may be from our Sydney, NSW warehouse or from our UK or US warehouse, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780099283935