The Children's Book

By: A. S. Byatt

Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor

A spellbinding novel, at once sweeping and intimate, 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.
©2009 A.S. Byatt; (P)2009 Random House

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…

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.