“The British novelist A. S. Byatt is a very clever woman, and Angels & Insects exhibits her cleverness.”

“Proven professional [Wanda McCaddon]...rises predictably to the challenge. Hers is a gifted storyteller’s voice, perfect for a tale of Victorian England, full of expectation and interest in the wonderments of what she has to say. Her characterizations of both males and females of varied social registers are excellent, as is her ability to transmit clearly the tonal subtexts of Byatt’s clause-laden, gracefully qualified sentences.”

“Delicate and confidently ironic.... Byatt perfectly blends laughter and sympathy [with] extraordinary sensuality.”

“Byatt effortlessly exploits the opportunities for pastiche, belletristic flourish and critical commentary. If her symbolism is as excessively upholstered and overdetermined as the narratives of her Victorian models, beneath the padding she sets out a delicate chain of thematic concerns—19th-century tensions between science and faith, erotic currents within families, the nature of marital happiness—and heightens them by juxtaposing the two novellas here. Her easy ventriloquism mocks Victorian excesses even as she uses these same elements to inveigle her readers. Complex and captivating, this fluid volume recasts itself on every page.”