How does class constrain the characters in the novel? Olive and Elsie both marry outside their class - are they similar in any other ways? Which is the greater divide for them and the other characters in the novel: class or sex? How does Philip's absorption into the Wellwood circle differ from his sister's?.What secrets are the many families in the novel - the Todefright Wellwoods, the Basil Wellwoods, the Cains, the Fludds, and even Elsie and Philip - hiding from each other and from outsiders? Which of the characters' betrayals did you find most shocking?.We follow a huge cast of characters for nearly three decades over the course of the novel whom did you care about most at the end? Many of the characters are not who they seem how did your feelings about these characters change as the story developed?.Nesbit's magical stories and The Wind in the Willows, inspired her to write the novel do you see echoes of any of your favorite children's stories here? How are fairy tales important to the novel - both to the story and to the characters themselves? Byatt has said in interviews that fairy tales and the children's books of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, such as E.Why is this novel called The Children's Book? Discuss the many possible meanings this title suggests.

It is a masterly literary achievement by one of our most essential writers. 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. 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.

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. A panoramic cavalcade of a novel a work that superlatively displays both enormous reach and tremendous grip.' - Peter Kemp, The Sunday Times (London)įrom the Booker Prize-winning author of Possession, 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. Byatt has written since her Booker-winning masterpiece, Possession. Byatt's dazzling, epic story of family, art, class, and betrayal.

The questions for discussion and reading list that follow are intended to enhance your reading group's discussion of The Children's Book, A.

The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt