A Whistling Woman

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A Whistling Woman
A Whistling Woman.jpg
First edition
Author A. S. Byatt
LanguageEnglish
Publisher Chatto & Windus
Publication date
2002

A Whistling Woman is a 2002 novel by A. S. Byatt. The novel was published by Chatto & Windus in 2002.

The novel is the final in a sequence of four books, preceded by The Virgin in the Garden (1978), Still Life (1985), and Babel Tower (1996). [1] Jonathan Walker, in a paper published by Contemporary Literature , referred to the series of books as the "Frederica quartet". [2] Byatt herself expressed a preference for The Virgin in the Garden quartet when speaking about it ("It isn't Frederica's book--though she's the sort of person who would muscle in and try to take it!") and noted her publisher's intention to produce a boxed set, simply titled The Quartet. [3]

Byatt has said the novel is "about utopianism...and a dangerous sort of mystical romanticism". [4]

A Whistling Woman is half dedicated to Frances Ashcroft. [3]

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References

  1. Yeazell, Ruth Bernard (28 November 2002). "Overindulgence". London Review of Books. 24 (23). ISSN   0260-9592 . Retrieved 1 November 2022.
  2. Walker, Jonathan; Byatt, A. S.; Norfolk, Lawrence (2006). "An Interview with A. S. Byatt and Lawrence Norfolk". Contemporary Literature. 47 (3): 319–342. ISSN   0010-7484 . Retrieved 1 November 2022.
  3. 1 2 Newman, Jenny; Friel, James (2003). "An interview with A. S. Byatt". Cercles. Retrieved 11 September 2010. ASB: ... I remember sitting at high table with my friend, Professor Frances Ashcroft, to whom A Whistling Woman is half dedicated... The whole of The Virgin in the Garden quartet is about the desirability of an androgynous mind... JN & JF: I notice that the quartet which begins with The Virgin in the Garden is sometimes called The Frederica Quartet. ASB: My paperback publisher, you will be glad to hear, is going to make it a boxed set, and it's just going to be called The Quartet. It isn't Frederica's book--though she's the sort of person who would muscle in and try to take it!
  4. Leith, Sam (24 April 2009). "Interview: AS Byatt". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 November 2022.