Portraits in Fiction

Portraits seem the opposite of fiction, fixed in time and space, not running with the curve of a story or a life. Yet since the birth of the novel, writers have been fascinated by portraits as icons, as motifs, as images of character and evocations of past time. In this intriguing, provocative little book, A.S. Byatt delves into the complex relations between portraits and characters, and between portraits and novels as whole works of art. 

Her authors range from Henry James to Iris Murdoch, her artists from Holbein to Botticelli, Manet to the present day. In her own novels, A.S. Byatt has often evoked the power of portraits. A feast for the eye and for the imagination, Portraits in Fiction is a remarkable and immensely enjoyable exploration of the marriage of two great genres.