(Borrowed from a friend's house in Mexico) While visiting friends in Mexico, I borrowed this volume when I finished all the books I had brought along. I had seen the beginning of the 1995 film based on the first of the two novellas set in the Victorian era and was intrigued. A.S. Byatt's pair of shorter novels is elegantly written and thought-provoking, but I enjoyed the first one, Morpho Eugenia, far more than the second, The Conjungial Angel. Morpho formed the basis of the film starring Mark Rylance and Kristin Scott Thomas, and concerns a natural scientist who specializes in insects marrying into an aristocratic family with deep, dark secrets. I hadn't gotten to the end of the film, so fortunately I didn't know the surprise ending. The plot was fascinating as Adamson, the scientist, delves deeper into the lives of insects and parallels are drawn between insect society and the Alabasters, his wife's family. Debates on evolution, religion, class and morality come into play. The Conjungial Angel was not as satisfying for me. A group of mediums and spiritualism enthusiasts meets on a weekly basis to contact their dear departed. Byatt goes deep inside each of the characters but I got confused as to who was related to whom, who was dead and who was related to the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson. The whole work is beautifully written, but I had a hard time relating to the second piece.
