A. S. Byatt, Elementals: Stories of Fire and Ice

Emma Victoria Miller (University of Durham)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Kerry Myler (Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1998

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Story Collection

Resources

Elementals was Byatt’s third collection of short stories to be published. It followed Sugar and Other Stories (1987), the Matisse Stories (1993), the Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye: Five Fairy Stories (1994), and preceded the Little Black Book of Stories which appeared in 2003.

Elementals contains six short stories and mixes the fantastic with the realistic in one volume, sometimes in the same story. “Crocodile Tears” starts the volume and features an apparently ordinary middle aged couple, Patricia and Tony Nimmo, who spend their weekends in art galleries. On the occasion recounted they have an unnecessary and unimportant argument over an installation, which inadvertently leads …

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2661 words

Citation: Miller, Emma Victoria. "Elementals: Stories of Fire and Ice". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 January 2011 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=5393, accessed 25 November 2024.]

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