The Virgin in the Garden (Frederica Quartet Book 1) - A.S. Byatt Audiobook

Written by A.S. Byatt
Read by Sophie Aldred
Format: MP3
Bitrate: Variable
Unabridged

Original publication date: 1978
Audiobook release date: 2019
Publisher: Bolinda/Audible Audio
Audiobook duration: 21:02:05

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The first installment of the Frederica Quartet – a depiction of the social and imaginative life of England throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

In Yorkshire, the Potter family are preparing to celebrate Elizabeth II’s arrival on the throne. Its three youngest members, however, are preoccupied with other matters. Stephanie has grown tired of their overbearing father and resolves to marry the local curate. Anxious teenager Marcus gains a new teacher and suffers increasingly disturbing visions. Then there is Frederica. On the brink of adulthood, a love affair with a young playwright may offer the freedom she desperately desires.

The Virgin in the Garden is the first novel to feature Frederica Potter, and the beginning of a triumphant quartet of novels. Set in Yorkshire in 1952 as the inhabitants of the area set about celebrating the accession of a new Queen, this is the tale of a brilliant and eccentric family fatefully divided. The Virgin in the Garden is a wonderfully entertaining novel, in which enlightenment and sexuality, Elizabethan drama and comedy intersect richly and unpredictably.

‘An ambitious novel [whose] narrative everywhere displays knowledge and intelligence.’ — The Times Literary Supplement

‘Comic, well plotted, immensely touching … Gaudy excitement and splendour.’ — The Times

‘Byatt is essentially a fine, careful and very traditional storyteller.’ — The New York Times