Elementals: Stories of Fire and Ice (original 1998; edition 1999)

Elementals explores the ideas of fire and ice in several different ways.

It varies from "Cold", a fairy tale story with literal fire and ice in the form of an ice princess who marries a fire oriented prince, to "Crocodile Tears", a modern story with no magic where the ice manifests as a motif symbolizing guilt and grief.

With such a short collection - just six stories- I was disappointed that there was one that fell completely flat for me ("Baglady"), but as it was very short, just ten pages or so, it was over quickly.

My two favorites are the aforementioned "Cold" and "A Lamia in the Cevennes", a story which contrasts an artists obsession with perfection and a Lamia's desire to be human. It's given an added layer if you've read the source poem, Keat's "Lamia". ( )

A collection of six short stories from A.S. Byatt. Themes of memory, sadness and alienation run through the collection. The use of language and imagery is wonderful, with the use of light and colour being most noticeable to me. As always with collections I preferred some of the stories, but all of them had aspects that I enjoyed. All in all a delightful read. ( )

This was my first collection by AS Byatt. It is a collection of six short stories and it is subtitled "Tales of Fire and Ice". They all have fantasy and fairy tale elements to them although "Cold" is the most traditionally fairy tale. It was also my favourite by far in the book. It follows a princess, the youngest child of the king and queen. She is loved by all but isn't very emotional and is often tired and sleepy. One day it snows and she finally comes alive and discovers one of her ancestors was a woman from the cold north lands. Her father wants her to marry (ideally from the North so she can be happy in the cold), but she chooses a man from the desert hotlands. She travels with him but begins to wane until her husband finds a compromise. It was beautifully told and mixed fantastical with cruel. It will definitely stick with me for a long time to come.

The other stories that stood out were "A Lamia in the Cvennes" and "Christ in the House of Martha and Mary". These were about a man who paints a lamia who lives in his swimming pool but tries to get out of marrying her once the painting is done. Christ is about two models who stood for Velsquez as Martha and Mary and where their lives have taken them since.

Unfortunately I wasn't so keen on the other three in the collection. They were a little dull and dragged. The three I did like more than made up for their lacking and as I said, Cold will stay with me a long time. From doing a search online it looks like this isn't the best introduction to Byatt's writing and I know I will be reading more by her in the future. ( )

The byline of this book is Stories of Fire and Ice, so all of the stories contained these two elements in one way or another. Several of them read very much like fairy tales in their representations of one or the other of the elements and made for very pleasant and lyrical reading. "A Lamia in the Cevennes" was very artistic, fantastical and eerie while "Jael" managed to appear non-fantastical until the very end which gave you shivers.

My favorite in the collection would have to be "Cold" though. The story of the ice princess and the desert prince was very touching and extremely well written, the prose in this story alone made reading the book very much worth it. I even read that particular piece aloud to my husband who also enjoyed it very much.

If you are a fan of A.S. Byatt then you will love this book, if you are just a fan of re-written fairy tales you will also love this book and should become a fan of this amazing author. The only reason it lost a star is the first story, "Crocodile Tears" - while powerful, poetic and meaningful in its own way - was a story I found hard to get into and was a very long short story to start the book off on. I guess that particular piece just hit a little too close to home for me. ( )

This is the third or fourth book I've read by Byatt. I think it's my least favorite. As short story collections go, there were some good stories and some lacking a little. But, in this case, the stories that were good weren't great, so overall, I can't rate this collection very high. I had read Little Black Book a few years back and either I remember it more fondly than I should, or it was just outright better. I think it's the latter. Regardless, I just finished this book and immediately (on the same commute to work) began The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye. So I'll see if this was indicative of Byatt's short stories or a fluke. ( )