Portraits in Fiction by A. S. Byatt

I was rather underwhelmed by this book, probably because I expected insightful and coherent analysis, but all I got was a 'greatest hits' of portraits that appear in the works and lives of famous authors with some interesting observations. Byatt draws connections and parallels between a wide variety of texts well (such as between Dorian Gray and Orlando), but I didn't find anything really insightful, more a surface skimming over how authors have used portraits. There are a lot of summaries of texts and events, and judgements passed on them (Byatt coldly calls Iris Murdoch's The Sandcastle 'not one of her best', and provides a very quick surface reading of Murdoch's attitude to art in it). I was also irritated by Byatt constantly referring to her own fiction, writing things like 'when I did this...' 'in my book', which made it sound like she considers herself the only writer who has been able to grasp the complexities of using portraits in novels. Also, it's extremely short and, though my copy is from the library, I was annoyed by the fact that the pretty cover, binding and glossy colour plates are worth considerably more than the text.