Wow! What an amazing book. (Warning: spoilers)
So many of the characters were richly drawn and completely believable. The level of detail about so many topics was surprising and very thought provoking. The only difficulty was the level of assumed prior knowledge in some areas and I had to do a bit of googling to know what she was on about sometimes. However I do not see this as detracting from the book at all - if anything it enriched the experience.
I started feeling really sad as I got close to the end as I did not want to leave the characters and I was starting to wonder how Byatt could possibly wrap it all up. But I was very satisfied with the completeness of the ending and the feeling that things were left as they should be. Byatt has taken the reader through some enormous changes in her characters and the world they live in and it is all portrayed so smoothly and convincingly.
My only discomfort is that Herbert Methley did not seem to get his comeuppance. I really, really wanted him to be disgraced or humiliated in some very public way. But I guess a male character getting away with his level of pompous and self-indulgent destruction of other peoples (i.e. females) self-worth is entirely in keeping with some of the major themes.
Not surprisingly Dorothy was my favourite character. I think the whole scene where she bites to defend herself is just fantastic. I felt like cheering!
