Black Venus displays the superbly witchy Angela Carter at her best... Whatever her subject Miss Carter writes like a dream - sometimes a nightmare. And as the voices call out, the images blaze, one is saved from an excess of fantasy by earthy realism, a sudden bark of humour

The "radicalised" Carter tells her tales of terror ferociously, with black brilliance. Black Venus is shot with dazzling lightning. It is thunderous and magnetic; irresistible even when it seems most repellent

Earthy, bawdy and bizarre in turn, there is a fine intelligence at work here

She was one of the century's finest writers, and her stories are among her finest works

Angela Carter has language at her fingertips

As for the other essays, they all represent Barnes at his most engaged and, in his way, passionate... When he cares about something, you know it.

The parallels between Barnes's essays and his fiction run much deeper. The Sense of an Ending asks to be read twice, once to listen to what the narrator has to say, and a second time to hear what he is busily avoiding or repressing, and many of these essays work in a similar way… His collection is also full of unexpected pleasures… Even the index is brimming with jokes. Such local surprises are typical of the book as a whole, which encourages readers to dip and rewards them for lingering.

There are many delightful biographical and bibliographical details among the literary criticism… Two recurring themes emerge from this anthology: France and death. Barnes is a keen observer of both lands.

A wonderfully learned and witty guide to how fiction operates.

Man Booker Winner’s essays on fellow writers – magnificent.

Julian Barnes is…punctilious. Collecting up here sundry reviews and introductions he has published since 1996 about writers who matter to him, he has unified them not just with a brief introduction asserting the priority of fiction.

The index to Julian Barnes’s new collection of essays strikes a playful note, a whimsy meant to undercut any danger of pomposity in his writing.

Julian Barnes reminds us what an exhilarating experience it can be to read a really good critic.

A compulsive page-turner.

Barnes’s passion for his writers is infectious.

Blissfully intelligent.

The temptation to turn away is powerful, but the rewards for resisting it are considerable. These essays combine a scholarly breadth of knowledge with a powerful sense of the absurdities of the creative life.

Through the Window is a wonderful and very interesting collection of essays that rewards close, and also measured, reading.