She said in Romance, women’s two natures can be reconciled. I asked, which two natures, and she said, men saw women as double beings, enchantresses and demons or innocent angels.

“Are all women double?” I asked her.

“I did not say that,” she said. “I said all men see women as double. Who knows what Melusina was in her freedom with no eyes on her?”

~A.S. Byatt, Possession