POSSESSION is--there's no other word--an extraordinary book.

Touted as an "intelligent, literary, and ambitious thriller" by The Times (London), the story is also subtitled: "A Romance." And it is all these things and more.

The main character, Roland Mitchell, is a literary scholar working in the bowels of the London Library. He's perusing a long-undisturbed book authored by the subject of his study, poet Randolph Henry Ash, when he discovers two letters Ash started writing to a woman--one to whom the married Ash was obviously attracted. Purloining the letters in order to find out her identity (and keeping this find to himself, instead of sharing it with Professor Blackadder, for whom he works as a part-time research assistant), he learns that the woman may be a poet named Christabel LaMotte, who up until this point was thought to be a Lesbian with no connection to Ash. Roland's research inevitably leads him to Maud Bailey, who runs another university's Women's Resource Center. Maud is one of two people in the world considered to be complete experts on Christabel LaMotte. Their alliance (an uncomfortable one, at first) grows closer and more intense the more they learn about the relationship between the two poets.

Ah, but they aren't working in a vacuum. Others start to sniff around and figure out what they're up to. Including Fergus Wolff (Maud's ex-lover), Leonora Stern (the other LaMotte scholar), Beatrice Nest (custodian to Ellen Ash's papers), Blackadder and a certain Mortimer Cropper, a nefarious American (the book is nothing, if not thoroughly British) and Blackadder's arch rival when it comes to anything related to Randolph Henry Ash. So A.S. Byatt intricately and deftly weaves elements of the thriller, suspense and romance into the story. But that's not all--because the letters and manuscripts the two scholars find tell a story themselves. Another story of romance and suspense. So the story of Roland Mitchell and Maud Bailey ends up being written around the story of Randolph Henry Ash and Christabel LaMotte. And the overall effect is--amazing.

A few caveats: the prose is rich. In fact, to merely say it's rich is like saying creme brulee topped with whipped cream has a few calories. It has the flow and feel of the 19th Century literature by the poets being studied, layered with the modern sensibilities of the scholars studying them. And poems by Ash and LaMotte are embedded throughout the text. These poems reflect part of their story as well, since they're intended to show how Ash and LaMotte's relationship affected their work. (As Roland and Maud's joint research may affect their relationship? Hmm . . .)

The entire review can be read at http://thebookgrrl.blogspot.com/2009/... ( )

This was one of the mose phenomenal books I have ever read. I am no liteterature academic by any stretch of the imagination, but I may call myself an 'armchair' scholar. Let's just say I know enough about literature to be positively FLOORED by the brilliance that is this incredible novel. Byatt creates a beautiful variety of characters, not only through dialogue and the choices they make, but through their brilliant writing. Let's make a list, just so we can marvel at how brilliant the book is:

RH Ash - Poems (a couple epics in there), letters, journals
Christabel Lamotte - Poems (an epic), letters, journals
Blanche Glover - Journals, letters
Ellen Ash - Letters, journals
Leonora Stern - Literary criticism/analysis
Mortimer Cropper - Biography (complete with footnotes) and essays

Those are just the few. There are several more and I was amazed at how seamless and believable the writing styles were. I also love how fearlessly Byatt changed points of view throughout the novel to show us, the reader, what really happened. Byatt is an author who thinks of her readers and takes really good care of them throughout.

However, I must say that the suspense was rather a LOT. It drove me nuts to wait and find out what happened next! ( )

This is a book that is very definitely written by an academic, seemingly for other academics and in that way it shines!

Others have discussed the plot and story and characters quite enough. I will say only that every time I read it (and I re-read it frequently, it is my literary chocolate bar) I find some other reason to linger over passages and poems and theory and letters. If I had never loved epistolary novels, those letters would still hold a very special, ribbon tied place in my heart of hearts.

The novel calls itself a romance, and indeed it is. It is a romance of the written word, for other literary romantics. ( )

I am sure somebody liked this book. But not me. The story was very intriguing but oh-so-slow! I skipped through the poems which were - to me - distracting road blocks. If this story were told by Dan Brown, it would have been so much more exciting. Instead, it was bor-ing and pretentious ( )

23 March 2009 – 23 April 2009 : Possession by A. S. Byatt

Byatt and her works were previously unknown to me.
Last Winter however, as I was reading several “Booker” winners one after the other, Possession appeared in the 2009 Folio Society catalogue. It was a beautiful edition, illustrated by Rowena Dugdale and I just ticked this choice on the order form.

A short investigation on the web presented Byatt as a “party pooper” and “fun spoiler” because in an article in the New York Times she dared to say that the JK Rowling books were 'for people with stunted imaginations'. She adds and I quote the article: “Ms Rowling's magic world has no place for the numinous. It is written for people whose imaginative lives are confined to TV cartoons and the exaggerated (more exciting, not threatening) mirror-worlds of soaps, reality TV and celebrity gossip." And even better : “Byatt believed adults had become fans ( of HP ) because the books allowed them to regress into the comfort zone of childhood”.

Ok, now that Byatt has all my sympathy, what is her book Possession about?

It is her best known novel, winner of the Booker Prize in 1990 and listed by Time magazine as part of the top 100 Best English-language Novels.

While researching the Victorian poet Randolph Henry Ash in the British Library, a young, unknown scholar, Dr. Roland Michell, discovers two drafts of a letter written by the poet , which indicates that the married Ash had a unknown romance with a mysterious lady.
Such a discovery could make Roland’s reputation in the academic world. He steals the letters and begins to investigate the identity of the young mysterious woman. He soon finds out that the letters are adressed to Christabel LaMotte, a minor poet and contemporary of Ash.
With the help of Dr. Maud Bailey, a modern LaMotte scholar and relative of LaMotte's family, Roland works himself trough more letters, diaries, poems, notes in order to unfold the details of this mysterious relationship.
While Roland and Maud are investigating together the amourous relationship between Ash and LaMotte, their own involvment because more personal and they are drawn to each other. Their emerging relationship parallels strangely the love of the two (fictional) nineteenth century poets in to whom they are researching,.
Their investigation draws soon attention from rival colleagues and the academic investigation becomes quiet fast a rac of the different Academic factions to discover the truth. This truth is finally disclosed in a grand Gothic scenery, in an opened grave , in an old churchyard in the middle of an Apocalyptic storm.
Byatt knows her subject well.

The story of the Victorian lovers is told through letters, poems, classic third-person narration, diaries, epigraphs, biographies, studies and even academic footnotes. The author switches convincingly between past and present-day literary styles, rhythms and word-use. She actually creates the art of the fictional Victorian poets who are investigated.
A real “tour de force” but it makes difficult reading as the pace of narration constantly changes.
I felt often like in a traffic jam, which advances slowly, then speeds up to come to a full stop 100 m further.

Besides being a literary detective story and a moving love story there are other topics too.
The rat race for the lost letters and diaries for example is actually quiet funny.
Byatt is satirizing the competitive atmosphere of the academic world. The different factions chasing the truth are caricatures of different currents of critical approaches of literature. There are the Feminists, the Formalists, the Biographers and even the obsessive Collectors who would rob a grave to get what they want.

Finally there is the concept of possession, which makes up the title of the book. The book brings us to think about ownership and independence between the lover and the beloved, between the biographer and his subject and between the academic and his study topic. Who possesses whom?

Unfortunately, I find the book lacks “life”. At practically no moment are the present day characters coming “off the paper”. Like their study subjects they remain two-dimensional.
Besides that, Possession is a good read and a sure recommendation for bookish people.

Finally for a more detailed review see:
Unearthing the Secret Lover: by Jay PariniBooks of The Times; When There Was Such a Thing as Romantic Love: review by Christopher Lehmann-Haupt