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Summary: A mystery, a love story, and a feminist theme
Review: As I continued to read this story, I kept saying out loud, "I can't believe how much I love this book." I am not a fan of Victorian poetry, or any poetry for that matter. I sometimes view academic scholars as out-of touch snobs. Literary criticism can sound like anal, jargon-filled jabberwocky noise to my ear. But the book has a multi-layered story with characters so real that I almost looked up Randolph Ash on the internet to see if he really existed. Also there is a mystery so well developed that I began reading the poetry looking for clues in the images and between the lines. Finally, the feminist theme of independence woven throughout both love stories hooked me, and now I plan on rereading the whole thing--something I never do.
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Summary: An all-time favourite. Byatt is a brilliant writer.
Review: I read this book years ago and I am now buying it for friends. The book is a masterpiece of prose and story-telling. A book that made me cry tears of true emotion at the end.READ IT. You will discover a brilliant writer. I hope to re-read it soon.
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Summary: This book drags!
Review: I was very excited to read this book after being taken in by the book jacket but finally gave up after getting to page 150. I desperately wanted to like this book, and finish it. Although, I found aspects of the book intriguing (the letters) and the writing was very descriptive, the story dragged. I was going to stop around page 75 but forced myself to continue. There are much better books out there like "The Sun Also Rises"-Hemingway.
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Summary: Spectacular, Brilliant.
Review: There is not a book that has made me truly regret its ending - except Possesion. It is a mosaic of intelligence, poetry, mystery, romance, and utter brilliance. Not a better book in the world can I reccommend to anyone. Admitedly, this book is not for everyone, but by and large there is something in it for everyond - it touches human nature in the most elemental way possible. There's no other way to put it - this book is awesome.
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Summary: I wish that I could read this again for the first time!
Review: In grade school, I loved the Narnia series and The Borrowers, mainly because of the settings. I still sometimes reread the Narnia books to get back to that quiet, in-between world with the many ponds. I can just see it in my mind. Anyway, that's why I decided to reread Possession this year. For instance: Clouds were darkly gathering; she could see through the trees a full moon, which, because of some trick of the thickening air, seemed both far away and somehow condensed, an object round and small and dull.... There was a kind of cracking of cold in the woods all round, a tightening of texture, a clamping together....The trees went up, solid. A kind of elemental clanging accompanied the disappearance of each into the dark. They were old, they were grey and green and stiff....A creature ran out into her path; its eyes were half-spheres filled with dull red fire, refracted, sparkling and then gone....Maud was inside, and the outside was alive and separate. Isn't that beautiful? It's an exciting read, too. It opens with a young grad student finding a mysterious letter from a Victorian poet. Who was the letter to? Did she write back? What happened next? Possession won the Booker Prize, and it's so good that you'll find yourself rereading it every couple of years just to be put under Byatt's spell again.
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Summary: Astonishing - GREAT BOOK
Review: So romantic, so learned ...and all that. But above all WHAT A PAGETURNER! I so wanted to see what the truth behind the documents was!! I saw a few comments below that suggest it was hard to keep reading, but I did not find that at all. HIGHLY recommended!
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Summary: I would explete if allowed....better left unsaid.
Review: Weak character construction;overwrought prose, Byatt falling victim to the worst symptoms of the romantics without their sometimes redeeming beauty; excesses of self indulgence...enough said? When you find yourself more interested in the possibilities suggested by the academic research than the characters of this work it is a definite sign of worry. It was at this point I gave up on yet another booker winner and satisfied the slight desire Byatt raised by returning to my own dusty student notes on the real romantics and their lifes...even my cribbed notes made for more satisfying reading...how depressing if only I had read Possession ten years ago when I was studying English she might of shown me that there were worse things to read than journal articles. So I refrain from swearing about it but this book is a disappointment that might have been better off not being discovered.
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Summary: My favorite book of the decade
Review: This book was published in 1990, and almost a decade later it remains my favorite book of the 1990s. Sumptuous, complex, multi-layered and multi-textured, "Possession," is also humorous, tragic, and deeply romantic all at once. Its title is perfect; among other things it is a meditation on the many meaning of this word -- on the human need to be possessed by an intellectual passion or a by physical one, on our desire to possess those we love, and on our paradoxical need to remain self-possessed. Lyrical, imaginative and haunting, this is the rare book that, for all the richness of its language, has an equally rich and satisfying story plot.
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Summary: Eloquent and original
Review: I, too, found this book slow going at first -- but only at first. Once the poets move to the foreground, the plot pushes you inexorably forward; I ended up sitting up until 3 in the morning to finish the book the first time I read it. The various writing styles used by Byatt are amazing; it's difficult to imagine any one person can write so brilliantly in so many different idioms. One critic online said that the characters were emotionally distant; I only found that true at first. All of them reveal themselves slowly and unwillingly, to each other and the reader -- but they are eventually revealed in great complexity. The ending is both very satisfying and heartbreaking; every time I read it, I'm moved, even though I now know it by heart. Well worth the time and attention it takes.
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Summary: Worth the significant effort beyond any other work
Review: While this is not the easiest read it is probably the most satisfying work of contemporary fiction I have ever read. But the changing styles - Victorian poetry, post-modern literary criticism, contemporary narrative, among many others - make it a small challenge. Well worth it though. I have probably read this six times (highly unusual for me) and have found a new layer or three each time. And the end always breaks and heals my heart at the same time...
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