Possession

Rating:
Summary: only Byatt could make research sexy!
Review: A.S. Byatt is a master and this is her master work. She is not only a brilliant storyteller and a crafter of beautiful prose but she is also a professional scholar, so she knows what it's like to spend countless hours in dusty archives in search of enlightenment or even truth. This book is an academic fantasy, flawlessly recreating the obsession one feels when on the trail of a great research topic, the ecstasy of finding the one magnificent piece of evidence that suddenly makes years of effort worthwhile, as well as the almost blind passion with which many scholars imbue their subjects with their personal point of view--and the paradigm shifts that must occur when that view is challenged.

But this book is no mere academic mystery tale. Byatt wins my heart by consistently drawing characters who are intellectually gifted yet emotionally flawed and not always certain of their place in their chosen--unreservedly critical--profession. In Possession, her researchers are not only intellectual but human and vulnerable, struggling to unearth an emotional life that equals their intellectual one.

Not for everyone, but for people who require a smart read in addition to a great story, this one is a classic.

Rating:
Summary: Could be a classic
Review: Much literature is inspired by -- and helps us cope with -- the inconvenient fact that sexual love escapes management and intrudes violently into life. A. S. Byatt stands out for her celebration of characters who face this emotional challenge with humanity and intelligence, and who in many cases make literature out of, and for, this confrontation.

Possession is immersed in this endeavor. It is populated with a largish number of people who pair up into couples (about seven overlapping couples, depending on how one counts them) and who have the common trait of using literature to understand, express, expurgate, and even conduct their sentimental lives. Their relations with literature range from living out profound Breton myths, to vulgar (needless to say, American) mercenary aggression. Possession's portrayal of contemporary academia, especially of life in the stacks, is at least as compelling as its gothic passages, and indicates more accurately than the plot's romantic elements the audience that Byatt is implicitly writing for.

Readers are mainly impressed with Possession's over-fullness, and yet Byatt chose restraint on some subjects that might easily have grown into novels of their own. The handling of the romantic poet's wife (Ellen), her rival's partner (Blanche), and her eventual biographer (Beatrice) is in each case discrete to a point that could be maddening for readers who think that the personage deserves a larger volume of sympathetic ink.

I would speculate that this discretion is partly the result of Byatt's desire to let light have at least a moral victory over darkness in Possession's final balance. A consolatory ending seems meant to vindicate the principal couple's decision to accept the tragic outcomes that might be (and were) the cost of reaching for transcendent experiences.

This optimism, along with the luminescent emotion of Ash's and LaMotte's moments alone in nature -- their meeting in Richmond Park and their afternoon at Boggle Hole -- are what may well propel Possession into the ranks of the works of high literature that are read decade after decade and that are considered the Great Books.

Possibly Byatt felt this. The transparent reference to The French Lieutenant's Woman in the Boggle Hole story is not the only link back to classic predecessors, rooted above all in Jane Austen. Every author, I suppose, would like to write the next Pride and Prejudice, and with Possession Byatt appears to stake her claim.

Rating:
Summary: Eh
Review: I bought this book after listening to a good friend rave about it, and continually hearing Byatt's name pop up in favorable reviews. Unfortunately, I could just never get into the story. While I thought the premise was interesting, the plodding story bored me to the extent that it took me about three months to finally finish the book - I kept putting it down for extended periods of time.

Interestingly, the parts I really enjoyed were the poetry and letters by "Ash" and "LaMotte". I was very impressed by Byatt's ability to change tone enough to convince me another voice was there. I suppose that on an intellectual level I appreciated the skill, but I just did not enjoy reading the novel. By the end, I didn't care much about what happened to the characters - although the postscript was quite poignant.

If you want to Appreciate the Literature, dive in. If you want to enjoy the plot and find out what happens, rent the movie.

Rating:
Summary: excellent literary fun
Review: If you're looking for checkout-rack romance as a little light diversion, keep looking--"Possession" is not that book! This is a "heavy-weight" romantic tale, with thick literary allusions froms start to finish. From the punning character names to the classical references studded in its long Victorian poems, "Possession" will require your close attention.

Although the book introduces us to two sets of lovers, one modern and one Victorian couple, the tone throughout is Victorian. Even as the current couple deals with their commitment-phobia and their "post-Romantic" frame of reference,
their own story becomes caught up in the passions and constraints of the Victorian lovers.

Christabel LaMotte is determined to have her own life and to practice her literary art, yet she encounters a dragon in the person of Randolph Ash. Her love for him ambushes her, and its consequences undermine her lofty pursuits. Yet years later she tells him, "If there had to be a dragon, I'm glad it was you."

Slogging through the ornately written poems and the dense prose of the letters Christabel and Ash exchanged may make you feel you are in a classroom again, not reading for pleasure. But if you stay with this book, you will find a literary feast, satisfying and savory. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Literature for Academics or Romantics
Review: *Possession* is a renowned work, earning awards and critical praise. However, as a graduate student in literature increasingly disinterested in academia, I found Byatt's work to be problematic. The book is clearly an exhibition--it features so many literary forms, that it almost becomes bothersome--but where it falls short is in its characterizations. The primary cast is upper-middle to upper-class scholars, academics, all white, and all "possessed" (or "obsessed") in some way exclusively with a literary figure of the past. To cite Forster, I contend then that Byatt's characters are flatter than round, more aloof than accessible. That is, even as a graduate student, I had difficulty identifying with any of them. Their drives and motivations are also difficult to relate to, further distancing the characters from the reader. It is a complete love story, but I should imagine that the reader seeking romance could easily find a more accessible and enjoyable read elsewhere. Moreover, as anyone who has read novels and watched their movie adaptations will attest, the movies rarely live up to the expectations created through reading a novel. With that, I caution also those who see the movie and expect the book to be similar to rest in their casual enjoyment with a 2-hour sit in front of their TVs.

Rating:
Summary: it was good, but
Review: i admit that i skipped a lot of the meta-stories, journal entries, poems, and the letters where they did not seem to further illuminate the plot. i gave it all a chance, but it was really not as much fun to read the drier, fake victorian writing than the action of the main story, whose business it is to connect and draw the meta-story into it. i did not have to read several long pages to get the idea or pick up the needed clues.

this is my first encounter with AS Byatt so i can't figure her out yet as an author. i do believe there were a lot of jokes hidden in the work, whether accidental or intentional i cannot speak to... i clued in near the end where the phrase "motte and bailey" was used, and i groaned to think of the characters LaMotte and Bailey. even though i have a university degree in english (and yes choose to write in nearly all lower case) and had to slog through rambling victorian poems there as well, i still found the inserts of the meta-stories hard to take. perhaps if the writers under study had really existed, and if these were genuine works--- but then there would be no novel and i truly think we would be worse off for that.

it was good, really. just not perfect, nor easy to read as the author intended. i was not comfortable with the resolution and the assembly of characters near the end-- perhaps as page 500 was looming the story had a sense of needing to be offloaded ASAP? the little hints and tricks were very clever-- indeed the whole piece seems to speak to cleverness-- and i really enjoyed the final images.

there were a few neat setups in the novel that i appreciated, looking for gold in the ore as i was, such as:

- the attitude of ellen ash's, re: disliking the idea of future readers picking over personal letters and journals and exposing them, which foreshadows her own sanitised journal, leaving one to suspect she knew more than was let on
- parallels between characters, such as the pregnancy of the servant and that of another character;
- the blonde hair in the watch/bracelet

the names of the characters were a bit outlandish, and again i feel some were deliberately chosen for their extra meanings. a bailey is an enclosure, and the character maud is certainly aloof and unassailable. a motte is a mound, and well, let's leave it to your imagination. wolff? blackadder? (try not to think of rowan atkinson) leonora-- goes from being a 'champion' to a 'star' (stern). then again i suppose a novel about scholarly investigations prompts some of its own.

Rating:
Summary: A true piece of literature
Review: While it was difficult for me to get through this book at times because I am not a great analizer of poems or poetry, I have to appreciate this work of art. The story is simple, but crafted in such a way that can be admired by lovers of books. A romance plain and simple set in the mid nineteenth century between two poets and the secrets between them.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a reader and likes romances and mysteries!

Rating:
Summary: A Must-Read for Every Lover of Good Fiction/Literature!
Review: I put off buying this book for a long time after reading some of the unfavourable reviews it received on Amazon.com. (e.g. that the book is difficult to read, boring, overly long, dense, etc). But in January, I watched the 2002 movie adaptation (starring Gwyneth Paltrow) and immediately fell in love with the story. I knew then that I just HAD to read the novel to experience fully the beauty of the story and its characters. I'm so glad I finally did, and would recommend this title if you're looking for a unique and engaging reading experience.

"Possession" is not exactly a light read, but once you get past the first 30 pages or so, you'll get the hang of Byatt's writing style and be fully drawn into the story. The novel opens with the introduction of the character Roland Mitchell, a young Brit graduate in mid-1980s London who works part-time at the British Museum assisting in research work on the famous (but fictional) Victorian poet, Randolph Henry Ash. Roland's a "penniless" bloke, but he's nice looking, hardworking and kind. One day as he's researching his work at the library, he discovers between the leaves of a reference book (which had once belonged to Ash), 2 letters in Ash's handwriting. They appear to be draft correspondence to an unnamed woman. Excited and intrigued, Roland pockets the letters and decides to investigate this secret life of Ash's (this is because based on the biographies written on him, Ash was supposed to be a happily married man). The significance is that if it's discovered now that he had led a "second life", the discovery would change the modern literary world's interpretation of Ash's poems.

Roland soon finds a vague link between Ash's letters and a 19th century reclusive poetess named Christabel La Motte. To find out more about La Motte, he enlists the help of Dr Maud Bailey (a La Motte scholar). Initially, Maud is reluctant to get involved in Roland's investigation as she doesn't believe there was any romantic connection between the 2 poets (what's more, La Motte was widely believed to be a lesbian). Roland finds it difficult to communicate with Maud because of her cold and distant behaviour towards him (like an "ice queen"). Maud is young, rich and beautiful with long blonde hair (which she hides under a scarf at all times - find out "why" from the book).

Their investigation takes them to various parts of England including La Motte's ancestral home (now home to the cranky Sir George Bailey). I like the scene in La Motte's bedroom (in Sir George's house), where everything in her room is left "preserved" and undisturbed after her death, including a series of dolls propped against a pillow. In this room, Maud and Roland ingeniously discover a bundle of love letters written by Ash and La Motte to each other. I think that the letters and excerpts from diaries should be read in full as they are important to the story. I also think it's alright to skip reading the longer and complex poems as it won't affect one's understanding of the story.

While intensely trailing the love affair of the 2 poets, Roland and Maud become "intoxicated" and infected by the "air of romance" in their investigation and start to draw close to each other. You must read how Roland finally melts and conquers the heart of the "ice queen". It's very romantic.

So this novel gives us two romances (from 2 different centuries) and a gripping "detective" story. What a treat! The Victorian love story is beautiful, passionate and has a compelling and unexpected ending. The contemporary romance is believable, moving and honest. I would opine that roughly, the former takes up 40% of the book, the latter 30% and the remaining 30% consists of Victorian poems and excerpts from diaries.

I love this book. I don't find it a dull read at all! It sure deserves the Booker Prize it won in 1990. And oh, watch the movie too! Both are highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Byatt shows us true craft --- AND ART!
Review: I cannot recall the last time I read a ROMANCE that was so well crafted. That says it all.

Rating:
Summary: a literary tapestry
Review: A.S. Bryant weaves a romance that can only truely be appreciated when the book is finished. It is like watching a tapestry be woven, only fully appreciating its beauty when all of the strands are interwoven and fall into place. An excellent book.