Possession

Rating:
Summary: amazing
Review: This is a story about story and those who interpret it. Byatt has created not only an engrossing novel, but an insightful commentary on literary critique. Possession is a book of exceptional quality and depth - small wonder it won the Booker prize! I wondered why I'd never heard of Randolph Henry Ash or Christobel LaMotte before and thought there had been some serious deficiencies in my education until I realized that the two poets were fictional. The poetry is so well-realized that I would argue that Byatt herself is "the Great Ventriloquist". Any student of literature should read this book. Although it is dense and sometimes difficult, the effort put into reading it will prove worthwhile!

Rating:
Summary: Emperors New Clothes
Review: I have to agree with "Michael" from Australia, although I liked it a bit more than he did, he is basically correct. I think Byatt is a talented writer who can evoke places and people well, however, the amount of unnecessary material is "the emperors new clothes." It is not only not necessary but it drags on the story to the point of distraction. Almost all of it has so little to do with the story that you have to wonder if it was a way for the author to show off her considerable skills and scholarship. That is not a good enough reason to plow through this book.

Rating:
Summary: Defining "A Romance"
Review: I'm reading this book again and came here to see what others thought. This if one of my favorite modern novels, at so many levels. I love the way Byatt uses language, its density and grace; love the way the two stories meet and intertwine. Many people are mis-reading the subtitle of "A Romance." Read the Hawthorne quote that begins the book: "[A romance] has . . . a right to present . . . truth under cirumstances . . . of the writer's own choosing or creation. . . . The point of view in which this tale comes under the Romantic definition lies in the attempt to connect a bygone time with the very present that is flitting away from us." And, please, don't skip the writings of Ash and Christabel--their poetry and descriptions are beautiful and glorious (another facet of Byatt); their story strengthens the story of Maud and Roland. Allow yourself to become lost in this rich tale.

Rating:
Summary: Worst book I have ever read! Do not read this "book"
Review: This is without doubt, the worst written book ever.

EVER. AS Byatt writes with extremely pretentious language. She uses words that only the best dictionaries have. Within the first 160 pages, absolutely nothing happens. The mindboggling slowness of these 160 pages is only exceeded in incompetence in the non-stop interruptions of her story, with bad poems and bad fairy tales.

The book is so badly written, with so much unneccessary padding, and so many unneccessary interruptions. ... and while there may be pretentious values of the book like "postmodern" techniques and all that, it is a very slow, poorly written, difficult book. There is no great meaning or message. A twist, but, who cares? 500+ pages of agony

Rating:
Summary: Romanticism meets postmodernism
Review: Possession is a challenging, multilayered novel that takes patience and concentration but is well worth the effort. On the cover it is labelled "a romance." This is a possibly ironic simplification of all this epic novel encompasses. It is actually about the confrontation of two very different worlds: the romanticism of 19th Century poets and the postmodern detachment of late 20th Century scholars. On the other hand, A.S. Byatt also suggests that these two worlds may not be so far apart or irreconcilable as it first appears. Roland Mitchell is a graduate student doing research on a famous poet named Randolph Ash. Roland is an indecisive, introverted scholar whose future is uncertain. He is unsatisfied with his career; his own inertia keeps him in an apparently futile relationship; he feels his own identity is vague and somehow secondary to the poet he is studying. His life is suddenly infused with purpose when he finds an unfinished letter written by Ash to an unknown woman. He soon learns that this letter was intended for Christabel La Motte, a reclusive poet who had not previously been associated with Ash. Roland teams up with another scholar, Maud Bailey, who is an expert on La Motte (and a distant relation as well). They come upon a whole collection of letters between La Motte and Ash and find themselves in the middle of a fierce battle with fellow scholars who also want possession of these letters. The parallel between the two 19th Century poets and the two 20th Century scholars is the main theme, but it is really the letters, which include many poems and tales of faeries and magical worlds that are the heart of the novel. Modern notions of scholarship, literary criticism, feminism and sexuality are all thoroughly explored. Possession asks whether it is either moral or useful to "deconstruct" literary works (and their authors' lives). Do the dead have a right to privacy? Does modern scholarship, as it dissects and analyzes, destroy rather than illuminate (an undoubtedly symbolic subplot has Ash dissecting insects and other living things)? I found these questions more interesting than the interaction between the two living scholars. Here we have the familiar (especially in English literature) situation of two people attracted to each other who find it almost impossible to reach beyond their own self-imposed solitude. Their inhibitions, reinforced by the stifling atmosphere of academia, is a significant part of the story, but it was sometimes a little exasperating all the same. The portrayal of intellectuals as envious and conniving competitors at times borders on parody. Byatt lampoons two American scholars with particular zeal. The modern characters' main function is to connect the many threads of this vast novel. What is perhaps most interesting is the way the process of literary deconstruction is turned in on itself. After observing 19th Century romantics through the lens of a contemporary mindset, these modern tools (and those who wield them) are themselves ruthlessly scrutinized. I listened to the audiobook, read flawlessly by Virginia Leishman and plan to read the print version soon to absorb more of the novel's many subtleties.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best novels I've ever read.
Review: Beautiful prose, compelling plot, fine characters and an example of gorgeous imagination. Byatt is a jewel. Interesting, the one & two star reviews, however. Perhaps someone stocked this book with mass market "Romance" novels instead of the literature section. I cannot otherwise understand how anyone could refer to this as tedious. Read the whole thing. It's a treat.

Rating:
Summary: Difficult to Read, but Enjoyable
Review: Possession is an amazing novel, written like a historical text, but still a very enjoyable read. The story concerns Roland and Maud, two scholars. Roland discovers a letter written by the fictional poet he studies, Randolph Ash, that threatens to turn the public's perception of Ash upside down. It is a love letter from Ash to Christabel LaMotte, the poetess (also fictional) studied by Maud. Ash was supposedly happily married and Christabel supposedly lesbian. The novel follows Roland and Maud's search to find out more about the romance between Ash and LaMotte. Thrown into the mix are other Ash and LaMotte scholars hoping to discover the truth for themselves.
Possession is a very interesting read, even though it is difficult. The author, A.S. Byatt, drops many literary allusions into the text that I did not understand. Someone with a knowledge of English poetry would take more from the novel than I did. Adding to the novel's authenticity are poems supposedly written by Ash and LaMotte that introduce each chapter.
Possession is a difficult read. It is a long book that takes a significant amount of time. Many passages will need to be reread for a complete understanding. However, it is ultimately rewarding and you will have a sense of accomplishment once you finish it. Recommended, for those who have the time to fully appreciate it.

Rating:
Summary: A novel supremely architected
Review: A novel supremely architected, Possession tells two tales in parallel. The first tale revolves around two modern day literary scholars, the young struggling Roland Michell and the well established Maud Bailey, who discover an unbeforeknowst love affair between two Victorian Poets, the well known Mr. Randolph Henry Ash and the "on the periphery" Ms. Christabel LaMotte. The second tale takes us back in time and lets us relive portions of Ash's and LaMotte's romantic relationship. Possession reads like a detective novel as Roland and Maud, looking for clues to the relationship, slowly reinterpret the poetry of Ash and LaMotte in a new context (were there entire periods of these two poets' prolific literary careers where their works were inspired by the other and even addressed the other unknown to the rest of the world?). Roland and Maud even retrace many of poets' trips to the north of Great Britain and on the coast of Brittany. Meanwhile the reader of the novel is slowly revealed other clues that Michell and Bailey can only guess at through the Byatt's flashback narratives.

Possession takes on a great number of themes and part of its success is in tying these many disparate themes together into a greater whole (i.e. in the business world we would call this synergies). ..., part of Byatt's triumph is in creating Ash's and LaMotte's body of literature, their letters, poems and epics, that in and of themselves would represent literary triumphs compared to many pieces from Victorian literature (and we're talking poetry here --- while this same reviewer has been unflattering towards previous British pieces due to their "warmed other milk" atmosphere, there is something to be said for the life and passion of Victorian poetry.) ...

Two thoughts on a more practical note. First, Possession is extremely difficult to read in small smatterings. The details are rich and the Victorian language is of course dense. For slow, word-by-word readers such as myself the challenge of the actual reading can take away from the impact of the message. Let's face it. It's hard to be moved by literature when you're having to look up ever other word in a freak'n dictionary. Second, this reviewer found it sometimes difficult to be sympathetic towards world of academia. I found myself sometimes thinking "tell these people to get a life."

Rating:
Summary: The subtleties of passion
Review: Possession is the story of two British literary scholars and their discovery of a century-old secret--the passionate relationship between two Victorian poets, the married and well-established Randolph Henry Ash, and the presumed lesbian feminist poet Christabel LaMotte. The details of their brief affair are discovered slowly and inexorably through a trace of documents and linguistic ties: they are academic detectives.

Byatt prose is laced with literary allusions that any lover of British history and fiction will appreciate. Notice for example that Maude Bailey is often described with reference to Yeat's muse because of her golden hair, or that Christabel LaMotte, whose family name suggests "moth." she says "no mere human can stand in a fire and not be consumed." In every sense, the plot of this novel is dense, its characters tightly-knit. Discovering hidden meanings within the names and places of this novel was half the fun of reading it.

Possession is also a montage of the remaining documents of its characters' lives, which LaMotte says is the end motive of all writers--the longing to be preserved on the dusty shelf. The contemporary storyline is juxtaposed with letters between the lovers, the diaries of Ash's wife and LaMotte's lover, Blanche, and the poetry itself, which reveals clues about the relationship invisible to the typcial, merely academic reading. Some of these documents drag, but then again they create a type of tension. The reader feels much like the scholars must have felt, looking for subtleties that may reveal an entire narrative.

Running parallel to the nineteenth century narrative are the personal lives of the academics Maude Bailey and Roland Michell, who stand to turn the world of Ash and La Motte criticism on their head with their discovery. I actually enjoyed their story even more than that of the poets. They seemed more real, more intimate, more subtle. And like their objects of academic desire,they as well battle with the questions of possession, of possession of a person, an idea, or the possession associated with the brief insanity that overcomes the lover.

This novel is very time and emotion intensive, which makes the somewhat abrupt ending rather surprising. After carefully weaving a narrative that spans over a century, Byatt wraps up her novel with what can be compared to a chase scene. However satisfying it is to have the clues of this mystery all tied up, it left me wondering about the author's motives at the end. But perhaps that is precisely the point of the romance: abruptly ended, fleetingly passionate, like a moth to the flame.

Possession was made recently into a more than adequate film, though some of the essentials have been changed, especially with regard to Roland Michell, who is portrayed in the film as a very charasmatic and inquisitive American.

Rating:
Summary: It draaaaags...until the end
Review: The pacing of this book was such that I considered giving up on it half-way through--but I'm glad I stuck with it, because the ending was good. The author (or editors) could have easily shaved off about 100 pages from the novel, but oh well.

I found the characters too stuffy and too engrossed in their work. Their whole lives revolved around dead writers from the 19th century. Also, it was hard to really get into and care about writers that never even existed, although the author does a good job of making Randolph Henry Ash and Cristable LaMotte believable (I had to look them up to see if they actually were real or not). I think the novel would have been more compelling had she used REAL 19th century authors, say, pairing up Emily Bronte with Charles Dickens perhaps? Now THAT'S something I'd like to see!

Interspersed throughout are poems and stories from the two authors in question. This is what really held up the story. While I really wanted to know what Roland and Maud were up to, I had to read 10 pages of some fake literature from a fake 19th century author. There really wasn't much point to reading all that--you can skip right through them and not be the worse for it (I did, eventually). The letters were also a little long, but I guess that's how they wrote back then.

All the really juicy stuff doesn't come until the end, so hang in there.