Possession

Rating:
Summary: highbrow Maltese Falcon
Review: A surprise awaits Roland Michell, a postdoctoral research assistant studying Randolph Henry Ash , as he opens the Victorian poet's personal copy of Giambattista Vico's Principi di una Scienza Nuova in the Reading Room of the London Library. The book, apparently untouched since Ash's death, contains numerous marginalia and personal papers, including two drafts of letters to an unnamed woman whom the poet met at a breakfast in the 1850's. Acting on impulse, Roland swipes the letters and embarks on a quest to determine the identity of the intended recipient and to explore the ramifications of the correspondence. He determines that the object of Ash's interest was the fairly minor poetess Christabel La Motte and, with the help of the beautiful but icy LaMotte scholar Maud Bailey, reconstructs the relationship between the two--a relationship with ground shaking import for the understanding of both authors' works. Meanwhile, several more esteemed and powerful academics get wind of their search and the quest turns into a race. Along the way Roland and Maud peel back the further details of an 18th century love affair like the layers of an onion, and fall in love themselves. Ultimately, the final revelations about the lives of the poets are unveiled in a drawing room scene straight out of a British mystery.

Byatt mixes thinly veiled references to historical figures (Ash is Robert Browning; LaMotte is Christina Rosetti), literary forms (narrative, letters & poetry), and genres (criticism, thriller, detective story, quest, etc.) to create an entrancing novel of ideas. Reminiscent of books like Josephine Tey's Daughter of Time, Umberto Eco's Name of the Rose (whose influence she acknowledges), and Julian Barnes's Flaubert's Parrot, she shows that the life of the mind can be thrilling and that a literary mystery can be just as gripping as a noirish melodrama.

One caution: over the years, I've given this book to half a dozen people and I don't think a single one of them finished it; I'm certain none of them much liked it. I think the reason is that you can get bogged down if you take the Victorian storyline too seriously. It seems pretty clear that much of the stuff on arcane points of interpretation and scholarly criticism is meant to be parody, not gospel. It's also easy to get lost in the poetry and the letters, with all their imagery and allusions; but keep in mind that they are essentially McGuffins, meant to advance the plot, not an integral part of it themselves. Byatt was quite consciously trying to write a novel that would be fun; it should be read for enjoyment, not for talmudic effect. At any rate, it's one of my favorite novels, and if you approach it like an arty version of the Maltese Falcon, you'll love it too.

GRADE: A+

Rating:
Summary: poetry
Review: The poetry here is a terrible chore-- The imagined letters a horrible bore-- This woman's writing is awfully clumsy-- She uses cliches like a matronly mummsy-- Infelicitous phrases, as common as hookers-- I wonder and wonder how she won that Bookers-- and yet, and yet, its quite a good story-- as brilliant and lovely as some Morninglory-- so let me just tell ya in a voice that's stentorian yer probably better off reading some REAL Victorian!

Rating:
Summary: jims
Review: jims, what be's up which dis book, mon? dis book be fully turgid, mon, likesay replete which da imagery of de olde poesie, wot. dis book ben written by a possessed woman, mon, dats what dis book be! de faux poetry be really-really fargone stinky, too--not axactly MC Grandmaster Alfred Lord T. know what i'm sayin'? no, mon? me neither.

Rating:
Summary: slowly takes 'posession' of you
Review: I have just started Posession and, I must admit, it took me a while to warm up to Byatt's stilted writing style. Some of the introductory matter was a bit tedious, but necessary. Once the plot got rolling about 50 pages into the book, I started getting more and more involved. Definitely worth the effort!

Rating:
Summary: A Love Story That Is and A Romance That Could Have Been
Review: Possession, labeled a romance, is certainly that. But it is also much, much more. The book is a tremendous undertaking of style and verve, a romance on two levels, and a bizarre detective story all rolled into one.

The main characters of Possesion are Roland Michell, a true academic and Maud Bailey, a researcher, but the stars of the book are really the long-dead R.H. Ash and Christabel LaMotte.

In Possession, Byatt gives much attention to minor detail. In fact, her detailing is so subtle that many nuances may be missed on a first reading.

Byatt's writing is beautiful and filled with simple, descriptive language and gorgeous imagery. The majority of the story is rich in both metaphor and allusion, with the following passage being a prime example: "One night they fell asleep, side by side, on Maud's bed, where they had been sharing a glass of Calvados. He slept curled against her back, a dark comma against her pale elegant phrase."

Most of the chapters in Possession begin with a fictitious work by Ash or LaMotte, but Byatt has not only written them well, she has fashioned each so that it is in keeping with the character of its fictitious author.

Ash and LaMotte are both of the Romantic period, yet Ash is more open and free than is LaMotte, who writes with obvious rhyme and rhythm. It is this--Byatt's ability to create so many different writing styles for each of her characters and fit them to the character so perfectly, that makes Possession come to life for the reader.

Possession is not a straightforward narrative, however. Much of the story is told through the letters of Ash and LaMotte, again, beautifully crafted by Byatt. It is through their letters that we really get to know Ash and LaMotte as well as Roland and Maud. The knowledge gained in the past relationship between Ash and LaMotte allows the present-day relationship between Roland and Maud to come to life.

Possession is a story of lost romantic love and, as such, it may seem, at first glance, to be just another trite book on a trite and overly-written subject. Nothing could be further from the truth. Byatt has conferred a freshness of outlook on Possession that makes it unlike any other novel of failed romance and love gone wrong.

Roland and Maud are, without a doubt, two quite ordinary people. But Byatt has given them something quite extraordinary to do. These two would-be lovers are actually on a quest, and their lives, as well as their love, seem to mirror and parallel Ash and LaMotte's in more ways than one.

But all is certainly not smooth sailing for Roland and Maud. Roland has Val, his live-in lover to deal with and Val, unlike many an "unwanted" lover is not a woman to be summarily dismissed.

What really makes Possession sparkle and sets it apart from any other typical romance is the connection Roland and Maud have to the past and to Ash and LaMotte. This adds a mystical, almost surreal, quality to the story that could have so easily turned maudlin in the hands of a writer less talented than Byatt. Byatt, however, intertwines past and present with perfection and keeps the reader spellbound with the suspension of disbelief.

A few passages containing expletives seem out of place in this otherwise dazzling novel and really seem beneath the obvious talent and ability of a first-class writer like Byatt.

Byatt has titled her novel perfectly. The word, "possession," crops out several times throughout the story: the possession of the stolen letters, the possession of the lovers to each other, the possession of the past to the present. Byatt obviously began working with the motif of possession in mind.

While certainly not of the romance genre, Possession contains enough romance to satisfy even the most voracious. The characters are creations of tremendous depth and we find it easy to love them or hate them or pity them, but never dismiss them.

The intertwining plots work on many levels and work so well that many readers will often find themselves wondering if the story is purely fiction or based in reality.

Finally, the beautiful writing captures and holds the reader's attention and adds to the fantasy that is unfolding. Although some readers might find the many letters and poems contained in this book distracting, they do enrich the story and lend a depth that would definitely be lost had Byatt failed to included them.

A finely-crafted novel of parallel lives and parallel loves, Possession is, for the most part, a lyrical look, not at what really was, but what so easily could have been.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best novels I have read
Review: One of the best novels I have read in years, a fascinating literary and romantic story. This one literally had me up all night, racing through the beautiful prose, just to get to the end...which was well worth it! I now need to go back and read it at a more humane pace and truly enjoy the language.

Rating:
Summary: Two parallel love stories
Review: Don't be misled by the word "Romance" in the title of this book -- "Possession" is no bodice-ripper.

An acquaintance of mine, seeing the word on the cover, asked me if the book was about a man with strong arms carrying someone up a flight of stairs. I told him the book was "nothing like".

Before mass-market paperbacks appeared ad nauseum in supermarket carosels, there was an entire literary tradition known as the "Romantic." Into this literary tradition, A.S. Byatt has created and inserted two fictitious poets, Randolph Henry Ash and Christabel LaMotte.

Two present day scholars, Roland Mitchell and Maud Bailey, uncover documents suggesting that the two poets knew each other. Eventually drawn together by their individual research, Roland and Maud trace the movements, uncover the correspondence and piece together the relationship of Ash and LaMotte. During this time, their own love story unfolds, offering an intriguing parallel to the love that now exists only in relics from the past.

A word, if I may, about one of the supporting characters, Val. Roland is not at first free to pursue a relationship with Maud, because he is already romantically entangled with Val. For the sake of the plot, it is obvious that he must, of course, become unentangled.

I have never understood the justification behind making the hero's original romantic interest abominably loathsome for no other reason than to manipulate readers/viewers into rejoicing when she is sent packing like the literal and symbolic baggage she is. This always seemed to me, a very weak form of plot.

I hope I do not give too much away when I say that I was very pleased to see that Val is NOT treated in this cavilier way. Instead, she is given a happiness that she is surprised to find but in fact richly deserves. Everyone deserves to be happy, and the chance to make someone else happy, right?

Byatt's book is not just the story of two love affairs, but the story of a love affair with reading itself. If you have any doubts, just peruse the following passage, taken from pages 510-512 of the trade paperback edition:

"It is possible for a writer to make, or remake at least, for a reader, the primary pleasures of eating, or drinking, or looking on, or sex. Novels have their obligatory tour-de-force, the green-flecked gold omllette aux fines herbes, melting into buttery formlessness and tasting of summer, or the creamy human haunch, firm and warm, curved back to reveal a hot hollow, a crisping hair or two, the glimpsed sex. They do not habitually elaborate on the equally intense pleasure of reading ... Now and then there are readings that make the hairs on the neck, the non-existant pelt, stand on end and tremble, when every word burns and shines hard and clear and infinite and exact, like stones of fire, like points of stars in the dark -- readings when the knowledge that we shall know the writing differently or better or satisfactorily, runs ahead of any capacity to say what we know, or how. In these readings, a sense that the text has appeared to be wholly new, never before seen, is followed, almost immediately, by the sense that it was always there, that we the readers, knew it was always there, and have always known it as it was, though we have now for the first time recognized, become fully cognizant of, our knowledge."

At once mystery and romance in both the common and literary senses, Byatt's multi-faceted epic is full of breathtaking prose like the passage above. The revelation at the end of the book is not unpredictable, but nonetheless gives a nice feeling of closure to the relationship of Ash and LaMotte and is a vivid reminder of how similar these long-dead poets are to the living, breathing Roland and Maud.

For an engaging read that can be enjoyed on a variety of levels, I strongly recommend "Possession" by A.S. Byatt.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I realize this book has garnered a great deal of praise, and was thus disappointed when I finally read it. The writing is turgid and repetitious and swamps the story to the point where the poor little plot struggles and nearly suffocates. The characters are two dimensional and stereotypical, and indeed, save for the squire and his wife, who were delicately and beautifully drawn (and to me a luminous contrast to the rest of the book), seem like people the author thought might have existed, or perhaps had been told about, rather than individuals with a living, breathing presence. I wouldn't have finished it had I not been trapped on an 8 hour flight with nothing else but the flight magazine to read. Byatt gets two stars for the Squire and his wife. I wish the rest of the book had been as well written.

Rating:
Summary: Difficult but well worth it
Review: This was a difficult book to read. Not everyone in my book group got through it but those who did seemed to feel that it was worth it. The story involves two modern day scholars who uncover a romance between two Victorian poets. Byatt uses poetry, letters and diaries to reveal the story to the reader. This is a bold move for any writer of serious fiction, and Byatt pulls it off. I'm no expert on Victorian poetry, but Byatt seems to have a firm grasp of the conventions and language of the genre. She creates credible letters that invoke remarkably different voices when she is representing different authors. Byatt loads the book with symbolism, particularly in regards to the names of each character. I found it interesting to try and puzzle out why she used certain names for different characters. Oddly enough, her main male character, Roland, was inspired by the same poem that inspired Stephen King's series The Dark Tower, "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came," by Robert Browning. I just recently finished the fourth book in the Dark Tower series, so it was quite a coincidence to discover this link.

One of the many interesting themes in this book deals with how people can love one another without possessing part of the other person. How can we be detached and still love? Many types of possession are revealed in the novel, most dealing with how we honor our great writers by trying to possess some part of them or the lives that they led. My only real criticism has to do with Fergus, a character who shows up to start trouble 3/4ths of the way into the story and then all but disappears for the finale. Other than that,it was an awe-inspiring book for me. There is a lot there. I imagine more could be revealed by a second or third reading.

Rating:
Summary: richly deserves its Booker Prize
Review: Possession, a Booker Prize winning novel, is an investigation via faery tale imagery of the psyches of modern academics. The "possession" referred to in the title could mean many things: the possession of love, of work, of poetry and art, or a literal possession by the people and things of the past. Like the title, this novel, set mostly in the present, works on many levels. The main characters, Roland and Maud, are researching the lives of two Victorian poets, R.H.Ash and Christobel LaMotte, respectively. Roland and Maud find out that their poets were involved during their lives, and the subsequent novel is part romance (in the old sense of the word), part mystery, and part tragedy, all with a healthy dose of comedy. Byatt integrates different genres in the novel, such as poem snippets and faery tales, to enrich and enliven the text, drawing the reader into the past with the characters.

I firmly believe that Byatt's personal experience in Academia is telling here. She knows what it is like. Some people have complained that the novel is very dense and is therefore rather slow reading--but, oh, the payoff is superb. If you have plenty of time to yourself to enjoy an intricate, but not overdone, novel, pick this one. It isn't a light read, but it doesn't require a PhD in literature either. If you read only one modern novel that isn't "beach reading" your entire life, make it this one.