Possession: A Romance [Paperback]

"Literary critics make natural detectives", says Maud Bailey, heroine of a mystery where the clues lurk in university libraries, old letters and dusty journals. Together with Roland Michell, a fellow academic and accidental sleuth, Maud discovers a love affair between the two Victorian writers the pair has dedicated their lives to studying: Randolph Ash, a literary great long assumed to be a devoted and faithful husband, and Christabel La Motte, a lesser- known "fairy poetess" and chaste spinster. At first, Roland and Maud's discovery threatens only to alter the direction of their research, but as they unearth the truth about the long- forgotten romance, their involvement becomes increasingly urgent and personal. Desperately concealing their purpose from competing researchers, they embark on a journey that pulls each of them from solitude and loneliness, challenges the most basic assumptions they hold about themselves, and uncovers their unique entitlement to the secret of Ash and La Motte's passion.

Winner of the 1990 Booker Prize, Possession is a gripping and compulsively readable novel. A.S. Byatt exquisitely renders a setting rich in detail and texture. Her lush imagery weaves together the dual worlds that appear throughout the novel--the worlds of the mind and the senses, of male and female, of darkness and light, of truth and imagination--into an enchanted and unforgettable tale of love and intrigue. --Lisa Whipple --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

" It is a great, shaggy, generous, polysyllabic, triple-decker beast of a book and I haven' t read anything in an age I' ve enjoyed so much. Nor have I sat into the small hours turning the pages of a manuscript in execrable computer print, with such risk to my eyes, already weakened, weakened still further by the Swiss lights because I simply had to get to the end of it. It is the mixture of ideas, cunning, fairy tales, humour - the clever way she interweaves natural history, romance, poems, porches, table tapping and even, I think, Rapunzel; and it is also so funny, in two centuries, at once! I believe it' s the best thing she has done. Christabel and Ash, Roland and Maud come off the page bewitchingly." -- Christopher Hope
" A massive, complex story about a literary mystery which turns into an emotional voyage of discovery... The novel is a triumphant success on every level - as a critique of Victorian poetry, an unbearably moving love story and a satire on the modern ' Biography Industry' ." -- "Cosmopolitan"
" Byatt has contrived a masterly ending to a fine work; intelligent, ingenious and humane, Possession bids fair to be looked back upon as one of the most memorable novels of the 1990s." -- "TLS" --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

'a triumphant success on every level – as a critique of Victorian poetry, an unbearably moving love story and a satire on the modern "Biography Industry"’ --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

'It is a great, shaggy, generous, polysyllabic, triple-decker beast of a book and I haven't read anything in an age I've enjoyed so much. Nor have I sat into the small hours turning the pages of a manuscript in execrable computer print, with such risk to my eyes, already weakened, weakened still further by the Swiss lights because I simply had to get to the end of it. It is the mixture of ideas, cunning, fairy tales, humour - the clever way she interweaves natural history, romance, poems, porches, table tapping and even, I think, rapunzel; and it is also so funny, in two centuries, at once! I believe it's the best thing she has done. Christabel and Ash, Roland and Maud come off the page bewitchingly' Christopher Hope'A massive, complex story about a literary mystery which turns into an emotional voyage of discovery.The novel is a triumphant success on every level - as a critique of Victorian poetry, an unbearably moving love story and a satire on the modern "Biography Industry"' Cosmopolitan --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

National Bestseller
 
Winner of England’s Booker Prize and the literary sensation of the year, Possession is an exhilarating novel of wit and romance, at once an intellectual mystery and triumphant love story. It is the tale of a pair of young scholars researching the lives of two Victorian poets. As they uncover their letters, journals, and poems, and track their movements from London to Yorkshire—from spiritualist séances to the fairy-haunted far west of Brittany—what emerges is an extraordinary counterpoint of passions and ideas. 

An exhilarating novel of wit and romance, an intellectual mystery, and a triumphant love story. This tale of a pair of young scholars researching the lives of two Victorian poets became a huge bookseller favorite, and then on to national bestellerdom.

‘It is a great, shaggy, generous, polysyllabic, triple-decker beast of a book and I haven’t read anything in an age I’ve enjoyed so much. Nor have I sat into the small hours turning the pages of a manuscript in execrable computer print, with such risk to my eyes, already weakened, weakened still further by the Swiss lights because I simply had to get to the end of it. It is the mixture of ideas, cunning, fairy tales, humour – the clever way she interweaves natural history, romance, poems, porches, table tapping and even, I think, rapunzel; and it is also so funny, in two centuries, at once! I believe it’s the best thing she has done. Christabel and Ash, Roland and Maud come off the page bewitchingly’ Christopher Hope

Winner of the 1990 Booker Prize, winner of the 1990 Irish Times, Aer Lingus International Fiction Prize.

The film stars Gwyneth Paltrow as Maude, Aaron Eckhart as Roland, Jeremy Northam as Ash, Jennifer Ehle as Cristobel and Trevor Eves. Directed by Neil LaBute. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

‘Possession is eloquent about the intense pleasures of reading. And, with sumptuous artistry, it provides a feast of them’ Sunday Times Possession is an exhilarating novel of wit and romance, at once a literary detective novel and a triumphant love story. It is the tale of a pair of young scholars investigating the lives of two Victorian poets. Following a trail of letters, journals and poems they uncover a web of passion, deceit and tragedy, and their quest becomes a battle against time. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

A. S. Byatt was educated in York and at Newnham College, Cambridge, and taught at the Central School of Art before becoming a full-time writer. She was appointed CBE in 1990 and DBE in 1999. (20020424) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.