Possession

A gorgeous, extravagant dual-timeline historical mystery about late-20th-century academics researching a pair of (fictional) Victorian poets – did they or didn’t they?

If you like library settings, fictional documents (letters, poems – lots of poems), and a good dose of poking-fun-at-academia, you’ll love it. Yes, it is also a movie (though I can’t speak to it). 

Byatt masterfully plays off the romance between two (fictional) Victorian poets and the budding relationship between the two modern academics searching for evidence of that romance.

There is even original poetry by the supposed Victorian poets! Having been in graduate school and almost embarked upon an academic career, I also appreciated the depiction of competitiveness in the academic world.

I read this when it was published in 1990, and I've lost count of how many times I've read the novel since.

It is a big complex read in which some modern-day academics chase a treasure hunt of clues to discover the truth about the secret love affair of a famed Victorian writer. Meanwhile, in the past, through the devices of poems and letters we watch that love affair unfold with all its tragic consequences.

Both literary and intellectual, this compelling story of secrets, lies, and mysteries has a wonderful cast. 

I remember the first time I read this book, thinking how does she write sentences like that?

Thirty years later, I still do. Possession is the ultimate combination of literary geekiness and romance as two young scholars in the 1980s join forces to investigate a possible love affair between two Victorian poets. What starts as a mysterious letter found tucked into an old book in a stately British library becomes a cross-country adventure.

For those who ever wondered if it’s possible to combine the genres of romance and academic scholarship, Possession proves the point. Just make sure you’ve had your… show more.

I first read this one in my early twenties and the story of a poor, kind of pathetic grad student caught in a hopeless academic grind resonated… As did that moment in the British Museum when the protagonist discovers a forgotten letter from 100 years ago that changes the course of his life. What follows is a fast-paced mystery where our heroes race to uncover more letters and discover the truth of the past, whilst staying ahead of a dastardly and acquisitive collector. There are two love stories intertwined here – a tragic, historic one featuring complex characters trapped by… show more.

I loved this novel from the moment I entered its first pages, with its intriguing discovery in a library, and it was a very worthy Booker winner. As two academics uncover more about the lives of the Victorian poets they specialise in, the details of an adulterous relationship from the past slowly emerge, revealed with delicious literary clues and evasions. The male poet is married, while the woman has a female companion. All sorts of devastation ensues. The present starts to echo the past... The cleverness and beauty of this novel are such that it’s a favourite re-read.

The first time I read Possession I thought it had ruined all novels for me forever more because it was just so completely perfect. Thankfully, that didn’t happen! But this love story between two Victorian poets, and the modern-day researchers looking into their romance, is still one of my favourites. It might just be the reason I keep returning to dual timeline novels in my own work.

One of my favorite novels of any type or genre, this book gives us the story of two lonely and obsessive literary scholars, would-be competitors whose lives and work intertwine as they pursue the long-buried secrets of what they suspect may have been a forbidden love affair between two Victorian poets, more than a century earlier. Rich in wit, style and intellectual pleasures, this winner of the 1990 Booker Prize will keep you turning the pages even as it dazzles with its knowledge and depth.

Pretty much every historical novel is an alternate history, at least in the sense that it puts semi made-up scenes and characters into otherwise realistic events and settings, but Possession takes the "made-up" bit to another level. Two modern researchers are looking into a previously unknown love affair between the famous Victorian poets Randolph Henry Ash and Christabel LaMotte. All of which, of course, is fiction. But what boots this novel into the alternate stratosphere is the way Byatt interweaves and develops her story through the writings of these great alternate Victorian poets. There are love letters, poems, journal entries,… show more.