Valentine's Day Reading: 'Possession' by A.S. Byatt

[Scheherazade]

We are reading Possession by A.S. Byatt during the Valentine's season.

Get your copies ready (along with chocolates and tea/coffee)!

According to amazon.com:

"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--the U.K.'s highest literary award--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.

Warning: This book contains 576 pages! :p


Book Club Procedures (http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?p=57103#post57103)

[Pensive]

Now I have to read two books at a time:

~Re-read MotF
~Possession

[papayahed]

sheesh 1176 pages for both books!!! Although Possession does look pretty good.

[papayahed]

So was this Ash guy a real person?

[SleepyWitch]

So was this Ash guy a real person?
hehe I've just googled him.. i've put the answer at the bottom in orange. highlight it to read what it says...
errr, sorry i dunno how to hide spoilers in here

when does Valentine's season finsih? I've just got started on the book and read only 2 or 3 chapters... so far I've liked it fair enough


his poems and those of his lady poet lover are based on those of Robert Browning and Christina Rossetti. so it seems they're made-up characters

[papayahed]

I wasn't to crazy about it during the first chapter but it picked up a little and now I'm getting "put off" by the poetry.

Thanks for the goggle SW!!

[Scheherazade]

I have just managed to get my copy today; should start reading it tomorrow!

[Pensive]

I started it but then I found that it was not my cup of tea and I also found it a heavy read so I stopped reading it.

[papayahed]

I started it but then I found that it was not my cup of tea and I also found it a heavy read so I stopped reading it.


It is heavier than I thought it would be.

Does it seem like every single character is slightly eccentric??

[Pensive]

It is heavier than I thought it would be.

Does it seem like every single character is slightly eccentric??

It was really complicated. I felt that they were all odd (mad would be a strong word so I have used odd) especially Kris and that guy.

[papayahed]

The story is really zooming along now - now that I'm skipping over all the poetry and letters.

[SleepyWitch]

I'm around page 200 and I'm beginning to like it. i think their love letters are awesome!!! but the poems are either boring (i skipped most of the long one about the insect guy, whozzname Lammerdam, Hammershwam, whatever) or wobbly.. some of them are worse than mine :)
it's been a bit long-winded so far, but I think Byatt brings across all this Victorian stuff better than some Victorian writers!!! am i making sense? hehe, well, she's not exactly a better writer, but it's nicer to read than some Victorian stuff where you're supposed to suspect amorous motives behind every silly everyday gesture...
I like the was she makes everyday things have a symbolic meaning,.. e.g. the chess game in the diary of Ash's wife... whats her name...

[papayahed]

Ellen.

I finished the book, sort of I skipped all the poems and the letters, both of which were far too long winded for me. I know some of you will say I'm not getting the full meaning of the book but I can live with my loss.

I'm sort of surprised how it all came together.

[Scheherazade]

It is heavier than I thought it would be.

Does it seem like every single character is slightly eccentric??I have read only 1/3 of the book so far; it is a slow moving book and wish there were less poetry and letters.

As for the characters, I like them. It is true that they are all eccentric but aren't we all in real life as well? With our own little hang ups and idiosyncrasies. Especially some of the academics remind me of my own professors... with their goods and bads! :D


Is the use of colour symbolic? Maud seems obsessed with it and it is mentioned quite often in descriptions as well.

[SleepyWitch]

I have read only 1/3 of the book so far; it is a slow moving book and wish there were less poetry and letters.

As for the characters, I like them. It is true that they are all eccentric but aren't we all in real life as well? With our own little hang ups and idiosyncrasies. Especially some of the academics remind me of my own professors... with their goods and bads! :D


Is the use of colour symbolic? Maud seems obsessed with it and it is mentioned quite often in descriptions as well.


yeah, Maud seems to like green a lot doesn't she? and Christabell has green boots (well, they are related..).. isn't it the colour of hope or something?
Pesive who are "Kris and that guy"? am I reading the wrong book?

it's a really strange book... i dunno what to think about it really... maybe that's on purpose? maybe it's gotta do with some sort of detachment or emotional restraint kind of thing? (maybe it's just because it's typically English) ;)

[Pensive]

I read The Posession by Jaid Black. OMG, What a fool I am!

So The Posession that I was reading was by Jaid Black. I think that I have gone completely insane. Isn't it by Jaid Black?

[Pensive]

I have read the wrong one. *crying*

[Scheherazade]

Pensive,

I am really sorry that you ended up reading the wrong book. When I read your comment about 'Kris', I thought, because I haven't finished reading it yet, he was one of the characters which would appear later on in the book.

Maybe you can write a review of the book you read so that we get to know about it too. :)
it's a really strange book... i dunno what to think about it really... maybe that's on purpose? maybe it's gotta do with some sort of detachment or emotional restraint kind of thing? (maybe it's just because it's typically English) ;)I am glad you have brought this up. While reading this passage, I had such a laugh (When it snows and Maud ends up staying over at the Baileys'):
Maud said she couldn't and Lady Bailey said she must, and Maud said she shouldn't have set out and Lady Bailey said nonsense, and Maud said it was an imposition and Sir George said that whatever the rights and wrongs of it, Joanie was right and he would go up and see to Mildred's bed. Roland said he would help, and Maud said by no means, and Sir George and Maud went away upstairs to find sheets,...It is not only the context of it (which is very true) but also the way the author has put it... Brilliant!

[SleepyWitch]

yep Sheherazade that passage is hillarious, esp because she crams the whole dialogue into 2 sentences.. you get a barrage of English clumsy-isms within only 3 lines :)

poor Pensive I'm really sorry you read the wrong book. who is Jaid Black? yeah, why don't you give us a summary so we can discuss it?

papayahed don't skip the letters!!! there are some really good love letters around page 180. i think it's brilliant because first their letters are so dull.. of course we all expect them to end up as lovers, but still when the letters suddenly swing from dull to passionate it's a real shocker. did anybody else feel that way?

[Pensive]

poor Pensive I'm really sorry you read the wrong book. who is Jaid Black? yeah, why don't you give us a summary so we can discuss it?

I have posted my views on it in General Literature: "Review a book"

[SleepyWitch]

i've just finished reading Sabine de Kercoz's journal.... i'm beginning to hate Christabel. how can she be so stupid? i mean, was there any need for her to drop her baby somewhere/ kill it/ leave it with the nuns/ whatever it is she did? or is she just determined to do something 'tragic', no matter how uncalled-for it is?

this book is full of surprises :confused:

[Scheherazade]

I am liking Ash less and less as I read.

What do you think about the episode with the maid? Do you think she was carrying Ash's baby?

And I am puzzled over the title of the book (I am still reading it so it might be revealed later on but...). At one point, it says Ash tried to persuade Christabel that she was not his possession. Does it come from there? Any thoughts?

Also, is it safe to assume that all the poems in the book are actually written by Byatt herself?

Sleepywitch> I agree with you that the letters between Ash and Christabel are very interesting to read to show how their relationship has developed. All very romantic! :)

[SleepyWitch]

I am liking Ash less and less as I read.

What do you think about the episode with the maid? Do you think she was carrying Ash's baby?

And I am puzzled over the title of the book (I am still reading it so it might be revealed later on but...). At one point, it says Ash tried to persuade Christabel that she was not his possession. Does it come from there? Any thoughts?




yeeeha, I'm finished :) anyone else finished already? i don't wanna post any spoilers....
it turns out Christabel isn't an evil witch in the end :)
I don't like Ash all that much anymore either... and yep, I suspected the maid's baby was his, too... there was no direct evidence, but some curious allusion...
hm, I'm puzzled about the title too. the word comes up a couple of times in the sense you quoted, Sheherazade
...at first I thought, Maud and Roland would get so possessed by the spirit of Christabel and Ash that they would fall madly in love with each other... well, they do end up as a couple, but they're very shy and it's a gradual process... then i thought, maybe it's because we learn so much more about Ash and Christabel than about Roland and Maud, so they are much more real then the real characters, although they are dead...
hm, but 'possession' usually refers to being possessed by evil spirits doesn't it? there's not much evil in this book...
oh, have you noticed how everyone (especially Cropper) wants to possess the letters and other memorabila?
maybe it's all of these plus some more that I can't think of?

[Jay]

I was thinking that it might not be 'possession' in the owning something sense of meaning but maybe possession in the sense of being possessed with something, in this case the characters being possessed/obsessed? with Ash and Christabel.

[Scheherazade]

Now that I have finished reading the book, I think the title works at all the levels mentioned. It is a reference to Roland and Maud's obssession with the letters and Ash-Christabel relationship; all the scholars' desire to possess the letters (the extremes they go!) and also fame maybe; Ash and Christabel's passion for each other.
'For the last year perhaps I have been in love with another woman. I could say it was a sort of madness. A possession, as by daemons. A kind of blinding...
'So I look like Randolph Henry Ash.'
Roland touched her face. 'I would never have seen it. But yes. The same things. Here, at the corner of the eyebrow. There, at the edge of the mouth. Now I have seen it, I shall always see it.'
'I don't quite like it. There's something unnaturally determined about it all. Daemonic. I feel they have taken me over.'

It seems more likely that the maid's baby was Ash's because he did not have a proper marital relationship with his wife. There is still something about both Ash and Christabel that I just couldn't like.

I think Roland is my favorite character in the book. He seems very down to earth and 'real'. Do you think their relationship will survive?

[Basak]

I agree that it is typically English.. But I liked the letters, poems and the diaries. I think it makes the literacy easier. On the other hand, am doubtful about the quality of all genres in the book. I think Byatt is a better prose writer than a poet. But for sure Possession is not a heavy romance..

[godzila]

Hello Scheherazade, Wow really very nice valentine's day book Possession by A.S.Byatt (http://www.infibeam.com/Books/search?author=Byatt,%20A.%20S.). I read your post and really very nice info on this great book. As everyone know that Dame Antonia Susan Duffy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._S._Byatt), DBE (Born Antonia Susan Drabble 24 August 1936, Sheffield, England) is an English novelist and poet. She is daughter of His Honour John Frederick Drabble, QC and late Kathleen Marie Bloor and is married to Peter Duffy. She is usually known as A. S. Byatt.

[dfloyd]

the movie. It's much better.