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?
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?
I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew.
I have read the wrong one. *crying*
I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew.
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.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'):Originally Posted by SleepyWitch
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)It is not only the context of it (which is very true) but also the way the author has put it... Brilliant!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,...
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"It is not that I am mad; it is only that my head is different from yours.”
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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?
I have posted my views on it in General Literature: "Review a book"
I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew.
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
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!
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"It is not that I am mad; it is only that my head is different from yours.”
~
yeeeha, I'm finished
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?
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.
I have a plan: attack!
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...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.'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.'
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?
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"It is not that I am mad; it is only that my head is different from yours.”
~
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..
Hello Scheherazade, Wow really very nice valentine's day book Possession by A.S.Byatt. I read your post and really very nice info on this great book. As everyone know that Dame Antonia Susan Duffy, 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.
Last edited by godzila; 06-17-2009 at 05:24 AM. Reason: spelling mistake
Skip the book and see ....
the movie. It's much better.
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