#27 Possession, by A. S. Byatt

 


Booker Prize:  WINNER 1990

Plot Time and Place:  Present day / Victorian era, England

Opening sentence:  "The book was thick and black and covered with dust."

Plot summary:  Maud Bailey is a scholar researching the life and work of her distant relative, a little-known 19th-century poet named Christabel LaMotte. Roland Michell is looking into an obscure moment in the life of another Victorian poet, the celebrated Randolph Henry Ash. Together, the two uncover a dark secret in Ash's life: though apparently happily married, he conducted a torrid affair with LaMotte. 

As Maud and Roland dig deeper, they too find themselves falling in love.

Review:  A very smart book, not an easy read, but very satisfying. I enjoyed the atmosphere, the characters' emotional depth, the "story within a story" structure, and the symmetries between the two stories. 

Rating:  5/5











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