We begin the year by revisiting the 1990 Booker Prize-winner, a novel adored by fans and critics alike. Plus: read an extract, explore our reading guide and win a bundle of Byatt's novels
I read Possession when it was released and loved it. I believe it was the first novel to create a new genre of two stories in time where the current day story is not directly linked through characters to the historic one. This genre has been adapted widely since then, and I’m interested if anyone knows of a similar novel before Possession to use this conceit.
Read Possession many years ago, but it's impact seems enduring. It's a love affair with the Victorian age, and the way intimacy comes not from self-disclosure through exhibitionism and political forms of sexual identity, but from a rich sense of the self's complexity that must be treated as sacred, and revealed through texts that rehabilitate Victorian values of discretion, euphemism, and indirection i.e. revealed poetically. " I tell my secret? No indeed, not I" wrote Christina Rosetti. Do texts possess us by guiding us as readers? The two literary critics have to read purely, without owning the text archivally through ambition driven by the dollar's purchasing power, or the claims of identity politics, or political feminism or political lesbianism. There is a love for a national heritage in this novel -- multicultural news presenters, and hybrid personalities like Leonora are superficial, but it's not xenophobic. It's about finding yourself through a past that wasn't very appreciated for much of the twentieth century.
I just read Possession last month--how serendipitous! I shared my thoughts here: https://www.somethingeveread.com/p/much-more-than-a-novel :):)
An remarkably thoughtful and insightful essay...thank you for sharing.
Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it :)
I read Possession when it was released and loved it. I believe it was the first novel to create a new genre of two stories in time where the current day story is not directly linked through characters to the historic one. This genre has been adapted widely since then, and I’m interested if anyone knows of a similar novel before Possession to use this conceit.
Perfect timing as I just started reading it last week!
That's great news Lucie, let us know what you think!
Read Possession many years ago, but it's impact seems enduring. It's a love affair with the Victorian age, and the way intimacy comes not from self-disclosure through exhibitionism and political forms of sexual identity, but from a rich sense of the self's complexity that must be treated as sacred, and revealed through texts that rehabilitate Victorian values of discretion, euphemism, and indirection i.e. revealed poetically. " I tell my secret? No indeed, not I" wrote Christina Rosetti. Do texts possess us by guiding us as readers? The two literary critics have to read purely, without owning the text archivally through ambition driven by the dollar's purchasing power, or the claims of identity politics, or political feminism or political lesbianism. There is a love for a national heritage in this novel -- multicultural news presenters, and hybrid personalities like Leonora are superficial, but it's not xenophobic. It's about finding yourself through a past that wasn't very appreciated for much of the twentieth century.