Possession (Byatt novel)

Possession: A Romance is a 1990 bestselling novel by British writer A. S. Byatt that won the
1990 Booker Prize. The novel explores thepostmodern concerns of similar novels, which are often
categorized as historiographic metafiction, a genre that blends approaches from bothhistorical
fiction and metafiction.
The novel follows two modern-day academics as they research the paper trail around the previously
unknown love life between famous fictional poets, Randolph Henry Ash and Christabel
LaMotte. Possession is set both in the present day and the Victorian era, pointing out the differences
between the two time periods, and satirizing such things as modern academia and mating rituals.
The structure of the novel incorporates many different styles, including fictional diary entries,
letters and poetry, and uses these styles and other devices to explore the postmodern concerns of
the authority of textual narratives. The title Possession highlights many of the major themes in the
novel: questions of ownership and independence between lovers; the practice of collecting
historically significant cultural artifacts; and the possession that biographers feel toward their
subjects.
The novel was adapted as a feature film by the same name in 2002, and a serialized radio play that
ran from 2011-2012 on BBC Radio 4. In 2005Time Magazine included the novel in its list of 100 Best
English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.[1] In 2003 the novel was listed on the BBC's survey The
Big Read.[2]

Background[edit]
The novel concerns the relationship between two fictional Victorian poets, Randolph Henry Ash
(whose life and work are loosely based on those of the English poet Robert Browning, or Alfred, Lord
Tennyson, whose work is more consonant with the themes expressed by Ash, as well as Tennyson's
having been poet-laureate to Queen Victoria) and Christabel LaMotte (based on Christina Rossetti),
[3]

as uncovered by present-day academics Roland Michell and Maud Bailey. Following a trail of clues

from letters and journals, they collaborate to uncover the truth about Ash and LaMotte's relationship,
before it is discovered by rival colleagues. Byatt provides extensive letters, poetry and diaries by
major characters in addition to the narrative, including poetry attributed to the fictional Ash and
LaMotte.
A. S. Byatt, in part, wrote Possession in response to John Fowles' novel The French Lieutenant's
Woman (1969). In an essay in Byatt's nonfiction book, On Histories and Stories, she wrote:

Fowles has said that the nineteenth-century narrator was assuming the omniscience of a god. I think
rather the opposite is the casethis kind of fictive narrator can creep closer to the feelings and inner
life of charactersas well as providing a Greek chorusthan any first-person mimicry. In
'Possession' I used this kind of narrator deliberately three times in the historical narrativealways to
tell what the historians and biographers of my fiction never discovered, always to heighten the
readers imaginative entry into the world of the text.[4]

Plot summary[edit]
Obscure scholar Roland Michell, researching in the London Library, discovers handwritten drafts of a
letter by the fictional eminent Victorian poet Randolph Henry Ash, which lead him to suspect that the
married Ash had a hitherto unknown romance. He secretly takes away the documents - a highly
unprofessional act for a scholar - and begins to investigate. The trail leads him to Christabel
LaMotte, a minor poet and contemporary of Ash, and to Dr. Maud Bailey, an established modern
LaMotte scholar and distant relative of LaMotte. Protective of LaMotte, Bailey is drawn into helping
Michell with the unfolding mystery. The two scholars find more letters and evidence of a love affair
between the poets (with evidence of a holiday together during which - they suspect - the relationship
may have been consummated); they become obsessed with discovering the truth. At the same time,
their own personal romantic lives - neither of which is satisfactory - develop, and they become
entwined in an echo of Ash and LaMotte. The stories of the two couples are told in parallel, with
Byatt providing letters and poetry by both of the fictional poets.
The revelation of an affair between Ash and LaMotte would make headlines and reputations in
academia because of the prominence of the poets, and colleagues of Roland and Maud become
competitors in the race to discover the truth, for all manner of motives. Ash's marriage is revealed to
have been unconsummated, although he loved and remained devoted to his wife. He and LaMotte
had a short, passionate affair; it led to the suicide of LaMotte's companion (and possibly lover),
Blanche Glover, and the secret birth of LaMotte's illegitimate daughter during a year spent
in Brittany. LaMotte left the girl with her sister to be raised by her, and passed off as her own. Ash
was never informed that he and LaMotte had a child.
As the Great Storm of 1987 strikes England, all the interested modern parties come together in a
dramatic scene at Ash's grave, where documents buried with Ash by his wife are believed to hold the
final key to the mystery and will be exhumed. Reading them, Maud learns that rather than being
related to LaMotte's sister, as she has always believed, she is directly descended from LaMotte and
Ash's illegitimate daughter. Bailey thus is heir to the correspondence by the poets. Freed from
obscurity and a dead-end relationship, Michell remedies the potential professional suicide of stealing

the original drafts, and sees an academic career open up before him. Bailey, who has spent her
adult life emotionally untouchable, finds her human side and sees possible future happiness with
Michell. The sad story of Ash and LaMotte, separated by the mores of the day and condemned to
secrecy and separation, has a kind of resolution through the burgeoning relationship between Bailey
and Michell.
In a brief epilogue, it is revealed that both the modern and historical characters (and hence the
reader), have for much of the latter half of the book, misunderstood the significance of one of Ash's
key mementoes.

Reception[edit]
American writer Jay Parini in the New York Times, wrote "a plenitude of surprises awaits the reader
of this gorgeously written novel. A. S. Byatt is a writer in mid-career whose time has certainly come,
because Possession is a tour de force that opens every narrative device of English fiction to
inspection without, for a moment, ceasing to delight." Also "The most dazzling aspect
of Possession is Ms. Byatt's canny invention of letters, poems and diaries from the 19th century". [3]
Critic Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, writing in the New York Times, noted that what he describes as
the "wonderfully extravagant novel" is "pointedly subtitled 'A Romance'." [5] He says it is at once "a
detective story" and "an adultery novel."[5]
Writing in the Guardian online, Sam Jordison, who described himself as "a longstanding Byatt
sceptic", wrote that he was: "caught off-guard by Possession's warmth and wit" "Anyone and
everything that falls under Byatt's gaze is a source of fun." Commenting on the invented 'historical'
texts he said their "effect is dazzling and similarly ludic erudition is on display throughout." "Yet
more impressive are in excess of 1,700 lines of original poetry".
"In short, the whole book is a gigantic tease which is certainly satisfying on an intellectual level"
but, "Possession's true centre is a big, red, beating heart. It's the warmth and spirit that Byatt has
breathed into her characters rather than their cerebral pursuits that makes us care". Concluding,
"There's real magic behind all the brainy trickery and an emotional journey on top of the academic
quest. So I loved it."[6]