Review: 'Possession: A Romance' by A.S. Byatt, narr. by Samuel West

 Possession is one of those novels I felt like I should read. It has everything I have loved about literature from an early age: multiple narratives, meta-narratives, letters, poems, an academic background, high feeling and high stakes. Its length initially prevented me, not sure why, so I resorted to the next best thing, the audiobook, brilliantly narrated by Samuel West. And I have been enriched.

Original Pub. Date: 10/1/1990
Audible Pub. Date: 2/20/2019 
Audible Publisher: Audible Studios

Possession is an exhilarating novel of wit and romance, at once an intellectual mystery and triumphant love story. It is the tale of a pair of young scholars researching the lives of two Victorian poets. As they uncover their letters, journals, and poems, and track their movements from London to Yorkshire—from spiritualist séances to the fairy-haunted far west of Brittany—what emerges is an extraordinary counterpoint of passions and ideas.

Academia has become increasingly popular as a plot element. Some of this is due to Donna Tartt's The Secret History, which may be the Dark Academia novel par excellence. Universities, especially old ones with their labyrinthine buildings, old traditions, weird habits and odd schedules, make a perfect background for most things. Are you considering falling in love? University is a great place! Are you going to be part of a secret society and need a cover? University has got you covered! Are you looking to straight up murder someone? University could be the place for you! Do you just want to learn something and improve yourself? That is actually what university is for! In Possession we deal less directly with a university and more with academia, specifically literary studies, itself. I studied literature myself and I couldn't help but chuckle and/or groan along with Byatt's characters. Yes, everything is seen as a sexual metaphor. An author's biography can be more of a hurdle than a revealing light sometimes. Getting "stuck" in one particular niche can slowly mute you. And your university or department will never have enough money. Upon this slightly sad backdrop, Byatt paints a story of passion, obsession and, indeed, possession that will be deeply familiar to anyone who has ever fallen in love with a book, poem, or author.

I love me a book with multiple narrative strands, that plays with form and pokes fun at its own readers. The main story is something of a mystery waiting to be solved. Roland Michell, struggling young scholar, finds two attempts at a letter by famed Victorian poet Randolph Henry Ash to an unnamed woman who has clearly impressed him. Curious Roland digs further and discovers the intended recipient was Christabelle LaMotte, another Victorian poet. He reveals his purloined letters to LaMotte scholar Maud Bailey and together they begin to unravel the acquaintance between the two poets. Interspersed in this mystery are letters written by the two poets, excerpts from their writings, and the occasional musings from those around them. While definitely a bit satirical when it comes to describing the occasionally very static world of academia, A.S. Byatt mocks gently. The growing friendship between Roland and Maude was beautifully built up and I was intensely invested almost from the get-go. I was also captured by her descriptions of Victorian London, stormy Brittany, dusty mansions and spooky seances. It was all so vividly realized that I couldn't help but be obsessed. 

A.S. Byatt won the Booker Prize for this novel in 1990 and that was absolutely deserved. There is something so lush about this novel, about the way Byatt interweaves past and present, poetry and prose. It is quite honestly masterful. While it is a novel that requires your focus and attention, it rewards it in innumerable ways. The subtitle of 'A Romance' is very deliberate here. While there are elements of mystery and suspense, with the occasional Gothic overtones of dolls and stormy nights, it is also a novel about love, adultery and the search for fulfillment. It is a novel that questions privacy, our obsession with biography, whether knowing more is always good, while also addressing the occasional lack of academic prestige for work on female poets. I listened to this novel, because I hoped it would be exactly what it was, and Samuel West did a brilliant job. The way in which he voiced each of the characters, how he switched effortlessly between prose and poetry, how he allowed for moments of silence and verbosity, it all made for a stunning listening experience. 

I give this novel/audiobook...

5 Universes!

Possession is a beautiful, complex novel. I was completely enraptured by it and bereft once it was over.