Possession

Antonia Susan Duffy, commonly known as A. S. Byatt was born in 1936, and is an English novelist and poet. This fascinating author won the Man Booker prize in 1990 for Possession, a beautifully written story about a duel set of discoveries that continues on through the course of the tale. When Roland Mitchell comes across a letter from Randolph Henry Ash to Christabel La Motte in the course of typical research, he is so enthralled that he takes the letter home with him.  Randolph Henry Ash, a nineteenth-century poet, is the subject of Roland’s life work thus far, and the new discovery could reveal untold new information about his character. Teaming up with Maud Bailey, who is one of Christabel’s descendants they follow a trail of clues from various letters and journals; seeking to discover the true nature of their relationship, and solve the mysteries of where and what happened before the other scholars can do so. Possession is a complex, layered book, brimming with descriptive imagery and rich with allusion.