Book #89 Possession by A. S. Byatt

Most of the books on this list deserve their reputation as great books... and then there is Possession which I'm not sure how it made it here. Not that it is a bad book. It is actually pretty decent and I'm giving it a B+, but it is nowhere near being a classic. I doubt people will still be reading it a hundred years from now.

The novel has a pretty good set up. One day a young English Literature scholar named Roland,  finds a draft of a sort of love letter by his favorite 19th century author, Randolph Ash, to a mystery woman in the archives of the British Library. This leads him on a quest to find out more information. He figures out the woman is also a notable 19th century poet Christabel LaMotte. He then meets Maud Bailey who studies LaMotte and helps him find a huge stack of lost love letters between Ash and LaMotte. The story partially unfolds through various characters' journal entries, letters between characters, poems by Ash and LaMotte, etc. There are of course other people that want to get their hands on the letters for their own purposes.

Overall the story was interesting but I felt that the use of various types of writings was distracting because I was always conscious that the poems by various characters were really by A.S. Byatt and the writing styles of all the characters were very similar. Plus the way the stories from the past and the present parallel each other are just too obvious. I'd also say that Roland isn't the best protagonist. His character just isn't written deeply enough and I felt no urge to root for him. At one point he literally just runs away from his problems and does nothing.

Since the books is full of English Literature scholars there were many references to other books on the list... we get references to Bleak House, Jane Eyre, Frankenstein, Great Expectations, Moby Dick, and Don Quixote.

I enjoyed Possession, but not as a classic... just as an average book. B+