gl_mrtnl's review against another edition
3.0
The saving part was how much it weirdly reminded me of House of Leaves.
Otherwise, the main characters of Roland and Maud were bland and uninspiring, the side characters downright grotesque.
Otherwise, the main characters of Roland and Maud were bland and uninspiring, the side characters downright grotesque.
amelia555's review
3.0
I'm too uncultured to understand every layer of this book. And the surface of it felt too soapy.
jeffreyreads's review against another edition
3.0
This was singlehandedly one of if not the most complicated and challenging book I've ever read. The ending gets 5 stars, everything up to that gets 3 stars (probably deserves lower but I'm feeling generous).
paperknotbooks's review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
I love the premise but I kept putting this down because the plot felt stagnant.
bcantread's review
5.0
So glad I got to read this for a literary class, otherwise it might've gone mostly over my head.
hadu's review
4.0
When I first started reading "Possession" my first impression was that it was slow, boring, and slightly pretentious. I considered not continuing to read but I'm glad I stuck with it because the story did pick up. Although I can see where someone with different interests than me would remain unenthused. If you're looking for action packed adventure or other dramatic scenes this probably isn't the book for you. If you have an interest in the complexity of emotions and relationships then I think you will enjoy this book.
I couldn't help but think of today's gossip magazines while reading about Ash and Christabel's affair through Roland, Maud, and the other scholars' research. I was sometimes appalled by their ravenous need to know everything about the two poets who were long dead...then I realized that I was dying to know it all as well so I couldn't pass judgement. I found it suffocating to think of a life spent researching another's life and not having much of a life outside of that.
The portrayal of Americans in this book bothered me just a little. We aren't all sneaky, overweight, loud, and selfish people although I won't deny that people fitting that description do exist in this country.
I've always had some trouble reading poetry and honestly when I came upon the sections of "Possession" where there was a poetry passage it felt like work reading them and trying to understand the hidden meanings and metaphors. But I will say I did notice over time that they started to make a bit more sense and made me wonder if I should consider reading poems more often.
I couldn't help but think of today's gossip magazines while reading about Ash and Christabel's affair through Roland, Maud, and the other scholars' research. I was sometimes appalled by their ravenous need to know everything about the two poets who were long dead...then I realized that I was dying to know it all as well so I couldn't pass judgement. I found it suffocating to think of a life spent researching another's life and not having much of a life outside of that.
The portrayal of Americans in this book bothered me just a little. We aren't all sneaky, overweight, loud, and selfish people although I won't deny that people fitting that description do exist in this country.
I've always had some trouble reading poetry and honestly when I came upon the sections of "Possession" where there was a poetry passage it felt like work reading them and trying to understand the hidden meanings and metaphors. But I will say I did notice over time that they started to make a bit more sense and made me wonder if I should consider reading poems more often.
vspinazola's review
2.0
'm going to list this one on my shelf because I spent some time with it, but unfortunately it's in the "didn't finish" category. I know most people seemed to love it, so maybe it was just where I was in my life at the time. I might give it another go 'round, cuz so many others loved it, and it did win the Booker.
dmturner's review
5.0
I listened to the audiobook in the car, mile by mile, sometimes for twenty minutes and sometimes for hours on end. Virginia Leishman's clear, precise English-accented voice is a good match for Byatt's slow, often complex style. With its digressions into poetry, correspondence, literary analysis, concurrent love affairs a century apart, scholarly feuds, and all the possible variants of meaning of the word "possession," the book makes an improbable best seller, and in fact I had a hard time getting started when I tried to read it in print. Initially, the present-day young man who is the protagonist was such a wet rag I had a hard time mustering up any enthusiasm for his living quarters, his relationship, his impulse to steal which sets the events in motion, and his thoroughly thwarted existence. However, the book steadily accreted into a complex, slowly spinning whole world that began to make sense and to interlock. Perhaps the stormy climax resolved all the threads a tad too tidily, letting the air gently out of the the conflict among the researchers, but the little redemption of the last chapter struck like a humming bell.
As for the story of those long-gone people that the protagonist and his green-clad companion Maud (a scholar of liminality) were investigating, I never would have thought I could feel so strongly about a Christina Rossetti-like Victorian lesbian poet who just wanted to be left alone and a famous bearded Victorian gentleman who was as popular as Tennyson and who could not leave her be.
Through Byatt's writing so often runs the theme of the boundary fences around a woman's options; it seemed, here, that everyone, man and woman, today and yesterday, is likewise fenced in.
It's a mystery and a slow meditation all at once, and I am glad I was able to read the whole thing. I love Byatt's short stories and I was happy I loved this book as well.
As for the story of those long-gone people that the protagonist and his green-clad companion Maud (a scholar of liminality) were investigating, I never would have thought I could feel so strongly about a Christina Rossetti-like Victorian lesbian poet who just wanted to be left alone and a famous bearded Victorian gentleman who was as popular as Tennyson and who could not leave her be.
Through Byatt's writing so often runs the theme of the boundary fences around a woman's options; it seemed, here, that everyone, man and woman, today and yesterday, is likewise fenced in.
It's a mystery and a slow meditation all at once, and I am glad I was able to read the whole thing. I love Byatt's short stories and I was happy I loved this book as well.
a_violentfemme's review against another edition
5.0
Intelligent and suprising! My second Byatt read I was unsure what to expect from this but depite myself (I was initially put off by the cover and blurb) I enjoyed every aspect.