Possession by A S Byatt - my thoughts

Possession: A Romance by A.S. Byatt
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!

Just finished reading this for second time... or maybe the third? And it's just as amazing as the first time around. I'm not a great one for literary fiction as a rule, but I love Possession. It's so readable, and pageturning, and has so many facets. It *is* a literary novel, but it's also a mystery as well with a bit of a 'chase' story at the end. It's also a love story on two levels: one fairly tragic and the other sweet and hopeful. There are also many touches of delicious wry humour too.

One of the things that dazzles and impresses the most is the way A S Byatt has recreated a vast wealth of Victorian literature in the form of poems, letters and journals. It's hard to read those elements without thinking that you're reading genuine writing from the nineteenth century, so authentic does it seem.

I will probably read Possession again in a year or two with just as much pleasure.

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