Possession, possessing, and possessed.
A chapter-by-chapter read along of A.S Byatt's Possession: A Romance
I first read Possession: A Romance, by A.S. Byatt when I was about 15 years old. I remember I picked it up for the first time because there was a movie coming out with Jennifer Ehle, love of my life from Pride & Prejudice fame.
I liked the idea of the movie, based solely on the trailers: a dark academia ‘mystery’, set in England, costumes, academics, history, romance, despair etc etc. Everything a young girl wants to read, especially as a 15-year-old who was devouring novels (romances, actually, an important distinction we’ll get to in a moment) and who wanted nothing more than to be that academic (Gwyneth Paltrow, in this instance) biking through some hallowed university campus, poring over original manuscripts.
Unfortunately for that dream, I also really enjoyed going to parties, drinking, and doing drugs so my grades never quite matched my fantasy.
Anyway. I saw the movie was coming out and decided that the right thing to do was read the book first. That first reading was so way beyond me, my analytical abilities, and even basic reading skills. And yet it profoundly moved me as a book. The writing, the story, the characters. It made me feel connected not only to the story, but to books and writing itself. It’s my firm belief that Possession: A Romance, is really a love story to books, literature, and readers everywhere. I honestly think this book is what made me pursue an English Literature degree, for better or for worse.
Since then, I’ve read and re-read this book over a dozen times. Every time I read it I say to myself, “I’d love to do a full annotated edition of this book one day,” because every time I read it I find a new detail, interesting play on words, historical tidbit, or perspective that shifts every other reading I’ve done or will do again.
I’ve recently started using Substack as a proxy for other social media platforms in a last-ditch attempt to preserve my dwindling attention span and mental capacity. My friend recommended to me Haley Larsen’s excellent series Closely Reading which has just started a read along and interpretation of my other favourite book, Pride & Prejudice.
This inspired me to try my hand at a half-way between an annotated edition, a newsletter, and the passionate messages I exchange with my other equally Possession-possessed friend.
Here’s what I’m thinking. Each new post will be a read through and interpretation of a chapter of the book. I can’t claim to have the same interpretive ability as Haley Larsen, and I definitely can’t teach you how to do close readings, but maybe I can share some of the understanding and passion I have for this book with whoever bothers to read this.
I’m not going to do a real schedule, and I’m not going to promise it’s correct, but what I can promise is that it will be very earnest and likely way too long.
Which Possession?
Byatt wrote Possession after a period of (relatively) slow publications. While she was known within some academic and literary circles for her earlier works, it was Possession, and the Booker Prize it won in 1990, that catapulted her to fame. What’s absolutely insane is that she remembers writing the book “rather quickly”1 and “all at once”, in pen, having built the story in her mind for a decade while focusing on teaching and child care.
The book takes the format of a story within a story (within a story), coming across simultaneously as historic metafiction, epic poetry, epistolary novel and, most importantly, a romance.
It’s important to note that I’m following the original UK edition and not the later U.S edition which has, unfortunately, become the more popular one. If you get the chance, try to read the UK version which retains Byatt’s original meaning, structure and descriptions. The amendments suggested by the U.S editors (which at one point included cutting over 100 pages!) were luckily kept to a minimum, but still left Byatt “feel[ing] quite ill.”2 You can read a really interesting and in-depth interpretation of the differences between the editions in the paper A.S. Byatt’s Possession For British and American Readers By Helge Nowak from the University of Göttingen.
But don’t read it until you read the book! Otherwise you will spoil it.
Why a romance?
In this first post I’m going to focus on the very beginning of the story, on the three crucial elements which help frame the narrative for the rest of the book: The title, the subtitle, and the quotes.
I’m going to preface all of this by saying: I am not an expert! There are probably better interpretations out there! I’m just very, very keen.
The Title: Possession
What does it mean to be possessed?
This question, and the idea of possession itself, is asked again and again throughout the story. Who is possessing whom? When is a possession amicable, if ever? When is a possession violent, even when it is love? What does it mean to be in possession of, possessed by, possessed to?
The theme of “ownership” comes into play throughout the story, exploring legal ownership (of land, of inheritance, of a spouse, of a body), love (between a couple, between an obsession, between friendships) and intellectual (between a phd, their subject, copyrights). Every character is both in possession of, and constantly possessed by, something—for better or for worse.
As I read, and as you (hopefully) read along, really consider these questions. Especially consider how each of the characters interacts with each other, and with the external elements that they feel they “own” as part of their identity.
Who is possessing whom?
The Subtitle: A Romance
Byatt has done something very clever with the subtitle “a romance”. In doing so she is connecting herself to something “low” within the literary world. It’s not a novel with all the burden that that title brings. Instead it’s a romance and that title, as the quote we’ll cover in a moment explains, brings leeway and flexibility within what the reader will read, and, most importantly, accept.
A “Romance” can strain believability in a way that a novel may not be able to do, and in a way which is often not taken as seriously as other “real” fiction.
It’s kind of like the covers for Elena Ferrante’s Neopolitan Novels. Ferrante’s novels use “ugly” covers meant to reflect “chick-lit”. She’s intentionally subverting the genre by “dressing an extremely refined story with a touch of vulgarity.”3 Byatt is taking a title that many would see as dismissive and asks you to wonder why?
More than just a descriptor within the literary field (that is, a romance vs a novel vs a biography etc), and more than a description of the plot (even though, yes, there are a few excellent romances folded into the story), the book itself is a book about love. Love between people, but also the obsessive, all consuming “love” between an academic and their subject of interest.
As I said earlier, this book is a love story for, about, and to readers.
The Quotes
The book starts with two quotes, one from Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the other from Robert Browning.
Hawthorne’s comes from his preface to The House of the Seven Gables and explains very clearly the reasoning behind Byatt’s choice of “A Romance” as the subtitle to her book.
When a writer calls his work a Romance, it need hardly be observed that he wishes to claim a certain latitude, both as to its fashion and material, which he would not have felt himself entitled to assume, had he professed to be writing a Novel. The latter form of composition is presumed to aim at a very minute fidelity […] The former […] has fairly a right to present that truth under circumstances, to a great extent, of the writer’s own choosing or creation."
By choosing this quote, and the subtitle itself, Byatt is firmly drawing a line in the sand around herself, the reader, and the story. It encompasses the reader into this truth, and this world. And because of it, the narrative can live and breathe as itself.
The second quote, from Browning’s Mr.Sludge, The Medium takes a slightly more cynical and satirical take on the idea of a “romance” and story-telling in general. It’s forgiving of the way one tells stories, and asks the reader to “Participate in Sludgehood”. Browning (as far as my meagre interpretation is capable) speaks about writers and storytellers of all kinds, whether they be poets or historians, as liars (complimentary).
How many lies did it require to make The portly truth you here present us with?
With both of these quotes, Byatt is setting the reader up. I do intentionally mean “setting up” as in “a trap”. She wants you to read this book and wonder at what is “true” or not within the story, and does it matter? To think of what you are reading, and understand the personal stories of the characters, as also being “muddled out of the sludge” and slightly picked over for their own personal truths.
There. Not even two pages in and Byatt has already started carefully framing the themes and perspectives of the story, and (most importantly) subverting them.
That’s it for the introduction, hope you’ve enjoyed. I’ll be back eventually with chapter one.
The Subtle Genius of Elena Ferrante’s Bad Book Covers, The Atlantic
wowww am i excited to find your substack! i read possession for the first time last year and loved it, but knew immediately i’d need to reread it. looking forward to reading along!