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"Possession" is the finest English novel of the late 20th century and, undoubtedly, Antonia Byatt's finest work. However, the word "novel" can be applied to this astonishing prose only with difficulty. What is it? A detective novel of ideas? A contemporary take on the women's Gothic novel? A chivalric romance with a new twist? All of these things combined—and something more, a profoundly modern work, incorporating many traditions and simultaneously marked by the stamp of genuine inspiration and innovation. The mystery of the English spirit and English greatness shimmers in its many facets.
But above all, this book is about living people (even if some are long dead), whose images haunt the reader; about love, a rebellious and frantic passion that conquers time and death; about the aspirations of the spirit and the flesh, earthly and sublime, obvious and hidden; and of the divine Plan that glimmers in the tragic and comic patterns of human destiny... Through the mirrored labyrinth of the plot, the characters of this bizarre narrative make their way into a mysterious past: the inhabitants of the Age of Humans into the Age of Heroes, and the inhabitants of the Age of Heroes into the Age of Gods. Two elements reign on these pages: the element of the mind, the brilliance of thought, almost sensual, and the element of subtle eroticism born from the contact of the rough matter of life with the delicate fabrics of fantasy.
"Possession" occupies a unique place in the history of modern literature and, despite its profound national identity, belongs to the entire world. Now, a quarter of a century after the publication of Byatt's masterpiece, the Booker Prize awarded in 1990 seems insufficient. Just as, perhaps, the Order of the British Empire awarded to the author a little later seems insufficient...
But above all, this book is about living people (even if some are long dead), whose images haunt the reader; about love, a rebellious and frantic passion that conquers time and death; about the aspirations of the spirit and the flesh, earthly and sublime, obvious and hidden; and of the divine Plan that glimmers in the tragic and comic patterns of human destiny... Through the mirrored labyrinth of the plot, the characters of this bizarre narrative make their way into a mysterious past: the inhabitants of the Age of Humans into the Age of Heroes, and the inhabitants of the Age of Heroes into the Age of Gods. Two elements reign on these pages: the element of the mind, the brilliance of thought, almost sensual, and the element of subtle eroticism born from the contact of the rough matter of life with the delicate fabrics of fantasy.
"Possession" occupies a unique place in the history of modern literature and, despite its profound national identity, belongs to the entire world. Now, a quarter of a century after the publication of Byatt's masterpiece, the Booker Prize awarded in 1990 seems insufficient. Just as, perhaps, the Order of the British Empire awarded to the author a little later seems insufficient...
See also:
- All books by the publisher
- All books by the author
- All books in the series A Great Romance