Possession, published in 1990, is the fifth novel of prolific academic writer and novelist, A.S. Byatt. The novel was a critical and popular success, marking a definitive shift in Byatt's career from relatively well-known author to literary superstar. It received the 1990 Booker Prize and was adapted into a feature film in 2002.
The novel follows the story of Roland Mitchell, an aimless scholar who stumbles upon a previously unknown letter by famous Victorian poet Randolph Henry Ash to a lesser known-poet, Christabel LaMotte. The letter sparks an insatiable desire for knowledge in Roland, leading him on an increasingly fantastic quest. Along the way he is joined by Maud Bailey, one of...
