A. S. Byatt wrote literary fiction, short stories and criticism marked by intellectual games, art, myth, language and the ways people interpret the past. Possession follows two modern academics, Roland Michell and Maud Bailey, as they uncover a hidden relationship between fictional Victorian poets Randolph Henry Ash and Christabel LaMotte. The novel mixes contemporary investigation with letters, diaries and invented Victorian poetry, turning literary scholarship itself into part of the plot. The Children’s Book moves through the years before the First World War among artists, writers and reformers whose idealistic public lives contrast with difficult family relationships. Byatt also wrote the Frederica quartet and many stories that draw on fairy tales, visual art and natural history. Her prose is dense, allusive and suited to readers who enjoy layered structures and embedded texts. Her books sit within literary fiction, historical fiction and metafiction. Possession gives the clearest introduction because it combines romance, scholarship, mystery and pastiche in one self-contained novel. Read more Less
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