Watched the film version of A S Byatt's Possession yesterday evening - a lovely treat even though I've sen it several times. The book is brilliant -though possibly one of the hardest i've ever read. It is a kind of literary mystery/love story set in the 1880's and 1980's -there is a lot of poetry woven into it as it follows the discovery of a hidden affair between two Victorian poets. The two modern academics who follow the trail also have their own relationship examined in parallel.
First lines:
"The book was thick and black and covered with dust. It's boards were bowed and creaking; it had been maltreated in it's own time. It was bandaged about and about with white tape, tied in a neat bow. The librarian handed it to Roland Michell, who was sitting waiting for it in the Reading Room of the London Library. It had been exhumed fom locked safe No.5 where it usually stood between Pranks of priapus and The Grecian Way of love. It was ten o'clock in the morning, one day in September 1986. Roland had the small single table he liked best, behind a pillar, with the clock over the fireplace nevertheless in full view. To his right was a high sunny window, through which you could see the high green leavesof St James's Square."
Highly recommend it -not an easy read though!
