I'll admit it I refuse to go see this movie. Considering the sweeping grandeur of Possession: A Romance, by A.S. Byatt, the idea of a movie boiling all this down to a mere two hours is blasphemous.
Byatt received the 1990 Booker Prize for Possession, and once you really get into the novel, you realize why. Byatt has created not only a few characters within her novel, she has created a whole literary history -- poems, fiction, and essays -- surrounding her characters.
To back up, Possession is the story of two researchers, each delving into the histories of relatively unknown, yet culturally-significant poets. In real life, these poets never existed. However, Byatt amazingly manages to construct epic poems and entire stories "authored" by these fictitious writers.
The researchers stumble upon a startling discovery linking these two writers who were heretofore assumed to be not only unknown to each other, but to be reclusive in the manner of Emily Dickenson.
Byatt gives us a glimpse into the surprisingly cutthroat world of academia, where tenure relies on one-upmanship in one's field. In a graveyard during a thunderstorm, the truth is revealed in a manner becoming of a truly gothic, Victorian novel.
Do not pass this novel by, even if its size appears daunting. Byatt's mastery of character and cunning storylines will win you over before you know it. You will not be able to put this book down.
