<p>LOL. There are some pretty obvious reasons for Christabel to be green - nature, regrowth, youth, especially in contrast to ash which of course needs an infusion of her green. Maud too wears lots of green as an echo.</p>
<p>I finished!</p>
<p>My feeling towards the book remains the same. I love the story, but would have like the book more with fewer poems, journals, and letters to read. I know they were an important tool that allowed us the opportunity to get to know the 19th century characters and I am sure I missed important details by skimming. Oh well, if I hadn’t, I’d still be reading.</p>
<p>It seems like there are many examples of possession throughout the book and great examples already given by other posters. The big one for me was how possessed the academics were about the characters they researched. The researchers lose their own identity in their pursuit to understand everything they possible can about their poets and the people surrounding them. Early in the book I wrote a note that said - “Is this book about the lost souls in academia…the authors, the poets, and the researchers?” I think I like mathmom’s interpretation better when she said - “It’s a spoof of the academic world, while at the same time providing the ultimate romantic story.”</p>
<p>Not reading what anyone has posted yet-cause I am still reading the book! It is great and really holding my interest. Join you in a bit!</p>
<p>BUandBC82, when I first read the poems, I felt like I extracted as much meaning as if I had skimmed them or not read them at all. But each time I returned to a poem and re-read a line or two, I was able to glean a tiny bit more. It’s like another language – a tough one for me to pick up. I was always relieved to return to the prose sections! </p>
<p>I agree about the researchers losing their own identity. They become so possessed/obsessed with their subjects that it’s sometimes funny, sometimes sad. After the graveyard escapade, it is only Val and Euan—the non-academics—who are dressed in their regular clothing. Byatt writes, “Val and Euan had their own clothes and represented normality” (p. 540). My note in the margin was “in more ways than one!”</p>
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</p>
<p>White is another important color–actually, “absence of color”–for Maud and Christabel. Maud wears a white silk shirt and white stockings with her green tunic. And “Maud’s living room was not what might have been expected of a Victorian scholar. It was bright white, paint, lamps and dining-table; the carpet was a Berber off-white” (p. 57). Roland sits on Maud’s “huge white sofa” and sleeps under her “white down quilt.” Christabel wears white gloves, and Randolph is struck by “the whiteness of her” (p. 301). And of course Christabel’s companion (lover?) is Blanche (White). </p>
<p>Although white is traditionally linked to purity, innocence, etc., I think that for Maud and Christabel white reflects more of the “absence” idea. Maud’s fantasy (and Roland’s) is “An empty bed in an empty room. White.” She tries to control her surroundings, her life, by employing a spotless “place for everything and everything in its place” philosophy. Think of her bathroom with its “systematically folded towels” and “Not a spec of talcum powder, not a smear of soap, on any surface” (p. 63). It calls to mind Christabel’s poem:</p>
<p>*I like things clean about me
Starched and gophered frill
What is done exactly
Cannot be done ill</p>
<p>The house is ready spotless
Waiting for the Guest
Who will see our white linen
At its very best
Who will take it and fold it
And lay us to rest.*</p>
<p>As an aside—just another example of how so much ties together in the book—when Maud reaches under the dolls’ bed and pulls out the love letters, they are “wrapped in fine white linen” (p. 93). In discovering the truth about Christabel and Randolph and giving that love story some closure, it is Roland and Maud…</p>
<p>…Who will see our white linen
At its very best
Who will take it and fold it
And lay us to rest.</p>
<p>I haven’t finished yet–almost-- but since I watched the movie, I think I know what’s going to happen (I thought Paltrow made a good Maud). </p>
<p>I’m trained as a scientist, but I love to read a wide range of material. A couple of years ago, I spent part of a summer reading William Wordsworth’s Prelude with a friend who also writes poetry. He suggested I read the Wordsworth aloud (to myself), that poetry is meant to be heard, at least by the reader. I did that for some of the poetry in Possession, as well; and even if it was at a whisper, somehow voicing the words and getting a feel for the language and its use, helped me be a more patient (and I hope more comprehending!) reader. </p>
<p>Here’s another line I liked about possession because it reflects what Byatt did in using so many references to older works (about many of which this scientist is clueless), but also describes in a sense how I feel about the old genealogical study of my own family. </p>
<p>From pg. 116 from R.H. Ash in the letter to Mrs. Cropper, “What is read and understood and contemplated and intellectually grasped is our own, madam, to live and work with. A lifetime’s study will not make accessible to us more than a fragment of our own ancestral past, let alone the aeons before our race was formed. But that fragment we must thoroughly possess and hand on.”</p>
<p>I didn’t like Christabel. I wanted to like her, but by the end of the story, I found I couldn’t. I thought she was selfish. She was often self deprecating in her letters to Ash, needing him to build her up in his letters back to her. At first I was willing to consider her shy and lacking in self confidence. This is probably true, but it isn’t enough to get me to like her. She put aside Blanche’s feelings in pursuit of her own, blamed Ash for Blanche’s death, kept Ash from knowing his daughter existed, and only sent him a letter with the truth when he was on his deathbed. This last letter of Christabel’s seemed more like an opportunity to clear her own conscience than it was an opportunity to ease Ash’s death. She is still pitying herself about how their daughter doesn’t like her, but would have liked Ash. On page 543 Christabel writes, “So I am punished, in some sort, for keeping her from you.” She later adds - “I have been so angry for so long–with you, with Blanche, with my poor self…” </p>
<p>In her letter, she tells Ash that their daughter, Maia, is happy, but confesses to a secret fear. Christabel says
So, it seems, even the good thing she did for her daughter, allowing her to grow up happy as her sister’s daughter, was done for selfish reasons.</p>
<p>BUandBC82, I didn’t like Christabel either. </p>
<p>Okay, time for my little diatribe. I hope it doesn’t make me seem like too much of a sourpuss.</p>
<p>To me, even though Possession was chosen as an appropriate selection for February (the “month of romance”)…and evidently adheres to the standard literary definition of “a romance”…it wasn’t a romantic book (despite there being a couple of love stories in it) but seemed actually quite sad and dark. I felt that it was in fact lacking in “heart”. The story lines did get resolved rather gratifyingly at the very end, but that was one of the few satisfactions of the book for me. </p>
<p>Usually, I don’t at all mind (often sometimes prefer) fiction that is gritty – even gloomy – but Possession seemed to me like an intellectual exercise where you didn’t come to care much about the characters as people, even though there was plenty of information about them in the book. </p>
<p>I’ll concede that it is intellectually brilliant. I think it is also cold. Byatt almost seems to get a perverse glee out of putting her Victorian characters through so much suffering. They are characters who would have preferred their privacy, but the researchers are like harpies going after them…and they are rewarded with grotesque results. Byatt was showing off her erudition, and creating a parody of academic literary research which I suppose I don’t have the background to fully appreciate. It was interesting up to a point, but it seemed like a little much.</p>
<p>There were such dismal elements in the book…Blanche’s suicide, Ellen’s sexual frigidity, the anguished confusion of Sophie de Kercoz – in addition to the sad central story of of Ash and Cristabel. That horrible tale told by the French servant about “the little dancing thing” – brrr…it bothers me to even think about it! Some of the modern settings were quite grotesque too: Roland and Val’s apartment with the cat pee seeping through the ceiling, the moldering condition of Seal Court…</p>
<p>I mentioned in a previous post how I thought that Cropper and Stern were stereotypes. In addition, I felt that Roland, Val and Maud all seemed so emotionally dysfunctional during most of the book that their quick turn-arounds at the end struck me as very contrived.</p>
<p>I mean, there were things I did admire about Possession, and I’m not sorry I read it, but…</p>
<p>
That’s sort of true and not-true. There were some Arts and Crafts architects who really got into white. 
[14</a> South Parade, by C. F. A. Voysey, c.1890](<a href=“http://www.victorianweb.org/art/architecture/voysey/4.html]14”>14 South Parade, by C. F. A. Voysey, c.1890) Or Macintosh’s music room or oval room: [url=<a href=“http://www.houseforanartlover.co.uk/step_inside]Step”>http://www.houseforanartlover.co.uk/step_inside]Step</a> Inside | House for an Art Lover<a href=“But%20both%20late%20Victorian,%20not%201859!”>/url</a></p>
<p>I had a hard time making myself read the poetry. Sometimes I’d realize I’d skimmed through a page and hadn’t taken in anything and went back and read it out loud.</p>
<p>NJTheatreMom, I think that much of what you say is also true. The book is a little too clever for its own good I think. I’m not sure I have the background to appreciate the satire, except that it reminded me so much of why back in 1976 I ran away from academica as fast as I could, feeling very guilty about it. What could be stupider than majoring in art at Harvard? Which is essentially what I did. But I knew if I had to spend any more time listening to semiotics or Marxist history theory I’d shoot myself. Making things seemed so much more fun and interesting and … productive. Which is why I have such sympathy for Roland when at the end of the novel it looks like he might become a poet instead of just or at least only an academic at the end of the book.</p>
<p>PaTheaterMom, and others who haven’t finished book, do NOT ruin the journey,by finding out how it ends. There are mysteries to discover. </p>
<p>**Spoiler alert coming FYI: **</p>
<p>BUBC didn’t care for Christabel, either. </p>
<p>Confession: **I did not read the poetry **,
and wonder if I may LIKE the BOOK more because I
didn’t torture myself with all those pages. </p>
<p>Felt a bit redeemed when I read that Byatt’s editors begged her to remove the poetry because they didn’t feel it was necessary and would alienate readers.
Byatt refused. </p>
<p>NJtheatermom, I understand your views about the book, but I see it differently. I think it was an “epic” romance, filled with mythic characters.</p>
<p>I became emotionally involved in Roland and Maud’s quest, and when pregnant Christabel escaped to the De Kercoz’s I turned each page in fear of what I felt Chritabel was capable of doing! </p>
<p>Byatt, created Cristabel’ character with so much conflicting levels, that I truly thought she was desperate and capable of anything. The fairy tales added those dimensions to this story. </p>
<p>I became "possessed"to know the answer to the GRAND QUESTION - "What happened to the child? " </p>
<p>I couldn’t put this book down, the anxiety was so great, I actually turned ahead to the final chapters to FIND out what happened!</p>
<p>I couldn’t tolerate the "anxiety, of not knowing. Whew, I call that a good book.</p>
<p>Byatt’s ended this novel brilliantly-
yes, a nice,neat tidy package, but for me, it was most satisfying.</p>
<p>Christabel and Randolph,passionate “soul mates” who can not be together.
Damaged Maud and Roland find each other, and “make it work in today’s modern world”.</p>
<p>NJTheaterMom, regarding Byatt’s connection to her characters-
When asked by an interviewer which character she related to the most her answer surprised me.
Byatt answers ** Beatrice **.</p>
<p>Do you remember how Beatrice reacts when she discovers the “truth” of Ellen’s life? </p>
<p>She cried. </p>
<p>I can understand how you can love or hate this book. I’m smitten, and think it was great Feb selection.</p>
<p>Beatrix grew on me too. Such a tragedy he got that Ellen was hiding something, but never gets to know the full secret that in addition to the tragedy of her life of being forced to study what she had never wanted to.</p>
<p>PlantMom, I think reading poetry aloud to each other was the way things were done back in the day, in the absence of T.V., radio and YouTube. After I read your post, I ran across this excerpt from Blanche’s journal—with a Wordsworth reference to boot!</p>
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<p>(I think psychmom should resurrect the tradition by reading aloud “The Fairy Melusina” to her H tonight ;).)</p>
<p>SouthJerseyChessMom: I salute you! I tortured myself with the poetry because I felt like I “had to.” I’m going to blame it on my guilt-laden Catholic upbringing.</p>
<p>Mary13, perhaps you can tell me if I missed any sections where Christabel reacts to Blanche’s tragic death in any detail ?
Did she pour out her grief in a poem, I missed?</p>
<p>NJTheatreMOM, I love a good diatribe. :)</p>
<p>I didn’t feel the same way as you did about Possession. I really enjoyed the book, even more the second time around. I genuinely liked the characters. Now, it could be because I gave birth to a Type A daughter who just received her PhD in English Lit and a pensive doctoral student son who spends his life pouring over scholarly texts and breaking up with girlfriends. For me, life in the Ash Factory sounded all too familiar. </p>
<p>The first time I read Possession, I was–like SouthJerseyChessMom–caught up in the mystery. This time, I was able to relax and enjoy the structure more, and to discover connections I didn’t see before. As for the dismal elements, there is no doubt that they are there, and sometimes very dark indeed. But I didn’t feel they were out of place. Victorian life was difficult, especially for unmarried women. As I see it, Byatt was showing us the choices women faced, each tragic in its own way: You either folded, like Blanche, or developed a hardness, like Christabel. </p>
<p>A woman’s sense of being trapped in that world, and the particular burden of pregnancy, appears again and again in the novel, through peripheral characters as well as major ones. Remember Bertha, the pregnant, unmarried servant who runs away, never to be heard from again? Or the story of Ellen’s mother, who gave birth to 15 children, only four of whom survived? And then there is Sabine, who feels imprisoned in her secluded life with her father, but is “freed” only to end up dying in childbirth. There is a desperation woven throughout the poems and stories and journal entries of the women in Possession that seems fitting under the circumstances. Gode’s description of the “tiny naked child dancing and prancing” was truly horrible—it sent shivers down my spine. But it was a Tale Told in November, so that’s what it should have done. Gode’s story told graphically what Christabel’s poems told obscurely. Gode was a poet, too.</p>
<p>I see beauty in the fact that these women–despite their poverty, their grief, their shunning by society–are still able to love, and to leave behind a legacy behind that endures, be it a poem, a journal entry, an eerie story, a painting, or a joyful child “swinging on a gate…humming to herself and making a daisy chain.”</p>
<p>This ability to rise above circumstances is reflected in the modern story, too. Maud and Val may not be in the physical and financial straits of their Victorian sisters, but they are emotionally “imprisoned.” Is their redemption, by way of Roland and Euan, too quick, too unbelievable? Maybe. But then this is a Romance and love conquers all. Happy Almost-Valentine’s-Day. :)</p>
<p>Mathmom, how wonderful that you studied art at Harvard. Was it studio art, or art history, or…? I loved your Arts and Crafts architecture links.</p>
<p>Looking back, I have often wished that I had studied art history in college instead of floundering about among other majors.</p>
<p>SouthJerseyChessMom, I also was very worried about what pregnant Christabel was going to do. She was a scary person in that part of the book. I was filled with dread (1) on behalf of the baby, and (2) because I was upset by that part of the book and feared that Byatt would not prove herself beyond giving us “the worst.”</p>
<p>I started out dutifully reading all of the poetry but later just skimmed it very quickly.</p>
<p>Another thought that occurred to me:</p>
<p>I think Beatrice made Christabel so unlikeable in order to thumb her nose at the feminist literary critics. The feminists had made Christabel into an icon of lesbian creativity, but the research that came from the discovery of the letters proved that she was apparently not really a lesbian…and furthermore, it indicated that some of her poetry was deeply influenced by Ash, to the extent that he might even have written some of it.</p>
<p>It’s as though Byatt was saying, “Ha! See? And Christabel wasn’t even very nice, either.”</p>
<p>Mary13, I like what you said about the Victorian women suffering but still being able to love and leave a legacy behind. </p>
<p>Maybe Possession is like a Rorschach test…or a prism. It can be looked at in a variety of different ways.</p>
<p>I liked the poetry and loved the letters (am I the only one?), though both made me work as a reader. Like PlantMom and mathmom mention, reading the poetry aloud helped. I read the letters more than once. Each time I picked the book back up to continue it, I took the time to reread a poem or letter and found doing so reinvested me in the storyline. </p>
<p>I did not particularly like Christabel, less so as the story continued; however, I did like Ash. Liking Ash surprised me in that - like Mary - I tend not to sympathize with cheaters. Still, something about him seemed at a remove from the typical cad ;).</p>
<p>I guess today’s equivalent of letters/poems are emails sent one to another - as in Fifty Shades of Grey, ha.</p>
<p>I think the author makes a point that one can possess tangible things but never the intangible. Ash seems to grasp this when he lets Maia be. Beatrice definitely realizes it through Ellen’s journals; she’s smart enough to understand that she can’t read between the lines because Ellen doesn’t want her to do so. To make her point, the author leaves only the reader in possession of necessary information and, in doing so, reveals just how relevant the missing pieces are. No matter what the scholars write about the two poets, no matter how assiduously they aim for possession or knowledge, details - oh, so important details - will remain unknown, as they do from the individuals themselves. People can’t be possessed - as Blanche finds out and perhaps Ellen intuitively understands. Byatt gives us possession and its antithesis.</p>
<p>You know, I never thought Christabel murdered the child. I thought perhaps it was stillborn - sad enough. It shocked me when she cried out that Ash made her a murderer but I still didn’t think she meant it literally - only that she had not taken the care needed to have a baby that survived.</p>
<p>Like others, I liked the book.</p>
<p>NJTheaterMOM, My major was Visual and Environmental Studies - it was a mix of studio art, film (I just took one film history course - eye opening), architectural history (I took every course offered I think), some art theory (I only took the one required course). I sat in on some art history courses, but only took one (Chinese Landscape Painting of the Sung dynasty - best course I ever took.) I thought I’d be a History and Lit major, but I hated all the history and lit type courses I took as a freshman. I had wonderful English teachers in high school though and read and performed copious amounts of poetry back then. Reading Possession makes me remember what I was like back then!</p>
<p>Wow, what a great major, Mathmom. I adored English in high school too, but then didn’t like the way literature was taught in college.</p>
<p>I was also disappointed with upper level studies of a foreign language in college. They didn’t care whether your actual command of the language was clumsy, as long as you can churn out a piece of satisfactory literary analysis.</p>
<p>I changed schools, broadened my interests, and eventually ended up with a degree in environmental planning and design.</p>
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<p>I didn’t notice anything other than what has already been mentioned, i.e., when Christabel shouts at Ash at the s</p>