I looked for a romance about poetry or poets in honor of National Poetry Month. As it turns out, there is not much out there in traditional genre fiction; if any of you are aspiring romance authors, the poetry romance niche is wide open.
Possession by A.S. Byatt deservedly won the Booker Prize in 1990. Byatt creates an entire world of letters and poetry for fictional Victorian poet Randolph Henry Ash and his clandestine love interest, Christabel LaMotte, also an accomplished poet. If you like an epistolary novel, Possession will not disappoint.
Roland Michell and Maud Bailey are two scholars electrified by the discovery of correspondence between Ash and LaMott, which initially suggests, and eventually leaves no room for doubt, that Ash and LaMott were romantically involved. As Roland and Maud sift through letters and poems, a growing attraction develops.
Although the Booker Prize committee would likely blanch at us featuring Possession in a romance newsletter, love abounds in this novel. In addition to the two romances which unfold, this novel is a love letter to language, poetry, academia (with a side of satire), and unrequited love.
I found a blog post that contains an interview with A.S. Byatt about the after-effects of commercial success. Brad Spurgeon’s opening remarks about his travails getting the interview published are as entertaining as the interview with Byatt.
Find your copy of Possession from your favorite retailer.
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