Possession : A Romance

Possession is a tour de force of wit and scholarship. Two young academics are researching the lives of - respectively - the Browningesque mid-Victorien poet Randolph Henry Ash and his contemporary, Christabel Lamotte. As they delve deeper into the turbulent lives of the two poets through their letters, journals and poems, and trace their movements from London to the north Yorkshire coast, from spiritualist séances to the fairy-haunted far west of Brittany, a bizarre and haunting counterpointing and correspondence of passions and ideas begins to emerge. An astonishingly rich and exhilarating blend of mystery, romance, comedy, Victoriana and modem university novel - it reaches its climax on a storm-tossed night in the churchyard where Ash and his secret are buried.