Word: byatt
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Possession chronicles the relationship of two British scholars who discover a mysterious connection between the Victorian poets they are studying. As the scholars race to unearth their subjects' romance, they themselves fall in love. Byatt intersperses the double romance with fabricated Victorian poetry, mock Post Modern Language Association (PMLA) papers and academic satire...
After reading a brief selection from the novel, Byatt answered questions about her newfound fame, her approach to writing and the hidden details of Possession...
...lucky I was as old as I am," said Byatt. "If I'd had a big success in my twenties it would have thrown me out.... You don't notice [fame] so much in a way, you still spend time on your own. Writing has to be done on your own, alone. You don't take to it unless you like to shut yourself in a room for eight months of a year...
...Byatt then discussed Possession. "It's the first thing I've ever written without being interrupted by children or teaching or other things." After filling notebooks with "patterns," she said, "I just sat down and wrote with everything in place except 'Mummy Possessed' and 'Swammerdown' [the two epic poems "written" by the character Randolph Ash]. The language runs through the book from start to finish like one thread--I hope...
...bits I found difficult were actually the modern dialogue--I got a bit bored with that. I felt as if 'I've been here before.' I tried to make [the modern characters] more interesting." Byatt said that after a year of thinking about the blank verse, the writing came quickly. "The more odd, the easier...