Possession: A Romance by A.S. Byatt

This book is a remarkable and complex text. A mystery of sorts, the story of the discovery of a love affair between two fictional, Victorian poets unfolds against the love affair of two modern scholars. It took me close to five months to finish (obviously, I've been reading other things)--and while I certainly found it compelling, it was strangely hard to get into at places. Byatt has constructed all sorts of texts for this novel: letters, journals, poems--and while I love the feel of the paper chase and am dazzled by the wide array of background material to the text, at times the format hinders the flow of the story. Overall well worth reading. Booker winner, 1990.