Possession Resources

For biographical and bibliographical details, essays, and information about A.S. Byatt's public speaking engagements, why not start with her homepage?

Aaron Eckhart may seem like strange casting choice for the character of Roland Mitchell, but we've gotta admit: after twenty minutes with those puppy-dog eyes, we were ready to suspend our disbelief.

Want a direct line to the essays that appear on A. S. Byatt's website? Follow this link for a great primer on the choices she made as she imagined and then wrote Possession.

You know you weren't satisfied with just the one essay on the ideas that inspired Possession.Follow this link to find a short piece that Byatt wrote for the Guardian Book Club.

This in-depth interview is huge, but don't let that scare you away. Keep an eye out for the Salman Rushdie anecdote that you won't see coming, and for lots of juicy insight into Possession's poetry and characters.

For an intriguing take on jokes, digs, humor (or the lack thereof) in Byatt's work, check out this medium-sized interview from 2009.

In Possession, Byatt draws on figures from folktales, fairy tales, myths, and legends as she creates her nineteenth-century and twentieth-century characters. How are her methods different from J. K. Rowling's? Check out her own opinions here.

Want to get a sense of how early reviewers reacted to Possession? Take a look at this solid thumbs-up from 1990.

Want to watch A.S. Byatt chat about her writing in a red room full of old-timey oil paintings? Of course you do. Make sure to watch Parts 1 and 2 to hear her talk about Possession.

Sit back and listen to this BBC recording from 1998, in which A. S. Byatt confesses that she assumes that readers will skip the poetry and Victorian-era bits as they read Possession for the first time.

We love this image of Byatt reading one of the poets who helped to shape her literary mind.

Really, this photo says it all.

Nothing says "I love you" like a pair of cold, dead eyes.

Just look at that dreamy, steamy, pretty-lady profile.

Gwyneth has Maud Bailey's icy beauty for sure, but is Aaron Eckhart too dreamy to play Possession's "meek" Roland Mitchell?