Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Perhaps it's a gender thing. Some books seem to appeal to women, but not to men. Eg, I've never heard a man say that he enjoyed Diana Gabaldon's "Outlander" series, but lots of girls seem to love it.
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Yes and no... I don't see much similarity between the 'Outlander' series and Byatt's 'Possession' except in a very superficial sense. Outlander is a romantic, historical action-adventure, where 'Possession' is a carefully crafted and styled literary novel. Sort of like the difference between 'Pirates of the Caribbean' and an art-house film. I like both, but not for the same reasons.
Byatt do tend to have women and women's condition's as a strong theme, and I think this may make her work more accessible to women than men. This book though, is more of a hero-journey tale, with Roland as the primary protagonist. Women play a large role, but it's not their story. Maud do go through a transformation, but one that is initiated by Roland, while his own comes from within himself.
So this is really a story about a man. But.... the water-fairy, Melusine, is a transsexual creature - where does that leave the combined Roland-Maud... They are both impotent/frozen humans who become whole via each other. At the outset, you shouldn't think either had the power to move the other.
Byatt states in the preface that this book is written as a 'romance', and it has elements of both the 'high romance' of medieval times, as well as 'low romance' (as Tolkien defined it) of the 19th century (not quite as in modern 'romance novel'). There's also strong folklore/fairytale elements, too, especially in the tale of the modern couple of Roland and Maud (which incidentally have 'high romance' style, non-modern, names). Roland, for example, is almost literally a mole; he has dark sleek hair, he lives underground and at the library he digs out and un-earth texts form the depths of the stacks. He even has an underground work office - in Hell, or at least the 'nether regions'. His demonic master, Professor ?? is an atheist(I think?) and described as fire-and-brimstone preacher. Maud is a water creature. Always surrounded by cool green and white, glass and water. Like Melusine, but without power. She's hiding behind a frozen exterior like a fairy-tale heroine, always slipping away like water.
And so on. I could go on
I've read the book three times, but it's 8-9 years since last time, and it's been interesting to think about it again. I've learned a great deal a since then about stories and analysis and interpretation.