might be interested in the piece I've just done for Norman Geras's blog here:

Normblog

Emma

<Added>

Hm. So italics don't work in headings, then! Ah well...

I absolutely adore Possession. I first read it about 15 years ago, just after it won The Booker, and then read it again (twice) when doing my MA. It is on my list of all time favourites and I have no doubt I will be reading it several times more.

I've read a lot of her other novels, too and have always enjoyed them. She can put such a complicated structure together so incredibly well. Have you read Babel Tower? That has a sort of parallel narrative in that there's a book within a book.

Good article, Emma.

No, I've only read Angels and Insects. But parallel narratives are My Thing - must look at Babel Tower. Her criticism is very good too - the writer and the critic really integrated. (And she's a Georgette Heyer fan, which is always a point in anyone's favour, in my book...)

Emma

I'm now trying to think of books with parallel narratives.

'The end of Mr Y' by Scarlett Thomas, which I've just read, will interest you, Emma. It's sort of about parallel realities, language and science. Hard to say what it's about, actually, but if you like books that give your brain a workout you'll enjoy it.

Also Diane Setterfield's 'The Thirteenth Tale' has a past and a present narrative and the two are skillfully woven together. And it starts with a letter. Then there's David Mitchell's 'Cloud Atlas', Kate Atkinson's 'Behind the Scenes' and John Banville's 'The Sea.'

Actually, now I think about it, it must be either a reasonably popular structure in lit fic or something I am drawn to reading!

I had a Georgette Heyer phase when I was a teenager. For some reason I was also into Thomas Hardy and Russian fiction at the same time: a strange mixture indeed. I still have a fondness for GH although it's some time since I read any of her novels.

Yes, parallel narratives rock! But it's rare to find one where the times and the dramatis personae are as separate as they are in Possession, and it makes it much harder to link the two. I've got 500-odd years between the two strands of A Secret Alchemy, and it's been, shall we say, a challenge. The next novel takes place in a week. In London.

Emma

It's a long long time since I read possession, and I loved it then. i recall getting quite bitter when there were only a few pages left - wanted it to go on and on. But, if it's not too churlish to niggle at such a fine book, I did wish she'd asked a poet to write the poetry. Christina Rossetti and Elizabeth Barrett Browning are superb at marrying craft and content, and I felt it read as amateur doggerel in comparison. Couldn't quite believe all these academics would be dedicating their lives to it. That probably is pretty churlish, because the rest was bliss.

Apparently she did get a poet to write the poetry, or at least help, though I can't remember which poet it was. I thought it did the job, but 19th century poetry isn't my area of expertise or taste, so I guess it didn't bother me.

Having said that, I'd never read a word of Browning before I read Possession, and it sent me to him. The dramatic monologues are WONDERFUL!!!!!

Emma

How interesting. I wonder who she got to help out... Wendy Cope?

Yes, Browning's Dramatic Monologues are outstanding aren't they? Andrea del Sarto is one of my favourite poems. And Fra Lippo Lippi. have you read Christina rossetti? Her work's very much how I imagined the poetess in Possession would write, which was why what was quoted disappointed.

I think there's as much Dickinson as Rosetti in Christabel's poetry - perhaps - all those - well - dashes - I'm afraid I can't remember who ASB used. As I recall it was a name I just about knew, but not a big one, if you know what I mean.

Emma

I though A S Byatt wrote the poetry sections herself. I remember reading/hearing about it somewhere: that originally she'd intended using existing poetry, but for all sorts of complex artistic and legal reasons that wasn't possible. So she wrote it herself, after she'd written most of the actual novel.

Not that it was existing poetry - it's clearly written for the book (tho' apparently she wrote some of the criticism in the book first, and then wrote the poetry to match) - but that she did get help from a pro poet to do it.

Emma

Re The End of Mr Y - I thought this was brilliant for the first half. I loved all the physics and science and logic. But it really fell down for me towards the final third. And the mice thing - I mean, just where was that coming from... we were suddenly linked into an animal rights thread. It just didn't fit. And the final chapters and the scene with the parallel universe and the lovers in the garden - well, excuse me but pass the sick bag please.

Sorry, but this book had a big effect on me and not for the best... I suppose I feel that the author is a very intelligent person who had a great premise and lost control of it somewhere along the line.

S

Yes, I thought the ending was a let down too. Once she got to the cottage it all sort of went downhill, and I must admit I speed read the last few chapters. But I really liked the way it got me thinking about stuff so overall I enjoyed it - and I like novels that take a risk even when they don't always succeed entirely.

The End of Mr Y is on the Prince Maurice longlist, so I'm avoiding it on principle at the moment, but it does sound very interesting.

I've just read Tobias Hill's The Love of Stones which is another time-jumping parallel narrative. Beautifully written. Next up Barry Unsworth and Caryl Phillips

Emma