'Possession' and obsession

The first time I read "Possession" by A.S. Byatt, I was entranced. Narrated by English literature student Roland Michell, the book unravels the secret romance and mutual obsession between two Victorian poets, Randolph Ash and Christabel LaMotte, the first thread of which is discovered by Roland as a draft of a love letter from Ash to an unknown woman tucked into the jacket of one of Ash's notebooks.

Christabel is a fascinating character. Although a minor poet, she is championed by feminists such as Maude Bailey for her work, which focuses on legends and fairies, popular in Victorian times, and for her proud refusal to marry. However as Roland pieces together clues from Ash's and LaMotte's poetry, a different picture emerges. LaMotte's most celebrated poem is about the fairy Melusine, who is cursed when her curious husband spies on her as she takes her bath, and sees that she is not human as she appears, but a mermaid, with a writhing serpent's tail. Through Roland's sleuthing, we discover that LaMotte herself, fairy-like in appearance, with silver-blonde hair, pale skin and green eyes, is also not what she seems, and as Blanche, her domestic companion discovers through spying on LaMotte's letters, she has a passionate affair with Ash, who is married.

The affair is consummated when Ash travels to the Yorkshire coast for a month's expedition to study the natural history and sea creatures of the region. Since his wife Ellen is indisposed and Christabel, after being confronted by Blanche, has left their home, she joins him for the trip, wearing a ring for appearance's sake. Ash's detailed study and dissection of anemones and other sea creatures symbolizes the union of his passion for science and Christabel's fascination with mythical creatures, and is reflected at that point in their lives, in each achieving their finest poetry, influenced and inspired by one another.

Christabel conceives a child, Maia, as a result of the affair, who is raised as her niece by her sister, and thus Maude discovers that she is the direct descendant of both LaMotte and Ash. Despite Maia's poetic origins and the ash-blonde hair that she inherits from her mother, she turns out to be a very prosaic little girl who is not the least part fanciful and prefers to be known as May.