Possession

Lucy: One thing I notice about Possession is that it sort of changes shape everytime I read it. The first couple of times it was Roland and Maude and the modern era that stood out for me; another time it was Christobel and Randolph, and what really caught me was their correspondence. Another time it was Sabine's journal, and I wondered how I had noticed it so little on my previous readings, and the fourth time it was Randolph's wife's journal that really caught me.

Ashley: I think the same thing: Possession does change with each reading. In my own case, I noticed Maude and Roland, and nothing else, the first time through, in part because I am a sucker for romances, and also because there were just so many layers to the whole thing, and I had to read it for a class and write a paper. So I didn't care about the several other story lines.

On the cover of my edition is the painting, "The Beguiling Of Merlin," by Edward Burke Jones. I've always thought it is an interesting choice to represent the story. The woman in the painting is Nimue, who enchanted Merlin. I don't know very much about Arthurian legend. I suppose what matters, so far as concerns the novel, is that the woman is holding the book, and the novel is about the various meanings and ramifications of ownership.