The Bluestocking Club Presents: Possession

The Bluestocking Club returns, this time on a weeknight, with a screening of Possession.

We’ll be joined by Anna Fielding, Editor of Emerald Street, who will introduce the film and tell us why she loves A.S. Byatt’s 1990 Booker Prize-winning novel.

A feat of literary skill, Byatt's modern classic features on many a university syllabus. It tells the story of two contemporary academics who discover a previously unknown relationship between two leading Victorian poets, Randolph Henry Ash and Christabel LaMotte. Interspersed with faux-Victorian poetry in the style of Robert Browning and Christina Rossetti, Possession can be seen as a challenging read, but its narrative of detective sleuthing and academic intrigue – not to mention its romance – has established it as a firm favourite for many.

Neil LaBute's 2002 film, on the other hand, is less well-known and perhaps overshadowed by its slasher namesake. A ‘fiendishly difficult book to adapt’ (Philip French, The Guardian), the film has been met with mixed reviews and its all-star cast (Gwyneth Paltrow, Aaron Eckhart, Jeremy Northam, Jennifer Ehle, Lena Headley and Trevor Eve) is decidedly sexier than the protagonists in the book. Aaron Eckhart as Roland, in chunky knits and satchel, is less than faithful to Byatt’s original…

We invite you to join the discussion, grab a cocktail and watch the film to make up your own mind about LaBute's work. Whether you’re a die-hard fan of the book, or you just like a bit of a period drama, Possession’s send-up of the academic world (both in print and film) feels particularly pertinent in a year when everybody's obsessing about Shakespeare.