ABSTRACT
In Possession, the recent novel by A. S. Byatt, a young scholar stumbles on the draft of a letter written by the fictional poet Randolph Henry Ash to an unidentified woman. Barely able to control his excitement, he removes the document (whether one calls it borrowing or stealing is another matter) from between the leaves of a book, where its author had apparently placed it, forgotten and until now unknown. This discovery leads him (and a colleague whom he enlists) on a quest to find more evidence; and once other documents (correspondence between Ash and another fictional poet, Christabel LaMotte) are discovered, they are able to reinterpret not only other known documentary evidence (such as letters, journals, and newspaper reports), but also most of the major works of the two poets. 1 Although the novel deals with "fictional" characters, historical events, and criticism, the premise of the enquiry is applicable to "non-fictional" research and writing. 2 Genuine, historical discoveries seldom lead to such astonishing and enlightening revelations, but 474each fragment of documentary evidence tests and either confirms or challenges other documents.
