看Possession的中文版小說，斷斷續(xù)續(xù)的看了一半，因為晦澀的詩詞而不得不停頓，無意中發(fā)現(xiàn)電影版，便迫不及待的拿來欣賞

其實就是一段婚外戀，難道因為它是真愛所以就美好，就值得被同情？
對妻子的愛是責任，對情人的愛是激情，統(tǒng)統(tǒng)冠以愛的名義。

愛太泛濫。

我最愛不起的男人就是對這妻子說我不會和你離婚的，你是我的的責任，我會照顧你一生，然后轉頭對著情人說，我跟我老婆沒有愛情，就只有親情，我的心都在你身上，但是我不能拋棄一路甘苦與共的糟糠之妻。說穿了這種男人就是一個自私鬼，兩手都要抓還要向世界要同情。

只是不明白為什么女人都容易沉浸在自己編織的美好里，自欺欺人的去相信自己是那個獨一無二的存在，還傻傻的為男人尋找各種借口。

想要兩全的終不能兩全，憂傷帶出來的感動和美好倒是能賺足一大把的眼淚。

看完之后心里很難過，很遺憾。魯迅先生曾經(jīng)說過：悲劇將人生的有價值的東西毀滅給人看，喜劇將那無價值的撕破給人看。也許是我太感性了吧，不過我不能否認這樣的結局很完美。喜歡片子穿插的基調(diào)——優(yōu)雅的男女，內(nèi)斂的感情，美麗的英格蘭田野，一百多年前的蒸汽火車，橙色光線下柔和的臉龐，溫婉而安然的笑容。
喜愛這部片子的朋友，也推薦你看朗讀者（THE READER）

    Possession: a romance is often considered as a complex suspense novel regarding history of literature and love. The story starts with a twentieth century dead-in-wood scholar Roland who spends all his time studying a poet Ash from the nineteenth century. It appears at the beginning of the novel that this book focuses on the position of males, particularly Roland and Ash, in different social background. However, new highlights are brought into the novel when Roland discovered the love letters between Ash and Christabel, another poet at that time. The author portrays Christabel and Maud Bailey, tow ladies from different times who change to fight for their freedom to discuss the roles of women through out the history, and how the talent and freedom of women was suppressed.

       Both Christabel and Maud are described in a somehow negative manner when they first appeared in the story. Roland describes the photo of Christabel as “no clear impression of anyone in particular; it was generic Victorian lady, specific shy poetess” (Byatt 44) Similarly, Maud is described as a very ordinary figure. “At first he did not identify Maud Bailey, and he himself was not in any way remarkable” (44). Thus, it can be clearly seen that both Christable and Maud were not considered stunning based on how they looked. Roland even has the impression that Maud “smelled of something ferny and sharp. Roland didn’t like her voice” (44). This shows that most people in the society didn’t appreciate women’s beauty at first sight.

     Byatt makes lots of hints and metaphor regarding the fact that people didn’t realize the talent and importance of women. Maud Bailey’s hair is blonde and metallic, a gold that might have existed before the discovery of precious metal: As she unbinds her mane "Roland saw the light rush towards it and glitter on it, the whirling mass, and Maud inside it saw a sea of gold lines, waving" (296). This represents Maud’s stunning beauty and talent; however, She wears it covered with a scarf, symbolic of repressed Victorian sexuality. Although Christabel’s hair color (like Maud’s hair and the scintillating waters of the fountain) is metamorphic in hue, we have seen that it contains pale loops of silver-gold (301). Gold – the color of charm, confidence, and power linked two women together in reflecting an essential element of their feminine nature—fertility, confident and attracting.
“Mine the bright earth
Mine the corn
Mine the gold throne
To which you’re born
Lie in my lap
Tumbled with flowers”
This is the song of the gold lady who wears a "queenly crown of gold, a filigree turret of lambent sunny gleams and glistering wires above crisping gold curls as heavy with riches as the golden fleece itself" (169). Based upon these parallels, we can conclude that in Possession, women’s wealth — their power and energy — lies in their hair. Even though Christabel’s and Maud’s beauty and power is not recognized, their natural female characters still exist and shine just like the sparkling gold lady.

The connection between Maud and Christabel serves also to connect the past to the present, the Victorian to the Post-modern. Feminism is an important aspect in each time period of the novel. Maud is a modern feminist, attempting to balance her identity as a woman with her identity as an academic scholar, and Christabel is trying to overcome her femininity by living as a recluse with another woman before she met R. H. Ash. Similarly, Maud is a withdrawn person, wary of men, and distrustful. Christabel is doing what many women of her time were doing, that is, struggling for masculine freedom in a world that was very limited for a woman. Maud is doing what many women today are attempting to do, that is, trying to reconcile and accept her femininity in an academic, typically male, environment. Byatt plays up this feminist view of literature and society by choosing to base Christabel's poetry on the strongly feminist poetry. She and Maud are living the liberated version – living on their own, being away from the secular society. These all indicate the ways that women fight against the social pressures and choose their own liberate styles to live.

          Not surprisingly, the light that gold emits cannot be covered up. Eventually, the free soul broke out and the courage pursuing liberty and love beat the fear of being different from others. Christabel and Maud both changed, as they could not reserve their true feelings anymore. In Victorian tradition, it was the man who 'owned' the woman, his wife. Yet in this modern Victorian work, that becomes twisted. When Ash attempts to 'claim' Christabel on page 308 by holding her and making love to her, the act of possession is switched around. He is trying figuratively to grasp her, and 'she was liquid moving through his grasping fingers, as though she was waves of the sea rising all round him.' He tries to take her all in, to know her, and her womanhood eludes him, as personality always will. Byatt's message seems to be that a personality cannot be taken or possessed by someone else, that individuality always remains, even in Victorian situations of female oppression and domination by males. The same love story that defines Christabel and Ash in the 1860's also describes Roland and Maud in the 1980's. Roland gradually changed his impression about Maud and found her extremely charming as a serious scholar and a beautiful independent woman. As two hearts got closer and closer, Maud finally chose to be her true self. She told Roland about her relationship with Fergus, and the reason why she reserved beauty. Then she was convinced to uncover her hair. “The segments of the plaits were like streaked and polished oval stones, celandine yellow, straw-yellow, silvery yellow, glossy with constricted life. Roland was moved—not exactly with desire, but with an obscure emotion that was partly pity, for the rigorous constriction all that mass had undergone, to be so structured into repeating patterns. If he closed his eyes and squinted, the head against the sea was crowned with knobby horns.” (291) This was how Roland felt when he saw Maud’s hair. The incomparable stunning beauty shocked Roland. “Life is so short,” said Roland. “It has a right to breathe.”(291) The courage and desire for love and freedom made them decide to give their love the right to breathe.

          Through the two love stories, sexuality is also discussed. On page 6, there is a passage on R.H. Ash's poem representing Proserpina, an ideal Greek woman, as 'gold-skinned in the gloom..grain golden… bound with golden links.' This is an example of idealized fertility and sexuality in Victorian women. It represents sexuality as something that can be conquered and possessed, like gold or grain. The suppression of sexuality in the Victorian era is a theme throughout the book, in both time periods, as is the sexual freedom that both couples eventually reach. The sexuality in Victorian society can be traced in Possession.

        Byatt successfully displays the change of the roles of women through out the history by shifting from the 1860's to the present. The romances are so similar that it is often difficult to tell which couple Byatt is writing about in any given situation. The way this romantic narrative fits both couples and time periods seems to suggest that not so much has changed, and romance from one time to another is not so different as we thought. The characters mix the old and the new; Maud wears a brooch once belonging to Christabel, and another Ash scholar, Mortimer Cropper, carries Ash's pocket watch. In the end of the novel, the last love letter written by Christabel enables Maud to finally enjoy the value of love in the present, and give her trust to Roland. The cyclical time frame of the novel provides an interesting contrast to the normal, stifling, linear time frame of typical literature and everyday life.

         Possession, a novel with lots of feminism color, does a good job in portraying two female characters from different times to call for the respect and attention for women from the society. Christabel and Maud are two respectable females who set an example for women to be who they want to be and gain respect and love they deserve.

倫敦的一位文學研究助理羅蘭從倫敦圖書館偶然發(fā)現(xiàn)一本古書中的幾頁手稿，是維多利亞時期大詩人艾許未完成的書信，寫給某位不知名的女士，出于直覺，他開始查閱歷史文件秘密開始調(diào)查，其過程中遇到專門研究女詩人蘭蒙特的女博士莫德，兩個人在通過各種舊日日記詩稿的研究，一點點揭露出艾許與蘭蒙特之間不為人知的秘密感情，甚至沿路追溯兩個詩人當年唯一一次蜜月般浪漫的約克郡之旅，兩個對愛情避之不及的現(xiàn)代人的感情也慢慢開出花蕾。

  On account of lacking enough time, I meant to watch this film instead of the original work. But now I determine to appreciate this book,since I believe the plot will be complete and meaty that engages me more.
  In the typical English romance, for me what the two protagnists talked with each other sounds like a song lingering on my ears.

    they say that women change
  'Tis so,
  but you are ever-constant in your changefulness
  like that still thread from the falling river,
  one from source to last embrace in the still pool
  and ever renewed,
  and ever moving on
  from first to last,
  a myriad of water droped
  and you-
  i love you for it-
  are the force that moves that holds the form

  These things are there. The garden and the tree
  The serpent and its root, the fruit of gold
  The woman in the shadow of the boughs
  The running water and the grassy space.
  They are and were there. At the old world' rim,
  In the Hesperidean grove, the fruit
  Glowed golden on eternal boughs, and there
  The dragon Ladon crisped his jewelled crest
  Scraped a gold claw and sharped a silver tooth
  And dozed and waited through eternity
  Until the tricksy hero Herakles
  Came to his depossession and the theft.
 
   Ash must be a fabulous poet who wrote such spectaculous words that really moved me. I can understand the conflict in Belly's heart. On the one hand, she loved the man who was always resisting to
admit his feeling, and longed for develop further relationship with him. On the other hand, she was scared. She was reminded of the relationship and the pathetic ending of Ash's true love, all her own love affairs and others. All love turns out to be ashes of time.
  
Even though a man's flame burns up his lover, even he makes her breath-taking, when they are confronted with the fierce reality, they have to choose to sacrifice or make a compromise.

      電影版刪減了很多人物和內(nèi)容，使情節(jié)更為緊湊，但也失去了原著緩慢推進的自然感和沉穩(wěn)的氣質(zhì)。Roland從英國人變成了美國人，原著里謹小慎微，略帶些壓抑的英國氣質(zhì)大概也隨國籍的改變而失去了吧，甚至原著中的貝雅特里斯變成來了一位年輕女人，還暗暗喜歡Roland；Roland的前女友這個角色也沒有出現(xiàn)，其實我覺得前女友這個角色還是比較重要的，書的最后Roland感受到了一種解放，不再為這些書信，為解密而執(zhí)著，他找到了自己，與女友在一起的壓抑貫穿始終，最后徹底地和她分手也算是構成徹底解脫的一個元素。在電影版中Maud仿佛一開始就很友好，很快地就和Roland精誠合作，兩人也很快生出情愫，當然由于省略了很多人物和情節(jié)以及電影要照顧故事性的問題，Maud和Roland之間喪失了原著中兩顆心慢慢靠近的感覺，也喪失了那種不似典型的愛情，但互相深度了解，同情對方的感覺。
    至于Ash和Lamotte這條線，也似乎太發(fā)展得太熱烈太快了一些，兩人之間以及與他人之間的沖突不似原著中那么暗流涌動。
     除去Roland（他的整體氣質(zhì)已經(jīng)改變了），我覺得再選角上最大的敗筆是飾演Lamotte的演員，原著里Lamotte是一個及其纖細，皮膚蒼白，擁有極淡色金發(fā)的女人，電影版的演員不僅在外形上和原著毫無相似之處，在氣質(zhì)上更是不能比擬，Lamotte對這段感情應該是掙扎，畏懼，躲避的，因為她珍視自己的孤獨，珍視自己女性的獨立性，同樣也是高傲，冷淡，高深的，在電影版里我只覺得Lamotte是個很平庸的女性，兩人有點像偷情。
    Gwyneth Paltrow的外形很適合演Maud，不過電影版應該已經(jīng)拋棄了原著中Maud的冷漠，高傲，疏遠，懷疑的特質(zhì)了吧。電影開頭出現(xiàn)的Cropper倒是挺符合我想象中的模樣，擁有極大的自我優(yōu)越感，可惜戲份極少。
      在看電影前，我覺得“無可救藥愛上你”這個名字太俗，也太淺，但是看完電影后我覺得電影也確實沒有表現(xiàn)出原著“占有”的多層含義，作為一部有緊湊的劇情，迷人的主角，愛情的消遣電影，叫這個名確實挺合適。
   

去年十月讀的小說，中文譯本?？梢韵胍娪⑽脑鎽摵懿诲e，畢竟僅憑作者對維多利亞時期詩歌的摹寫，就應該可以打個高分了?？上е形淖g本只是差強人意而已。我覺得譯本最有損原著的地方，在于用詞上的不協(xié)調(diào)和不謹慎，尤其在詩歌翻譯上，使得全書有情節(jié)，而無意境。我自己沒有做這本書的翻譯，所以也不好做太多批評。翻譯中的艱難，有時是讀者難以想象的。尤其在詩歌體裁上。

說起來，書還是一部好書。僅情節(jié)一條，就可以給個高分。當代小說著眼學術研究的，并不多。對學術研究，尤其是文學研究中的種種弊端，了解的人就并不多見，能如此隱晦、又如此辛辣地予以諷刺的文學作品，就更不多見。原書作者本人大約在此文學研究的圈子里浸濡良久，有些篇章文字可以見得其不吐不快的心情。在諷刺之外，作者以女性的角度，對感情和性別關系，無論是當下的、或是古典的，予以了深刻剖析。對比了古典世界的女性姐妹情誼（sisterhood）與現(xiàn)代女性的性向的多重選擇，探討了古典家庭倫理道德與現(xiàn)代情感選擇的自由與受縛。從筆法上看，時空轉換自然而不晦澀，人物關系復雜卻很有條理。字里行間彌漫著十九世紀英式古典風范。難怪此書一出，便多有好評。

再來看這部電影，就連差強人意也算不上了。導演和編劇盡力保留了全書敘述的主干，卻丟掉了全書的靈魂。比如，原著利用詩歌和信件做的敘述視角轉換，可以在敘事的同時，強調(diào)情感上的古今大同。這一點其實完全可以以電影手法全面表現(xiàn)，然而實際的效果實在讓人失望。讓人不由覺得，導演自己本身并沒有讀透原著。原書的人文精神和對情感、性別關系的討論在影片里蕩然無存。甚至影片還設計了主人公對偷盜行為的津津樂道，而這正是原書作者想極力糾正的——羅蘭在圖書館偷出了那封信的草稿并不假，然而之后，羅蘭和莫德的每一步研究和探索，都是遵從學術規(guī)范的，作者設計的兩組、甚至三組不同研究人群，正是對當下學術研究制度中不可避免的自私與膚淺的嘲笑與抨擊，而到了影片這里，這反倒成了一種樂趣。實在讓人不知可以說什么。另外，原書中所涉及的不同情形下，人與人之間的疏離與親密之間的張力，在影片中也全無體會。一本深入淺出的好書，最終被拍成了兩段幾乎沒有交集的、老套的愛情故事。

若是不看原著，僅看電影。應該可以歸到諸如《真愛至上》一類的愛情小品。如此看來，應該打個尚可的分數(shù)。影片色彩明快，節(jié)奏也并不拖沓。兩位女演員的表演，尤其是飾演克里斯貝的Jennifer Ehle，十分可圈可點。格溫妮絲一貫的英式風范和知性自然不必提，而詹妮弗簡直是個奇跡，可以在這樣的劇本中，準確地再現(xiàn)和表達了克里斯貝剛柔兼濟的人物性格?？上Э死锼关惖拿芘c躊躇無法顯現(xiàn)，這不是演員的錯，是導演和編劇的過失?？上Я诉@兩個好演員。給這部電影三顆星，完全在詹妮弗身上。