Caught in the hall of mirrors: The progressive narrative techniques of A. S. Byatt

This paper focuses on A. S. Byatt's narrative techniques as displayed in her three novels, The Virgin in the Garden, Still Life, and Possession. Through this study it will be revealed how with increasing stylistic complexity, A. S. Byatt's novels become paradoxically easier to read and understand. This study will focus on one aspect in particular of Byatt's style--her use of the narrative voice. Through a close examination of how the author uses voice in these three novels, one comes to the understanding that the final novel, Possession is a culmination of all that Byatt has learned from The Virgin in the Garden and Still Life. In this last major novel the author's use of voice is at its most complex and most subtle. Through this stylistic achievement Byatt's reader is at once delighted by the novel, and also necessary to the novel, as the completion of Possession depends heavily upon an active and muscular reader.