Possession by A.S. Byatt

Length: 555 pages
Time to read: about two weeks- it was for a literature class

This novel is the really original story of modern-day scholars investigating the lives of two Victorian poets. Roland, a scholar of the poet R.H. Ash, discovers drafts of a passionate letter, scandalous since everyone thought Ash was happily married. He works with Maud, who studies the poet Christabel LaMotte, to establish a link between the poets. They find more letters, and the story takes off as they try to figure out what happens.
The novel, which is a combination of letters, poetry, biography and regular narrative, bills itself as a romance but it's more classical-quest than modern, and really great for it. It's long and the beginning takes awhile to get going, but the end picks up. It reminded me a tiny bit of the DaVinci Code, only it's much more intelligent and it has (gasp!) character development. If you like poetry, you'll love Possession.