Possession Chapter One

Characters Roland Michell Randolph Henry Ash Blackadder Cropper Crabb Robinson

Setting London Library: Roland’s favorite place. Shabby but civilised, alive with history but inhabited also by living poets. In the morning, one day in september 1986

Roland Michell studies R.H. Ash. The Garden of Prosperina Of Randolph Henry Ash Complete Correspondence Of Randolph Henry Ash At London Library he finds Ahs’s own copy of Vico’s Principj di Scienza Nuova

The relevant passage in Vico. “new science”. Historical fact in the poetic metaphors of myth and legend; Vico’s Prosperine was the corn, the origin of commerce and community. Randolph Henry Ash’s Prosperine Victorian reflection of religious doubt a meditation on the myths of Resurrection.

Most important discovery Under page 300 there were two letters in Ash’s flowing hand.No year. Both began “Dear Madam”, and both were unsigned. Rolland Michell asks himself a lot of questions to try to identify the interlocutor