A.S. Byatt's novel Possession (which won the Booker Prize in 1990) finally made it off the "to be read" pile recently ... and as usual with books that have languished there for a long time, I regret not having read it sooner. This is a brilliantly-crafted story, filled to the brim with literary allusions, poetical mysteries, trenchant critiques of academic culture, and a long-ago romance - an all-too-human romance - which finds an unlikely parallel in the present day.
Notwithstanding the fact that Possession is bookended by two acts which are morally reprehensible to say the least (my views on library theft are fairly well known, and while I won't mention the other act and spoil the plot for anyone, suffice it to see it's not very pleasant), I enjoyed this book and had much trouble putting it down. Highly recommended.
