Possession is a unique combination of literary techniques in which two separate but related stories are told simultaneously. The Victorian story is told through a variety of Victorian narrative techniques, while the modern story resembles the ever-popular adventure formula.

The Victorian story is told primarily through the letters, journals, and literary works of the characters, with occasional omniscient narration. Richard Jenkyns, reviewing the novel for the Times Literary Supplement, particularly praised Byatt's writing of the letters and poems. The epistolary style works well to characterize the lovers and to chronicle the beginning, growth, and end of their relationship.

In subtitling the work "A Romance," Byatt was referring not only to the love stories but to the adventure embarked on by Roland and Maud, an adventure which takes them around England and to France as they follow clues. Unlike the other modern characters, who have a variety of reasons...