A.S. Byatt
British · Late 20th–early 21st century
British novelist and literary critic, best known for her Booker Prize-winning novel Possession: A Romance (1990).
Connection to Taylor Swift
Uncle Jerry references Byatt's Possession to illuminate the cultural associations of onyx and dark gemstones in Victorian mourning tradition, enriching the reading of Taylor's 'onyx night' imagery in Opalite.
Notable Works
- Possession: A Romance, The Biographer's Tale, Angels and Insects
Appears in the Archive
Context within the Archive
Possession
“Sleepless in the onyx night”
Uncle Jerry references A.S. Byatt's novel Possession when discussing the onyx imagery in the song. He describes how the characters in the novel go to Whitby and visit a jet shop, connecting jet (petrified black wood) and onyx to Victorian funerary jewelry and Queen Victoria's perpetual mourning after Prince Albert's death. This enriches the reading of 'onyx night' as carrying associations with mourning, darkness, and the Victorian tradition of grief jewelry.