Most Popular Books by Penelope Fitzgerald

A NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER in Fiction. Booker Prize–winning novelist Fitzgerald''s crowning literary work centers on the 18th-century German poet and philosopher Novalis and his love for the simple Sophie. The Blue Flower is set in the age of Goethe among the small towns and great universities of 18th-century Germany. It tells the true story of Friedrich von Hardenberg, a passionate, impetuous student of philosophy who will later gain fame as the romantic poet Novalis. Fritz seeks his father''s permission to wed his "heart''s heart," his "spirit''s guide"—a plain, simple child named Sophievon Kühn. It is an attachment that shocks his family and friends. Their brilliant young Fritz, betrothed to a twelve-year-old dullard? How can this be? Their rationality of love, the transfiguration of the commonplace, the clarity of purpose that comes with knowing one''s own fate— these are the themes of this beguiling novel, themes treated with a mix of wit, grace, and mischievous humor. “An extraordinary imagining . . . an original masterpiece.”—Financial Times "An astonishing book...Fitzgerald''s greatest triumph."—New York Times Book Review

Man Booker Prize Finalist: This "marvelous novel" about an abandoned husband, set in Moscow a century ago, is "bristling with wry comedy" ( Newsday). March 1913. Moscow is stirring herself to meet the beginning of spring. English painter Frank Reid returns from work one night to find that his wife has gone away; no one knows where or why, or whether she''ll ever come back. All Frank knows for sure is that he is now alone and must find someone to care for his three young children. Into Frank''s life comes Lisa Ivanovna, a quiet, calming beauty from the country, untroubled to the point of seeming simple. But is she? And why has Frank''s bookkeeper, Selwyn Crane, gone to such lengths to bring these two together? From a winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, this novel, with a new introduction by Andrew Miller, author of Pure, is filled with "writing so precise and lilting it can make you shiver" ( Los Angeles Times). "Fitzgerald was the author of several slim, perfect novels. The Blue Flower and The Beginning of Spring both had me abuzz for days the first time I read them. She was curiously perfect." —Teju Cole, author of Open City

After publishing her first novel in 1977 at the age of sixty-one, Penelope Fitzgerald (1916-2000) went on to become one of the most remarkable and highly acclaimed English writers of the last century. Each of the three novels gathered here vividly and unforgettably conjures up an entire world. The Booker Prize-winning novel Offshore limns the marginal existence of an eccentric assortment of barge dwellers on the Thames in the early 1960s, a group of misfits who are drawn to life on the muddy river in exile from the world of the landlocked. Human Voices takes us behind the scenes at the BBC during World War II, as world-weary directors and nubile young assistants attempt to save Britain’s heritage and keep Britons calm in the face of a feared German invasion. In The Beginning of Spring, a struggling English printer living in Moscow in 1913 is abandoned by his wife and left alone to care for his three young children in the face of the impending revolution. Fitzgerald is a genius of the relevant detail and the deftly sketched context, and these narrative gems are marvels of compassion, wit, and piercing insight.

With the death of Penelope Fitzgerald this year, the literary world lost one of its finest, most original, and most beloved authors. Fitzgerald began her writing career at age sixty and wrote eight remarkable novels in rapid succession over the next twenty years. Completed just before her death, THE MEANS OF ESCAPE is Fitzgerald''s first new book since the best-selling THE BLUE FLOWER. Never before have her short stories been collected in book form, and none of them has ever appeared in the United States. THE MEANS OF ESCAPE showcases this incomparable author at her most intelligent, her funniest, her best. Like her novels, these brilliant stories are miniature studies of the endless absurdity of human behavior. Concise, comic, biting, and mischievous, they are vintage Fitzgerald. Roaming the globe and the ages, the stories travel from England to France to New Zealand and from today to the seventeenth century. Uniting them is a universal theme: the shifting balance between those who are in positions of power--by wealth, status, or class--and those who, deceptively, are not. THE MEANS OF ESCAPE memorializes a life and a writer guided by a generous but unwavering moral gaze.

Penelope Fitzgerald, who died in 2000, emerged late in life as one of the most remarkable English writers of the last century. She began her writing career in 1975 at the age of fifty-nine, and over the next two decades she published three biographies, nine novels, and a collection of short stories. Now three of her acclaimed novels are gathered here in one volume. The Bookshop is a postwar tragicomedy of manners, set in an isolated seaside town where an enterprising woman opens a bookstore only to find it beset by poltergeists, weather, and hostile townsfolk. The Gate of Angels is an Edwardian romance within a novel of ideas: a young doctor devoted to science and to his all-male Cambridge college finds his life and views disrupted by a nurse named Daisy. The Blue Flower, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award, revitalizes historical drama through the story of Novalis, an eighteenth-century German romantic poet and visionary genius, and his unlikely love affair with a simple child-woman. These three novels all display Fitzgerald’s characteristic wit, intellectual breadth, and narrative brilliance, applied to an array of traditional forms into which she breathed new life.

A posthumous collection of literary essays explores the "afterlife" of the writing community, defined as a legacy experienced in the minds and hearts of their readers; in a volume that includes introductions to major works of literature, reviews of fellow authors, and explorations of lesser-known writers. From the late novelist and biographer Penelope Fitzgerald, a collection of essays-almost all of them unknown to her countless American admirers-on books, travel, and her own life and work. A good book, wrote John Milton, is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life. In this generous posthumous collection of her literary essays and reviews, Penelope Fitzgerald celebrates the life beyond life of dozens of master-spirits--their afterlife not only in the pages of their works but in the minds of their readers, critics, and biographers. Here are Fitzgerald''s brilliant introductions to the classics--Jane Austen''s Emma, George Eliot''s Middlemarch, the works of Mrs. Oliphant--as well as considerations of recent novels by Barbara Pym, Carol Shields, Roddy Doyle, and Amy Tan. Here too are reviews of several late-twentieth-century literary biographies, including Richard Holmes''s Coleridge, A. N. Wilson''s C. S. Lewis, and Martin Stannard''s Evelyn Waugh-reviews that together form a memorable criticism both of life and the art of life-writing.

This “classically plotted British mystery” by the Booker Prize-winning author of The Blue Flower is “leavened by a wicked sense of rapier-like humor” (The New York Times Book Review). In The Golden Child, Penelope FitzGerald combines a deft comedy of manners with a tense mystery set in London''s most refined institution: the Museum. When the glittering treasure of ancient Garamantia—the Golden Child—is delivered, the Museum is guaranteed an exhibition as popular as King Tut. But soon a web of intrigue tightens around the Museum’s personnel, especially the hapless junior officer Waring Smith. Then, while prowling the halls one night, Waring is nearly strangled. Two suspicious deaths ensue. And as a murderous conspiracy is traced all the way to the Kremlin, only the cryptic hieroglyphics of the Garamantes can bring an end to the mayhem. Along the way, everyone from art critics to the police and “a few nicely Wodehousian oddballs” fall under Fitzgerald’s mercilessly satirical eye (Kirkus).

“A delectable comedy of manners” set in 1950s Florence, by the Man Booker Prize–winning author of The Bookshop (The Boston Globe). It’s 1955, and Italy is still struggling a decade after the end of World War II. So are the Ridolfis, a Florentine family of long and fading noble lineage. Like their decrepit villa, they’ve seen better days. Only eighteen-year-old Chiara shows anything like vitality—however impulsive and perilously naïve. Chiara has set her heart and her future on Salvatore Rossi, a brilliant, penniless young doctor and bull-headed son of a Communist, who has erased both politics and romance from his list of priorities. With her plans stymied, Chiara calls on her resourceful and meddlesome British girlfriend, Barney, to help make an impossible match. Now, out of good intentions and the most innocent of instincts, two guileless friends are going to make a series of astonishingly wrong moves in the name of love. From a winner of multiple major literary awards who was called “the best English novelist of her time” by Julian Barnes, Innocence is a novel “not just about Italians in love but of living and loving for all humans” (The Times). “As intoxicating as a shot of aged brandy.” —The Washington Post

Fitzgerald writes a story about the formidable proprietress of "Freddie''s, " the Temple Stage School, which provides child actors for London''s West End theaters, a promising child actor and his rival, and a man with wicked plans to rescue Freddie''s from insolvency.

This volume contains a collection of reviews and essays by Penelope Fitzgerald. Contents include early "TLS" reviews, pieces from her own short-lived arts magazine, "The World Review", and articles from the "Spectator", the "New York Review of Books" and the "London Review of Books".

A fascinating collection of letters from the great English novelist – and prolific correspondent – Penelope Fitzgerald

Here is a biography whose eccentric genius perfectly matches that of its subjects. Penelope Fitzgerald tells the lives of four extraordinary Englishmen–her father and his brothers–with style and wit. Here is the story of a deeply fascinating family mind, shared by four brothers and passed along to their remarkable biographer.

Penelope Fitzgerald, the Booker Prize-winning author of ‘Offshore’ and ‘The Blue Flower’, turns her attention to the remarkable life of the Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones.

Florence Green erwirbt in Hardborough, einem verschlafenen Dorf an der Küste Ostenglands, das Old House als zukünftiges Domizil für ihre Buchhandlung. Dass das Gebäude anscheinend von einem Poltergeist besessen und bis auf die Grundmauern feucht ist, bringt sie von ihrem Vorhaben ebensowenig ab wie die Tatsache, dass sie von finanziellen Dingen keine Ahnung hat. Voller Schwung stürzt sie sich in die Vorbereitungen und stattet ihre Buchhandlung liebevoll aus. Die Einwohner des kleinen Städtchens begegnen dem Unternehmen zunächst mit Skepsis, bald stellen sich jedoch erste Stammkunden ein. Als Florence Green aber dann ein gerade erschienenes Buch eines bis dahin unbekannten Autors, Vladimir Nabokov, verkauft, ist die Aufregung groß und weitet sich zu einem Skandal aus ...

»Was ich gesucht, habe ich gefunden, / Was ich fand, das fand auch mich. « Friedrich von Hardenberg, besser bekannt als Novalis, ist 22, als er Sophie von Kühn erstmals trifft – eine Viertelstunde, die über sein Leben entschieden hat, wie er später seinem Bruder gestehen wird. Hals über Kopf hat er sich verliebt und verlobt sich schon bald mit »Söphgen«. Für den romantischen Dichter ist die viel Jüngere seine blaue Blume, die Verkörperung seiner Poesie und all seiner Sehnsucht. Doch das Glück steht unter keinem guten Stern: Sophie erkrankt an Tuberkulose ... Penelope Fitzgerald erzählt die dramatische Liebesgeschichte des Paares, dessen Schicksal bis heute berührt, und sie zeigt Novalis in einem neuen Licht.

Londres, en pleno Blitz, vive en un estado de amenaza permanente;pero la BBC, la principal fuente de noticias del país, sigue funcionando gracias a periodistas comprometidos que no dudan en mantenerse en sus puestos a pesar del miedo a los bombardeos. Entre ellos, Sam Brooks, el excéntrico director de Programas Grabados, que siente verdadera pasión por su trabajo; en este ambiente de máxima tensión, intentará ampararse en el refugio que le ofrece Jeff Haggard, el flemático director de Planificación de Programas, y también en el de sus asistentes; Vi, una joven sencilla y generosa; Lise, que espera el regreso de su novio del frente; Della, una gran seductora que sueña con ser cantante, y Annie, una muchacha que quizá se enamore de su superior. El primer amor, la pérdida y el aprendizaje vital son solo algunas de las experiencias profundamente humanas que se entrelazan en este opresivo microcosmos, mientras las bombas resuenan en el exterior y los responsables de informar a la nación no son capaces ni de controlar sus propias vidas. Penelope Fitzgerald, autora de La librería, conjuga el humor, la compasión y la belleza en esta gran novela que retrata a los seres humanos cuando lo han perdido todo, salvo, quizá, la esperanza de sobrevivir.

Nenna James, una joven canadiense sin medios para alquilar una vivienda en el Londres de principios de los 60, vive con sus dos hijas en una barcaza anclada en el Támesis. Ninguna de las tres "pertenece ni al agua ni a la tierra firme", y comparten su existencia con unos vecinos que se encuentran, como ellas, a la deriva: Willis, un artista que intenta vender su decrépita nave a pesar de su pésimo estado; Richard, que vive a bordo del Lord Jim con su mujer, Laura, aunque ella preferiría mudarse a otro sitio, o Maurice, que ni siquiera protesta cuando su barcaza empieza a llenarse de objetos robados. Todos ellos van a contracorriente, en un espacio en el que podrían primar la sencillez y la libertad de la vida excéntrica, pero que se ve salpicado por los pequeños reveses cotidianos de cualquier existencia humana. Ganadora del Booker Prize en 1979 y basada en la experiencia personal de la propia autora, "A la deriva" encumbró a Penelope Fitzgerald ("La librería") a la fama, y supuso su consagración literaria.

Florence decide abrir una pequeña librería, que será la primera del pueblo. Adquiere así un edificio que lleva años abandonado, comido por la humedad y que incluso tiene su propio y caprichoso poltergeist. Pero pronto se topará con la resistencia muda de las fuerzas vivas del pueblo que, de un modo cortés pero implacable, empezarán a acorralarla. Florence se verá obligada entonces a contratar como ayudante a una niña de diez años, de hecho la única que no sueña con sabotear su negocio. Cuando alguien le sugiere que ponga a la venta la polémica edición de Olympia Press de Lolita, de Nabokov, se desencadena en el pueblo un terremoto sutil pero devastador.

Fred Fairly, un brillante joven, tiene ante sí un prometedor futuro como profesor de Ciencias en Cambridge, siempre y cuando respete una de las normas ancestrales del college al que pertenece. El St. Angelicus, como el Monte Athos, se caracteriza por no haber permitido que ninguna mujer traspase sus muros desde hace más de quinientos años. Por tanto, el matrimonio es algo impensable. Pero parece que Fred, miembro de la peculiar Sociedad de los Desobedientes, comienza a revelarse contra la rigidez del mundo que le rodea: empieza por confesar a su padre que ha perdido la fe y, tras un aparatoso accidente de bicicleta, acaba por enamorarse de una misteriosa joven con un dudoso pasado. Y es que en cualquier lugar, hasta en el riguroso St. Angelicus, existe una puerta oculta Ángeles y fantasmas. Razón e imaginación. Certeza y casualidad. Cada elemento se conjuga con su opuesto para hacer de esta novela una lectura apasionante y adictiva marcada por la búsqueda del amor y por los siempre inesperados vericuetos del azar.

Corre el mes de marzo de 1913 y la convulsa ciudad de Moscú se prepara para la llegada de la primavera. En el ambiente se percibe una transformación dramática, pero en el número 22 de la calle Lipka, hogar del impresor inglés Frank Reid, ese cambio será aún más evidente y decisivo. Una noche, tras regresar a su casa, Frank descubre que su esposa se ha marchado de la ciudad llevándose a sus tres hijos. Pronto aparecerá en la vida del impresor una mujer sencilla, una especie de dríade por la que Frank acabará por sentirse hechizado. Y así, acompañado de su contable, Selwyn Crane, devoto seguidor de Tolstói, y de Volodia, un misterioso estudiante que irrumpe en la imprenta con extrañas intenciones, Frank tendrá que dilucidar qué motivos mueven a los demás a comportarse de forma a veces extraña, a veces irracional. Una nueva obra maestra de Penelope Fitzgerald, autora de la aclamada La librería, y un ejemplo apasionante de sutileza y potencia narrativa.

Cuando Friedrich von Hardenberg, quien más tarde tomaría el nombre de Novalis, le habla de la flor azul a su querida Sophie, una niña de doce años de la que se enamora en un primer encuentro, lo hace en el tono misterioso, secreto, de quien no ha descifrado todavía el significado del que será el símbolo del romanticismo alemán. Fritz es un joven brillante, un genio. Ha estudiado dialéctica y matemáticas, es amigo del crítico Schlegel, del filósofo Fichte y del gran Goethe, y ahora ha de aceptar un trabajo que no desea como inspector de minas de sal. Escribe poesía, ha empezado una novela y, sobre todo, desea ser feliz junto a su "sabiduría", la joven Sophie, que ha nacido para estar alegre y reír sin cesar. Ninguno de los dos sabe aún que su búsqueda de la belleza y del infinito tendrá que enfrentarse a duras pruebas. "La flor azul" es la última novela de Penelope Fitzgerald. Una obra exquisita, ganadora del National Book Critics Circle Award, en la que la pasión del romanticismo se fusiona con la templanza de una escritura magistral.