- Paperback
- Publisher: Mariner Books (September 1999)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0618007113
- ISBN-13: 978-0618007110
- Product Dimensions: 21.9 x 14.6 x 3.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 590 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #759,500 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
From Amazon
Since 1977, Penelope Fitzgerald has been quietly coming out with small, perfect devastations of human hope and inhuman (i.e., all-too-human) behavior. This special boxed set comprises her two prize winners, The Blue Flower and Offshore , and her tragicomedy of provincial manners, The Bookshop.
The Blue Flower is the story of Friedrich von Hardenberg--Fritz, to his intimates--a young man of the late 18th century who is destined to become one of Germany's great romantic poets. In just over 200 pages, Fitzgerald creates a complete world of family, friends, and lovers, but also an exhilarating evocation of the Romantic era in all its political turmoil, intellectual voracity, and moral ambiguity. A profound exploration of genius, The Blue Flower is also a charming, wry, and witty look at domestic life.
Offshore possesses perfect, very odd pitch. In the wittiest and most melancholy of prose, Penelope Fitzgerald limns the lives of "creatures neither of firm land nor water"--a group of barge-dwellers in London's Battersea Reach, circa 1961. One man, a marine artist whose commissions have dropped off since the war, is attempting to sell his decrepit craft before it sinks. Another, a dutiful businessman with a bored, mutinous wife, knows he should be landlocked but remains drawn to the muddy Thames. A third, Maurice, a male prostitute, doesn't even protest when a criminal acquaintance begins to use his barge as a depot for stolen goods: "The dangerous and the ridiculous were necessary to his life, otherwise tenderness would overwhelm him."
The Bookshop unfolds in a tiny Sussex seaside town, which by 1959 is virtually cut off from the outside English world. Postwar peace and plenty having passed it by, Hardborough is defined chiefly by what it doesn't have. It does have, however, plenty of observant inhabitants, most of whom are keen to see Florence Green's new bookshop fail.
In these three novels, readers will find works of fine prose, fierce intelligence, and perceptive characterization.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
The beauty of economy,
By Murray Tong (Hamilton, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Three Novels: The Blue Flower; The Bookshop; Offshore (Paperback)
The world has lost a treasure in Penelope Fitzgerald, who died earlier this year at the age of 83. She had lived for so many years by the time she began writing (her first novel was published when she was 60) that she could see what was important and what wasn't, and she learned never to waste a word. So we have novels like The Bookshop, a powerful but pinched novel that stemmed a lot of its own force, and Offshore, an absolutely perfect work that said a lifetime's worth in only 140 pages.The Bookshop, Fitzgerald's second novel, concerns Florence Green's struggle to open a bookshop in her small town, and the gentle opposition against the idea by the townspeople. There are great moments of truth and beauty, but often the Fitzgerald limits her own explorations, as if she put on blinders while writing. I love her economic style, how she says so much with so little, but in this case, she merely says "enough" with so little. With Offshore, written the year after The Bookshop, Penelope Fitzgerald has truly opened up, creating a whole tucked-away world---the houseboats of the Thames River---we feel we've visited our entire lives. It's full of moments of little truths: the cab driver who kindly takes Nenna home, the children selling antique tiles to a curmudgeonly storekeeper, the thing that drives Richard's wife away---and what brings her back. I haven't had the pleasure of reading The Blue Flower, but I promise myself that it's next on my list.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews) 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
The beauty of economy,
By Murray Tong - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Three Novels: The Blue Flower; The Bookshop; Offshore (Paperback)
The world has lost a treasure in Penelope Fitzgerald, who died earlier this year at the age of 83. She had lived for so many years by the time she began writing (her first novel was published when she was 60) that she could see what was important and what wasn't, and she learned never to waste a word. So we have novels like The Bookshop, a powerful but pinched novel that stemmed a lot of its own force, and Offshore, an absolutely perfect work that said a lifetime's worth in only 140 pages.The Bookshop, Fitzgerald's second novel, concerns Florence Green's struggle to open a bookshop in her small town, and the gentle opposition against the idea by the townspeople. There are great moments of truth and beauty, but often the Fitzgerald limits her own explorations, as if she put on blinders while writing. I love her economic style, how she says so much with so little, but in this case, she merely says "enough" with so little. With Offshore, written the year after The Bookshop, Penelope Fitzgerald has truly opened up, creating a whole tucked-away world---the houseboats of the Thames River---we feel we've visited our entire lives. It's full of moments of little truths: the cab driver who kindly takes Nenna home, the children selling antique tiles to a curmudgeonly storekeeper, the thing that drives Richard's wife away---and what brings her back. I haven't had the pleasure of reading The Blue Flower, but I promise myself that it's next on my list.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fitzgerald's little gems,
By Susan Feathers - Published on Amazon.com
Penelope Fitzgerald should be remembered for her word sculptures of characters as real as a family member. In the most concise manner, yet with startlingly vivid language, Fitzgerald takes us into the little worlds of neighbors and small towns. She draws her characters into tight fitting relationships as we really experience them. I found myself deeply engrossed in the lives of families living on the Thames in Offshore. Fitzgerald explores how we get "stuck" when changes around us overwhelm our ability to transform our lives for new conditions. In The Bookshop I resonated with a single woman who manages to start her own business only to have her dream subverted by a community's small mindedness and jealousy. I read these books because I am a writer. Studying with Penelope Fitsgerald as a reader is the best instruction in the business.Excellent literature; highly recommended for character readers and for budding writers. Susan Feathers Williams writeforchange.com |
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