Penelope Fitzgerald (1916–2000)
Author of The Bookshop
About the Author
In 1997 Penelope Fitzgerald's novel The Blue Flower was named one of the New York Times Book Review's eleven Best Books of the Year. Winner of the 1979 Booker Prize for Offshore, Fitzgerald was also short-listed for the Booker for The Bookshop. The Beginning of Spring, and The Gate of Angels. show more Penelope Fitzgerald lives in England. (Bowker Author Biography) Penelope Fitzgerald, one of England's most-celebrated contemporary writers, is the author of "The Blue Flower," which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Winner of the 1979 Booker Prize for "Offshore," she was also shortlisted for the Booker for "The Bookshop," "The Beginning of Spring," & "The Gate of Angels." She lives in London. (Bowker Author Biography) Admired by many as one of the leading English novelists of her day, Penelope Fitzgerald (1916-2000) wrote some twelve books of fiction and nonfiction over the course of her writing career; which began at the age of sixty. She won the National Book Critics Circle Award for "The Blue Flower" and the Booker Prize for "Offshore". She died on April 28, 2000, at the age of eighty-three. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Penelope Fitzgerald
Associated Works
For the Love of Books: 115 Celebrated Writers on the Books They Love Most (1999) — Contributor — 453 copies
Chronicles of Carlingford: The Rector and The Doctor's Family (1863) — Introduction, some editions — 173 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Knox, Penelope Mary (born)
- Birthdate
- 1916-12-17
- Date of death
- 2000-04-28
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England, UK
- Place of death
- London, England, UK
- Places of residence
- Southwold, Suffolk, England, UK
- Education
- University of Oxford (Somerville College|1938)
- Occupations
- novelist
biographer
journalist
tutor - Relationships
- Knox, E. V. (father)
Knox, Ronald (uncle)
Knox, Wilfred (uncle)
Peck, Winifred (aunt) - Awards and honors
- The Heywood Hill Literary Prize (1996)
Golden PEN Award (1999)
Booker Prize (1979)
National Book Critics Circle Award (Fiction, 1997) - Short biography
- Penelope Fitzgerald (1916-2000), laureatasi ad Oxford nel 1939, ebbe varie esperienze di lavoro e di vita, fra l'altro il giornalismo e la storia dell'arte. Iniziò a scrivere opere narrative all'età di sessant'anni. Quasi tutti i suoi romanzi hanno vinto premi prestigiosi fra cui il Booker Prize. Penelope Fitzgerald definiva i suoi romanzi «microchip novels», romanzi in miniatura, scherzando sulla concisione alla quale tutti sono improntati, e che è diventata un po' il suo marchio di fabbrica; a proposito di uno di essi Auberon Waugh, critico famoso per la sua ferocia, dichiarò che per la prima volta nella sua carriera si sorprendeva a pregare una donna di scrivere non di meno, ma di più. Presto diventata popolarissima, la Fitzgerald era stata salutata fin dal debutto come «a writer's writer», un autore per autori, in quanto l'economia e la precisione del suo stile, la salda organizzazione del suo estro, la secchezza del suo umorismo, e la competenza sfoggiata in qualunque argomento ella affronti, sono particolarmente apprezzati da chi se ne intende.
Members
Discussions
1916: Penelope Fitzgerald - Resources and General Discussion in Literary Centennials (February 2016)
Reviews
Reason read: tbr Booker
Published 1979 and winner of the Booker. This is a very short book. An interesting setting; living on a barge which the author actually had experienced. Living not really on the water nor on the land. It is a picture of a community living just off shore, actually tethered to the land. The author stated; “emotional restlessness of my characters, halfway between the need for security and the doubtful attraction of danger".
At such a short work, it was a surprise Booker win.… (more)
Published 1979 and winner of the Booker. This is a very short book. An interesting setting; living on a barge which the author actually had experienced. Living not really on the water nor on the land. It is a picture of a community living just off shore, actually tethered to the land. The author stated; “emotional restlessness of my characters, halfway between the need for security and the doubtful attraction of danger".
At such a short work, it was a surprise Booker win.… (more)
I pretty read this small and perfectly formed novel in one sitting. It disabuses you of the romance of opening a bookshop in a small town by the sea - there is a remarkably little about books in it, and a lot about small-mindedness, annoying neighbours and the difficulties of being an outsider. Recommended.
"‘Frühlingsanfang’, in dem Penelope Fitzgerald das Leben eines englischen Druckereibetreibers in Moskau von 1913, Vater dreier kleiner Kinder, dem die Frau davongelaufen ist. Diesen kleinen Roman lese ich – zu spät für die Guardian Gruppe – seit zwei, drei Wochenenden mit Freude und empfehle ihn gerne weiter."
in Buchmerkur: Buchhandel im Roman – Penelope Fitzgerald [https://buchmerkur.wordpress.com/2017/02/18/buchhandel-im-roman-penelope-fitzgerald/]
in Buchmerkur: Buchhandel im Roman – Penelope Fitzgerald [https://buchmerkur.wordpress.com/2017/02/18/buchhandel-im-roman-penelope-fitzgerald/]
Lists
Backlisted (1)
Favourite Books (1)
Summer Books (1)
Five star books (1)
Wishlist (1)
Booker Prize (4)
Female Author (3)
Spirit of Place (2)
Women in War (1)
Read This Next (1)
A Novel Cure (1)
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 26
- Also by
- 20
- Members
- 10,872
- Popularity
- #2,177
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 387
- ISBNs
- 247
- Languages
- 14
- Favorited
- 59
It is now de rigueur to declare Fitzgerald as one of the great neglected English novelists of the 20th century, and I must add my voice to that woeful chorus. Her starkly funny - or perhaps humorous upsetting - style is akin to those great ladies Muriel Spark and Barbara Pym. Her characters, like theirs, often hover on the fringes of good society; the "distressed gentlewomen", Pym often calls them.
Florence Green is one such character, a plain but still reasonably young widow who chooses to open a bookshop in a town that wants to reject her at every turn - even her resident poltergeist wants nothing to do with her. In 10 short chapters, Fitzgerald outlines Florence's unsettling encounters with the townfolk in wry, pointed notes, never allowing us to become either sympathetic or deeply enmeshed in the lives of any of them. Its events are of no consequence, and yet somehow feel staggeringly consequential. And at the heart of it all are questions about how we appreciate culture, how we relate to books themselves, and why we allow our dreams to take hold of us against all reason.
A deeply enjoyable read for fans of ironic British novelists.… (more)