Penelope Fitzgerald

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Penelope Fitzgerald (Britain, 1916)

"Bookshop" (1978)

synopsis forthcoming

"Offshore" (1979) follows a group of barge-dwelling misfits living on river houseboats. It is a gallery of failures. It is not a terribly exciting story, with few notable events, but told in a style that is both poetic and redundant.

The first chapter introduces a group of houseboat owners whose boats are moored along the bank of the River Thames in London: Richard and Laura, who owned the Lord Jim; Maurice who owns a boat named after him; the elderly Willis who owns Dreadnought, which is doomed by a leak; Woodie who owns Rochester; and Nenna who owns Grace and has two daughters, eleven-year-old Martha and six-year-old Tilda, and has been abandoned by her husband Edward. Father Thomas visits Nenna and talks about her children who have been missing school. Martha reads the letters that Nenna writes to her sister Louise, in which Nenna pretends that they are living downtown London. In the second chapter we meet Tilda, Martha and their cat Stripey. The girls are gifted singers and the nuns regret that they are kept on the boat. Martha has no intention of returning to school. Willis cannot afford to pay for tar, gas and water. Woodie is not a true barge dweller: he is preparing to spend winter in his house on land. When a splendid Dutch barge sails up the channel, the owners of the grounded barges are envious. Nenna is 32. She had moves to London from Canada with her husband Edward who opened a launderette. When that failed, bankrupt, the husband took a job in Central America, while Nenna used their meager savings to buy the boat. The husband returned after 15 months with no money. He refuses to move to the boat and Nenna has not visited him. Meanwhile, Nenna's friend Maurice has turned his boat into a depot for stolen goods on behalf of his friend Harry. Nenna is fascinated by Maurice despite the fact that the jobless man pays his bills by prostituting himself to gay men. Maurice keeps dreaming of moving away. Willis hopes to sell the Dreadnought, with help from Richards friend realtor Pinkie, and move in with his widowed sister. Willis is a marine painter who has never been to sea. Tilda, influenced by him, wants to become a marine painter too. Willis takes Tilda to the museum. Pinkie tries to convince Richard that it is time to buy a real home, and Richard senses that this is Laura's idea. An insurance broker offers to buy Willis' Dreadnought but only six months later. Richard feels sorry that Nenna has no male relative to help her out: she also needs to fix her boat before it gets worse. Nenna hopes that her husband Edward will move in with them and that the girls will go back to the nuns, so that she can look for a job. Tilda and Martha go scavenging and Tilda manages to rescue two precious tiles. Woodie gives them a ride to an antique shop and tells them that he is planning to leave the boat and his wife Janet is coming to help him pack. Willis is hosting a little party with Maurice, Woodie, Janet and others when his boat Dreadnought sinks. Woodie and Janet accept to take Willis as a guest on their boat Rochester. Willis' financial misfortune is made worse by the imposition to pay for the disposing of the sunk boat. Louise calls Nenna announcing that she's on her way to London and that the son of an Austrian friend, Heinrich, expects to sleep on her boat. Some letters have been lost and Nenna learns all of this only at the last minute. Louise and Nenna haven't seen each other in five years, but Louise has learned of Nenna's domestic and financial troubles. Nenna then decides to go and see her husband Edward and leaves her daughters with Woodie on the Rochester with Willis. Nenna's meeting with Edward is a disaster. She still loves him but he is not willing to move in with her on the boat and she ends up also offending his landlady. She walks out shellshocked and wanders until she gets lost. A man harasses her and she flees losing her shoes. A taxi driver rescues her and she gets back to the houseboats barefoot. Richard consoles her and tells her that his wife Laura left him, tired of life on the boat. They both need company and end up making love. The following morning she returns to her daughters and finds them with the 16-year-old Heinrich. Maurice guesses what happened with Richard and congratulates her. Louise is in London and tells her that she should move back to Canada. Martha and Heinrich hangs out together and share their adolescent troubles. Tilda walks back alone and sees Harry on Maurice's boat hiding stolen goods while Maurice is not around. Richard tries to stop Harry but Harry hits him. Martha and Heinrich finds Richard unconscious and call the police. Richard is hospitalized. Martha comes to visit him and tells him that Nenna is packing because they are moving to Canada. Laura returns to take care of Richard but the mugging is the last straw and she forces him to sell the boat. So now both Lord Jim and Grace are for sale. During a strong storm, Maurice remains on his boat and gets drunk. Ed shows up with a gift for Nenna and he is drunk too. Ed loses the gift but Maurice gives him all the stolen goods that Harry left behind. The storm blows the boat away from the pier with the two drunk men trapped on board.

"Beginning of Spring" (1988)

synopsis forthcoming

"Gate of Angels" (1990)

synopsis forthcoming

"The Blue Flower" (1998) is a fictional biography of the German poet Novalis before he became famous and was madly in love with a teenager. The story is only mildly interesting and it sorely lacks the poetic magic of "Offshore". The multitude of characters doesn't help. The personalities of both the protagonist and is love remain a little blurred, especially the latter's. ("The Blue Flower" was a novella by Novalis about Novalis himself).

The 22-year-old Jacob Dietmahler visits his friend Fritz Hardenberg on the one day of the year when the wealthy and large family washes the clothes. Fritz introduces him to his 15-year-old sister Sidonie, who mentions siblings Karl, Anton and six-year-old Bernhard. The eldest sister, Charlotte, is married. Fritz introduces Jacob as an assistant surgeon. Jacob studied with Fritz and Fritz's younger brother Erasmus. Sidonie thinks that the studies were a waste of time. Jacob is intimidated by Fritz's father who interrogates him about the gossip that his son Fritz is mixed up with a lower-class girl. Jacob protests that Fritz is a poet and a philosopher, but Fritz's father states that Fritz is destined to work in the family business, salt mines. Jacob's father died, two of his brothers died, his sister died. Fritz is encouraged to write poetry by Severin, the owner of a bookshop that he acquired when he married the wife of the owner, his employer, after the owner died.

A lengthy flashback recounts how Fritz got mixed up with a lower-class girl. Fritz's father is a noble who got from the prince the job of director of the salt mines. Fritz and his siblings are the children of his father's second wife, Auguste, after the first one died. Charlotte, the eldest, got married young. Bernhard, the youngest, is 16 years younger than Fritz. Both Fritz's father and Auguste's brother August had fought in the Seven Years' War in the Prussian army. Fritz's father firmly believes that morality came from a religious education, while August believes that it was independent from religion. After all, the king of Prussia granted religious freedom and nonetheless the Prussian army was a model of moral behavior. This difference matters because they are hearing echoes of the French Revolution. Fritz's father is shocked that the people of France are disrespectful towards their king. The father sends Fritz to study theology in Jena, but instead Fritz studies philosophy under Fichte and history under a professor called Schiller. Fritz and Jacob become friends one day when they witness a duel in which Joseph Beck loses two fingers. Jacob is a student of medicine and does his best to cure Joseph, and Fritz helps out. At the age of 19, Fritz moves to a university in Leipzig. He asks his father for more money and the father has to disclose that the family has no money, because all their properties are not profitable. Fritz is scolded by his uncle Wilhelm (nicknamed the "Big Cross" by Sidonie), his father's unmarried older brother, and later is told that he has to start working at the salt mines. Meanwhile, his 16-year-old brother Karl enrolls in the army. In preparation for his career, his father dispatches Fritz to study practical administration with a tax inspector, Just. His 27-year-old niece Karoline works as his housekeeper. Just married the widow of a professor, Rahel, and is happy not to have children of his own. Fritz befriends Karoline and calls her Justen. Fritz's friend Schlegel lives with Dorothea who is ten years older. Fritz writes for Karoline a short story about a young man who longs to see a blue flower. He then asks Karoline what is the meaning of the blue flower and of course she doesn't know what to reply. Just takes the 22-year-old Fritz on a trip to visit an old friend, Rockenthien, and Fritz falls in love with his step-daughter Sophie, who is only 12 year old. He confesses it to Karoline. Fritz travels back home for Christmas and finds two new siblings: Amelie and newborn Christoph. He tells Erasmus and Sidonie of his love for Sophie. Erasmus visits Sophie and tells Fritz the truth: that Sophie is a dumb girl and not even pretty. In fact, she can hardly write. Fritz meets Sophie's older sister Frieke and tells her that he intends to ask the step-father to marry Sophie. Frieke married an army officer of lower status. Now Fritz is trying to marry a woman of lower status than his, and still a child. Erasmus is so puzzled that he even asks Karoline what she thinks. She is as puzzled as him. Fritz and Sophie get engaged on her 13th birthday with the understanding that they will get married after she turns 15. One day Fritz reads the Blue Flower to Sophie and her sister and then asks them what is the meaning of the blue flower, and again he gets no reply. Fritz hires a painter, Hoffmann, to paint a portrait of Sophie, but the painter gives up because Sophie doesn't inspire him: he feels that she is totally dull. Having completed his apprenticeship, Fritz returns home but first stops to see his old friends in Jena. He invites Jacob to accompany him home and that's when Jacob is interrogated by Fritz's father (the beginning of the novel - chapter 33 precedes chapter 1).

Sophie gets sick. Karoline realizes that even Erasmus has secretly fallen in love with Sophie. Fritz is so serious about marrying Sophie that he takes his job at the salt mines seriously: that's going to be their income. Until then, Fritz has not told his parents of Sophie, and they only heard gossip. Finally, Fritz writes them a letter asking for their consent. Fritz also hopes that his father will give them a place to live. His father tacitly agrees because he throws a party, inviting both the Just family and the Rockenthien family. Sophie's health worsens by the day. She is now bald. Nonetheless, Fritz is optimistic that she'll recover. We learn from Frieke's diary that Goethe visits the family and is kind enough to meet with Sophie. Erasmus manages to talk to Goethe afterwards and we see that he is worried not for Fritz's happiness but for Sophie's. Bernhard thinks that he understands the meaning of the Blue Flower. Jacob is handy at the clinic where Sophie is operated. Erasmus is now devoted to Sophie's illness while Fritz is busy with his job. Fritz's father is now so moved by Sophie's illness that he pledges to gift her an entire estate, a fact which worries his wife. The novel ends abruptly. An afterword informs us that Sophie died and several of Fritz's siblings died too (Erasmus, Sidonie, Bernhard). Fritz married another woman, changed his name to Novalis and became a famous poet. We never learn what the Blue Flower stands for.