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At Freddie's
 
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At Freddie's (Paperback)

by Penelope Fitzgerald (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Flamingo; 1st thus. edition (1989)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0006542557
  • ISBN-13: 978-0006542551
  • Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 1.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 358,581 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #18 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > F > Fitzgerald, Penelope

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Product Description

Review

'A jewel of a book.' Daily Mail 'The wit is crisp and dry, scenes and characters are deftly skewered. Whether you view the theatre as a noble passion or a wasting disease, you are equally certain to be regaled.' Guardian 'Enjoy the knowingness of the awful children, the weary fumblings of the professional actors, the constant witticisms at the expense of pretentious directors. An enjoyable, sharp novel!a delicious refreshment.' Margaret Forster


Product Description

Penelope Fitzgerald's brilliant novel about life at an eccentric stage school. In the 1960s, Freddie's was the usual name for the Temple Stage School, which supplied the West End theatres with children for roles in everything from Shakespeare to pantomime. Freddie, the proprietress, is a formidable woman, of unknown age and provenance. But everybody who is anybody claims to know her. By sheer force of character and single-minded thrust she has turned herself into a national institution. This story of what happened at Freddie's is not only for theatre-lovers, but for people who care about children or hate them, or were -- once upon a time -- children themselves. In particular, it is for those of us who sometimes pretend to be what we are not -- that is to say, act a little.
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Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Brain-shatteringly perfect fiction, 13 Dec 1999
By Jonathan Carr "joncarr" (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
When I looked up Penelope Fitzgerald and found that there were no reviews posted I felt very sad. She is a genius of written entertainment, and At Freddie's, a stylish, gentle and exquisitely subtle investigation of the theatre, glows with profundity. The dust of a missing era hangs over the action, centring on Freddie, the knowing proprietress of an acting school, and two of her star pupils. This writer has a grasp on human nature which is devastatingly accurate, but unlike the 'heavyweights' of fiction, she doesn't stuff it down your neck. Fitzgerald's books go through you lightly enough, you respond to the story and characters, you laugh. Then, days later, you're walking down the street and you suddenly realise just what has been said. Brilliant!
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Not if its with me, dear, 30 Nov 2002
By taking a rest - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   
"Freddie", a woman who is part institution and part legend, speaks the quote above; she is also the latest spectacular person that Ms. Fitzgerald offers to readers.

The quote is unremarkable until it is penned as an answer to an accountant named "Unwin", who stated, "Surely a discussion should have a basis of substantial fact." The rejoinder that is the title of this review follows, and you have a good sense that Freddie flaunts convention, floats above the rules that affect others, and when she is confronted with a bit of reality, ends the discussion with her nemesis feeling not only were they wrong, but they are indebted to her. A debt collector not only fails to collect, he leaves his vest for use as a costume for the students of Freddie's school for children of the theatre.

Precocious children are not new to Ms. Fitzgerald's books. In this book the line between child and adult is blurred even further, as these thespians in the making are adept at changing who they are when circumstances or their own whimsy requires. All the affectation that can be associated with their mature counterparts of the stage, are played out by the children, and this makes for wonderful reading, as age is modified by characterization, and not measured in years.

There are more eccentric players in this book than the others I have read by Ms. Fitzgerald, to sample just one, a gentleman when deciding on which of the sins he would choose, does not pick one with even some benefit in this life, but chooses sloth. His opinion of himself is in line with the wish, and a more pathetic character has rarely appeared in literature.

Into all this there is a love triangle of sorts, a grand piano that is sinking through the floor, "as though wading ashore", and a vast and rich story that Ms. Fitzgerald once again delivers on so few, but so spectacular pages.
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