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The Blue Flower
 
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The Blue Flower (Paperback)

by Penelope Fitzgerald (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Flamingo; New edition edition (5 Aug 1996)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0006550193
  • ISBN-13: 978-0006550198
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.6 x 2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 28,502 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

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

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Product Description

Review

'An enchanting novel about heart, body and mind. The writing is ellipitical and witty! so that what could be a sad little love story is constantly funny and always absorbing. This novel is a jewel.' Carmen Callil, Daily Telegraph 'Her sense of time and place is marvellously deft, done in a few words. She knows how they all walked, eased their old joints. She knows the damp smell of decay of the ancient schlosses. In a bare little book she reveals a country and an age as lost as Tolstoy's Russia and which we seem somehow always to have known.' Jane Gardam, Spectator 'Detail, expertly dabbed in, provides a substantial background for the story of a poet which, it is subtly suggested, is also the story of a remarkable moment in the history of civilisation! It is hard to see how the hopes and defeats of Romanticism, or the relation between inspiration and common life, between genius and mere worthiness, could be more deftly rendered than they are in this remarkable novel.' Frank Kermode, LRB 'A minor miracle of sympathy and crispness.' Adam Mars-Jones, Guardian 'An extraordinary imagining! An original masterpiece.' Hermione Lee, Financial Times 'A novel in which the unsaid speaks: it is a masterpiece.' Candia McWilliam 'A masterpiece. How does she do it?' A.S. Byatt 'A magical little book.' Doris Lessing


Product Description

Penelope Fitzgerald's final masterpiece. Set in Germany at the very end of the eighteenth century, The Blue Flower is the story of the brilliant Fritz von Hardenberg, a graduate of the Universities of Jena, Leipzig and Wittenberg, learned in Dialectics and Mathematics, who later became the great romantic poet and philosopher Novalis. The passionate and idealistic Fritz needs his father's permission to announce his engagement to his 'heart's heart', his 'true Philosophy', twelve-year-old Sophie von Kuhn. It is a betrothal which amuses, astounds and disturbs his family and friends. How can it be so? One of the most admired of all Penelope Fitzgerald's books, The Blue Flower was chosen as Book of the Year more than any other in 1995. Her final book, it confirmed her reputation as one of the finest novelists of the century.
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Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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26 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars A surprisingly enjoyable, thought-provoking read, 26 Jan 2001
By A Customer
Not the type of book I would normally read, I picked up Penelope Fitzgerald's The Blue Flower rather reluctantly, since it was recommended by my local book club. The cover blurb mentioned the book's central theme, the relationship between the late 18th century German poet and philosopher Hardenburg and 12 year old Sophie von Kuhn, his 'true philosophy' who captured his heart and became his fiancee. So I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this book. However, Fitzgerald's flowing prose and excellent portrayal of the mood and social mores of the times when the book is set soon had me entranced and involved in the story. I was fascinated by the way the suprememly intelligent but very naive Hardenburg falls completely under the spell of the adolescent and not-very-bright Sophie. But as the story unfolded and Sophie's illness touched other people, I too found myself falling under the spell of this young girl. This tale, of course, is based on real lives, and Fitzgerald's afterword rounds the book off nicely. Having read The Blue Flower, I am now keen to read more of Fitzgerald's work, as she has the knack of bringing history to life.
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28 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars She doesnt hand this one to you, 28 Nov 2002
By taking a rest - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   
"I have remained true to my deepest convictions, I mean to the courage of those who are born to be defeated, the weaknesses of the strong, and the tragedy of misunderstandings and missed opportunities, which I have done my best to treat as comedy, for otherwise how can we manage to bear it?"

The quote above appeared in a story about Penelope Fitzgerald written just after her death. The quote and the ideas it states appear to be very appropriate to "The Blue Flower". I have read two other works of hers "The Bookshop" and "The Golden Child". All three books share her wonderful style of writing, which she can modify to produce three very different books, all the while maintaining the quality of her writing, while demonstrating incredible range.

Of the three I have read this work is the one she makes you work the hardest for. The two previous books laid out their stories in comfortable, familiar settings, both in place and time. The books were constructed so the reader was able to follow a distinct story line. In the case of "The Blue Flower" the story and her method of telling it leaves the reader to fill in the details necessary to make the story flow in a more conventional manner, to read more easily, more comfortably. For those who want all the details, all the motivation of the characters detailed and laid out with a beginning, middle, and end, this work may not rate as one of their favorite works.

This book was comparatively lengthy set side by side with the other books I have mentioned. The briefer works are very straightforward, and I commented when I wrote about "The Bookshop" that I was curious with what she would do with the added length. True to her having been not only a brilliant and highly original Authoress, as the length of her work expanded, it became more complex, less apparent, but yet another phenomenal read.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars "Novels arise out of the shortcomings of history. (Novalis)", 6 Jul 2009
By Friederike Knabe (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This has been my first Fitzgerald novel and the story's topic intrigued me more than anything else. Novalis, Friedrich von Hardenberg's pen name, under which he became famous for his poetic and philosophical work at the end of the eighteenth century, has been a household name since high school. Yet, I knew little about the man himself or the early German Romantic writers and thinkers at that time. With THE BLUE FLOWER Fitzgerald has made an important contribution to the literature on Novalis by creating a vivid portrait of the young von Hardenberg as he lived through a decisive period of his personal life which also saw him imagine "the blue flower" that became the central symbol of Romanticism from then on. *)

Central to the novel as well as to the man himself was his dramatic falling in love, at the age of twenty two with a twelve year old girl, Sophie von Kühn. Von Hardenberg, was already then a brilliant student of many subjects ranging from mathematics to biology, from literature and philosophy. Sophie, on the other hand, was a precocious child, "of ordinary looks", without interest or promise in any of these fields. The unlikely match between the two, in terms of age difference, personalities and social status is expertly described by Fitzgerald and the different modes of the young man's romantic obsession evoked. Livening the intimate and detailed, yet detached observations of the omniscient narrator with frequent lively dialog between the young hero and different close family members and other associates on all sides connected to either of the young lovers, the author also conveys a realistic sense their wider social circles.

Based on extensive research into von Hardenberg and his close family, using his writing, pertinent correspondence and diaries, official and private documents, Fitzgerald has not only realistically recreated his young adult years against a difficult family background, but also supplied us with glimpses into a politically and intellectually fascinating period of German (Prussian) history. At cultural centres such as Jena, young von Hardenberg encountered no lesser than Goethe, Schiller, Schlegel and other literary and philosophical greats of the time.

Fitzgerald makes THE BLUE FLOWER and interesting and intriguing book to read, in particular for readers with familiarity of the wider contexts, both in terms of philosophy and social politics or willing to explore these themes further. As a stand alone novel, without the reader's knowledge of the time, it is not totally successful in my opinion. To derive full satisfaction the many insinuations and oblique references would have to be either better developed into the background, or the novel completely built as fiction without any intention to veracity and authenticity. [Friederike Knabe]

*) Novalis died at the age of 29 in 1801.
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5.0 out of 5 stars A simple story told with elegance and intelligence
How does she do it? asks A S Byatt in her review of this delightful work. Well, I for one don't know. Read more
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