Items related to The Beginning of Spring
Synopsis
Set in Moscow in 1913, this novel concerns Frank Reid, whose wife suddenly leaves him without explanation to return to London. The author goes on to depict the Reid household, the expatriate community, Frank's colleagues, friends and children and the Russians with whom he comes into contact. This is set against the background of the life of the city itself, hardly aware of the upheaval about to break upon it. The author has also written "Innocence" and "Offshore".
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Review
‘Reading a Penelope Fitzgerald novel is like being taken for a ride in a peculiar kind of car. Everything is of top quality – the engine, the coachwork and the interior all fill you with confidence. Then, after a mile or so, someone throws the steering-wheel out of the window.’ Sebastian Faulks
‘Wise and ironic, funny and humane, Fitzgerald is a wonderful, wonderful writer.’ David Nicholls
‘For the life of me I can’t decide how properly to respond to this book. Whether it contains a latent moral or allegorical message, or whether it is simply a tour de force of craft and imagination I have not the faintest idea. I only know that it is one of the most skilful and utterly fascinating novels I have read for years. I cannot imagine any kind of reader who would not get a thrill from this gloriously peculiar book.’ Jan Morris, Independent
‘Penelope Fitzgerald has produced a real Russian comedy, at once crafty and scatty. She has mastered a city, a landscape and a vanished time. She has written something remarkable, part novel, part evocation, and done so in prose that never puts a foot wrong. She is so unostentatious a writer that she needs to be read several times. What is impressive is the calm confidence behind the apparent simplicity of utterance. “The Beginning of Spring” is her best novel to date.’ Anita Arookner, Spectator
From the Back Cover
Fitzgerald was the author of several slim, perfect novels. The Blue Flower and The Beginning of Spring both had me abuzz for days the first time I read them. She was curiously perfect. Teju Cole, author of Open City
March 1913. Moscow is stirring herself to meet the beginning of spring. English painter Frank Reid returns from work one night to find that his wife has gone away; no one knows where or why, or whether she ll ever come back. All Frank knows for sure is that he is now alone and must find someone to care for his three young children.
Into Frank s life comes Lisa Ivanovna, a quiet, calming beauty from the country, untroubled to the point of seeming simple. But is she? And why has Frank s bookkeeper, Selwyn Crane, gone to such lengths to bring these two together?
Writing so precise and lilting it can make you shiver. Los Angeles Times
A singular achievement. Boston Globe
PENELOPE FITZGERALD (1916 2000) was one of the most elegant and distinctive voices in British fiction. She won the National Book Critics Circle Award in fiction for The Blue Flower, the Booker Prize for Offshore, and three of her novels The Bookshop, The Gate of Angels, and The Beginning of Spring were short-listed for the Booker Prize."
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- PublisherHarperCollins Publishers Ltd
- Publication date1988
- ISBN 10 0002232618
- ISBN 13 9780002232616
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages192
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The Beginning of Spring
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HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 1988
ISBN 10: 0002232618
ISBN 13: 9780002232616
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The Beginning of Spring
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The Beginning of Spring
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ISBN 10: 0002232618
ISBN 13: 9780002232616
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The Beginning of Spring
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Hardcover. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. Green boards with gold lettering to the spine. Glazed pictorial unclipped dust jacket, now in a new removable protective clear sleeve. No inscriptions, 187pp. Clean and bright pages throughout. (Any digital image available on request). Seller Inventory # 021139
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THE BEGINNING OF SPRING (1/2)
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ISBN 10: 0002232618
ISBN 13: 9780002232616
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First Edition
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Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. First Edition. Second printing of the true first edition - Booker Prize short-listed novel. ***Very good in dark green cloth-covered boards with gilt titles to the spine. The boards are clean and unmarked. Corners sharp. Head and tail of spine slightly creased. There is a slight reading lean to the binding and a light vertical reading crease to the spine. Top edge of page-block slightly marked. Fore-edge of page-block has a small indentation affecting the fore-edge of a few pages slightly. Internally also very good with no inscriptions. Interior pages clean without any foxing. No creases or tears. ***In a very good colour-illustrated dustwrapper, which has not been price-clipped, retaining the original publisher's printed price of £10.95 net. The dustwrapper is complete with no tears or chips, just some light rubbing and creasing at the extremities. There is some fading to the sun-sensitive colour on the spine of the dustwrapper, which extends to the front and back panels near the spine (please see scans). ***223mm x145mm. 187 pages. ***Penelope Fitzgerald was born Penelope Mary Knox at the Old Bishop's Palace, Lincoln, the daughter of Edmund Knox, later editor of Punch, and Christina Hicks, daughter of Edward Hicks, the Bishop of Lincoln, and she was one of the first women students at Oxford. "The Beginning of Spring" is set in Moscow in 1913, and tells the story of a Moscow-born English-educated print shop owner whose English wife has suddenly abandoned him and their three children. The novel was shortlisted for the 1988 Booker Prize. Fitzgerald had a strong interest in Russian literature, and starting in the 1960s took courses in Russian language. She visited Moscow and environs in 1975, which included a visit to Tolstoy's house and a dacha in a birch forest. In the early 1970s, as part of her research on Edward Burne-Jones, Fitzgerald became friends with a Swiss art curator, Mary Chamot, who had been brought up in pre-revolution Russia. Chamot's family had had a greenhouse business in Moscow since the mid-1800s, and they had stayed on for a few years after the revolution. The original title of the novel was to be "The Greenhouse". Later, Fitzgerald considered "Nellie and Lisa", but her editor did not approve and suggested "The Coming of Spring" instead, an idea that the author modified for the published title.' (Wik) ***Second printing of the true first edition, complete in its original dustwrapper. Booker Prize shortlisted for 1988. A nice reading copy of the novel. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc. Seller Inventory # 8519
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Hardcover. Condition: As New. No Jacket. Pages are clean and are not marred by notes or folds of any kind. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 1.05. Seller Inventory # G0002232618I2N00
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