Human Voices - Softcover

Fitzgerald, Penelope

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0544484088 ISBN 13: 9780544484085

Publisher: Harper Paperbacks, 2015

Synopsis

"A wonderful combination of deadpan English comedy and surreal farce." -- A. S. Byatt "A tribute to the unsung and quintessentially English heroism of imperfect people." -- New Criterion

When British listeners tuned in to the BBC's Nine O'Clock News in the middle of 1940, they had no idea what human dramas--and follies--were unfolding behind the scenes. Targeted by enemy bombers, the BBC had turned its concert hall into a dormitory for both sexes, and personal chaos rivaled the political. Amidst the bombs and broadcasts two program directors fight for power while their younger female assistants fall prey to affairs, abandonment, and unrequited love. Reading this intimate glimpse behind the scenes of the BBC in its heyday, "one is left with the sensation," William Boyd wrote in London Magazine, "that this is what it was really like."

This new edition features an introduction by Mark Damazer, along with new cover art.

About this title

Review:

Having come late to fiction--she was past 60 when her first novel appeared--Penelope Fitzgerald has made up for lost time. Three of her nine books were shortlisted for Britain's Booker Prize, whish she won in 1979 for Offshore. Her novel The Blue Flower, based on the life of the German poet Novalis, nabbed the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction.

"Awards are one thing, talent's another, and Fitzgerald has it in spades. Warm and wry, her writing is as economical as it is perfect. It's always a pleasure to see a new book under her name." -- Washington Post

"Fitzgerald is one of the finest living English writers, and readers acquainted only with her prize-winning historical novel of Germany, The Blue Flower, will relish encountering her on her home territory. Her beautifully economic fictions are always alive with meticulous, surprising phrases, whether she's conveying the expectant dread in England in 1940, when invasion seemed imminent, or writing about something more pragmatic, such as workers carrying on 'with the exalted remorselessness characteristic of anyone who starts moving furniture.'" -- Salon

From the Publisher:

From the reviews of Human Voices
"One of the pleasures of reading Penelope Fitzgerald is the unpredicatability of her intelligence, which never loses its quality but springs constant surprises, and if you make the mistake of reading her fast because she is so readable, you will miss some of her best jokes. I wish it were longer...for it is certainly a very funny novel about the BBC, and that in itself is an occasion for joy." Michael Ratcliffe, The Times

"A delightfully whimsical account of life in Portland Place during the London blitz...there are some very funny incidents and passages, and delicious insights into the quirkiness of human behaviour under stress." Nina Bawden, Daily Telegraph

"It is hard to describe the peculiar quality of Penelope Fitzgerald's gift. Human Voices is comic, and sometimes extraordinarily sad... I enjoyed it very much." A.S.Byatt, TLS

"Made me laugh out loud as I have hardly done since Cold Comfort Farm. Brilliantly funny." Marghanita Laski, Country Life

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0544484088
• ISBN 13: 9780544484085
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 224