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Penelope Fitzgerald

ペネロープ・メアリー・フィッツジェラルド

Penelope Fitzgerald

Aliases: Penelope Mary Knox
Pen Names: Penelope Mary Knox（Birth name / maiden name (used before marriage)）

Profile

Gender
Female
Born
1916-12-17 （Lincoln, England）
Died
2000-04-28 （London, England） age 83
Nationality
British
Languages
English
Residence History
Hampstead, London → Southwold, Suffolk → Battersea, London — houseboat

Career

Occupations
Novelist, Poet, Essayist, Biographer, Teacher
Active Years
1938-2000
Influenced By
Jane Austen, Edward Burne-Jones, Novalis

Education

Wycombe Abbey
Period: 通学（詳細不明）
Country: United Kingdom
Attended an independent girls' boarding school
Somerville College, Oxford University
English / Literature
Degree: BA (congratulatory First)
Period: 1930年代（卒業 1938）
Year of Graduation: 1938
Country: United Kingdom
Graduated with a congratulatory First in 1938; named 'Woman of the Year' in the student newspaper Isis.

Awards

Booker Prize
1979
Work: Offshore
Organization: Booker Prize organization
Result: 受賞
National Book Critics Circle Award
1997
Work: The Blue Flower
Organization: National Book Critics Circle
Result: 受賞
Golden PEN Award
1999
Organization: English PEN
Result: 受賞（功労賞）

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The Golden Child

1977 Murder mystery / comic

A comic murder mystery set in a museum, inspired by 1970s Tutankhamun mania.

HumourSatire

The Bookshop

1978 Novel (regional)

A story of a struggling bookshop in a fictional East Anglian town, set in 1959; the decision to stock 'Lolita' is pivotal.

IsolationCommunityCulture and censorship
Adaptations
  • [Film] The Bookshop (film) / Isabel Coixet (2017)

Offshore

1979 Novel (social)

Set among houseboat residents in Battersea in 1961. Winner of the 1979 Booker Prize.

CommunityEconomic hardshipInterpersonal relationships

Human Voices

1980 Novel (wartime fiction)

Fictionalises wartime life at the BBC, reflecting Fitzgerald's own wartime experience at the corporation.

War and everyday lifeWorkplace dynamics

At Freddie's

1982 Novel (school drama)

Depicts life at a drama school, drawing on Fitzgerald's experience as a teacher.

EducationAmbitionComing of age

Innocence

1986 Novel (historical / romance)

A romance set in 1950s Florence, reflecting Italian political and social contexts.

LoveClass differencesCultural clash

The Beginning of Spring

1988 Novel (historical)

Set in Moscow in 1913, examining the world before the Russian Revolution through family and work troubles.

ModernizationFamilyForeshadowing change

The Gate of Angels

1990 Novel (historical / romance)

Set in Cambridge in 1912, about a young physicist who falls in love with a nursing trainee amid a period of scientific revolution.

Science and humanityLoveIntellectual change

The Blue Flower

1995 Novel (historical)

Centers on the 18th-century German poet and philosopher Novalis and his love as portrayed in the novel. Widely called a masterpiece and winner of the 1997 NBCC Award.

RomanticismArt and loveRepresentation of historical figures
Adaptations
  • [Radio drama] The Blue Flower (BBC radio dramatization) / Peter Wolf (1999)

The Means of Escape

2000 Short story collection

A posthumous collection of Fitzgerald's short stories. The 2001 paperback edition contains two additional stories.

Interpersonal relationshipsShort-fiction parable

Bibliography

  • Edward Burne-Jones (biography, 1975)
  • The Knox Brothers (1977)
  • Charlotte Mew and Her Friends (1984)
  • The Golden Child (1977)
  • The Bookshop (1978)
  • Offshore (1979)
  • Human Voices (1980)
  • At Freddie's (1982)
  • Innocence (1986)
  • The Beginning of Spring (1988)
  • The Gate of Angels (1990)
  • The Blue Flower (1995)
  • The Means of Escape (2000)
  • A House of Air: Selected Writings (2003; US title: The Afterlife)

Adaptations

  • The Bookshop (film, 2017)
  • The Blue Flower (BBC radio dramatization, 1999)

Translations of Works

  • The Blue Flower (Japanese translation)
  • The Bookshop (Japanese translation)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Concise, restrained proseBlend of humour and pathosPrecise observation and meticulous description
Recurring Motifs
Small isolated communitiesEconomic hardship and struggleHistorical figures and recollection of the past

Legacy

Penelope Fitzgerald gained increasing critical recognition later in life; her concise, exact prose and historical novels place her among the important British writers of the late 20th century. Her papers and correspondence are held by institutions including the British Library and the Harry Ransom Center.

Museums

  • British Library (holds the Penelope Fitzgerald archive) London, United Kingdom Opened in 1973

Archives

  • British Library (Penelope Fitzgerald archive; acquired 2017)
  • Harry Ransom Center (University of Texas at Austin)

In Popular Culture

  • Film adaptation of The Bookshop (2017) revived wider public interest

Quotes

  • When I was young I took my father and my three uncles for granted, and it never occurred to me that everyone else wasn't like them.
    Source: Interview / memoir (source unspecified)

Trivia

  • Launched her literary career at age 58 (1975).
  • Taught until she was 70 years old.
  • Her Battersea houseboat sank twice; the second sinking destroyed many books and family papers.
  • Her husband Desmond was disbarred and later struggled with alcoholism.
  • The British Library acquired her archive in 2017.