Penelope Fitzgerald
Click to look inside
The feel-good place to buy books
Penelope Fitzgerald by Hermione Lee
This brilliant account by a biographer whom Fitzgerald herself admired pursues her life, her writing, and her secret self, with fascinated interest.
Excellent.. [Hermione] Lee is a perfect choice as Fitzgerald's biographer. She has done a superb job, capturing an elusive personality and a complex, sometimes rather harrowing story. -- Philip Hensher * Guardian *
Lee elucidates the depth of [Fitzgerald's] achievement, and ties it enthrallingly to a life and personality more complex and difficult than anyone imagined. In a perfect literary biography, Lee plumbs the creative mind beneath that persona, tracing the metamorphosis of messy experience into crystalline art. * Financial Times *
Brilliant and passionate...a haunting tale of blighted hope, personal tragedy and rare, late fulfilment. Thanks to this sympathetic biography, [Fitzgerald's] afterlife shows signs of becoming finally blessed with understanding, admiration and respect. -- Robert McCrum * Observer *
Admirable and perceptive... Hermione Lee non-judgmentally excavates this extraordinary life. Her biography is very good indeed -- Susan Hill * The Times *
A worthy monument to one of the finest English novelists of the second half of the 20th century -- Jonathan Derbyshire * Prospect *
Adroitly executed and meticulously researched... insightful... Ms Lee's shrewd examination makes this a riveting biography * Economist *
Lee's absorbing biography is the story of a late starter... [She] is partisan in her project: she means to expose a truth she is certain of -- that Fitzgerald is "a great English writer". Her feat is to have woven an involving narrative out of such a skeletal life....Excellent.... -- Nicholas Shakespeare * Telegraph *
This book will hold insights and treats for any admirer of [Fitzgerald's] fiction, and recruit converts to this reticent, witty, ferocious champion of the utterly downtrodden. -- Emma Townshend * Independent *
Her book is in the very best tradition of critical literary biography. Phenomenally well researched and elegantly written, with a fine, dynamic fluency and lucid understanding, this is a very good biography indeed. * The Tablet *
This elegant, richly researched biography tells a tale of misfortunes borne with dignity, humour and courage, and finally of quiet triumphs -- Michèle Roberts * i *
Lee elucidates the depth of [Fitzgerald's] achievement, and ties it enthrallingly to a life and personality more complex and difficult than anyone imagined. In a perfect literary biography, Lee plumbs the creative mind beneath that persona, tracing the metamorphosis of messy experience into crystalline art. * Financial Times *
Brilliant and passionate...a haunting tale of blighted hope, personal tragedy and rare, late fulfilment. Thanks to this sympathetic biography, [Fitzgerald's] afterlife shows signs of becoming finally blessed with understanding, admiration and respect. -- Robert McCrum * Observer *
Admirable and perceptive... Hermione Lee non-judgmentally excavates this extraordinary life. Her biography is very good indeed -- Susan Hill * The Times *
A worthy monument to one of the finest English novelists of the second half of the 20th century -- Jonathan Derbyshire * Prospect *
Adroitly executed and meticulously researched... insightful... Ms Lee's shrewd examination makes this a riveting biography * Economist *
Lee's absorbing biography is the story of a late starter... [She] is partisan in her project: she means to expose a truth she is certain of -- that Fitzgerald is "a great English writer". Her feat is to have woven an involving narrative out of such a skeletal life....Excellent.... -- Nicholas Shakespeare * Telegraph *
This book will hold insights and treats for any admirer of [Fitzgerald's] fiction, and recruit converts to this reticent, witty, ferocious champion of the utterly downtrodden. -- Emma Townshend * Independent *
Her book is in the very best tradition of critical literary biography. Phenomenally well researched and elegantly written, with a fine, dynamic fluency and lucid understanding, this is a very good biography indeed. * The Tablet *
This elegant, richly researched biography tells a tale of misfortunes borne with dignity, humour and courage, and finally of quiet triumphs -- Michèle Roberts * i *
Hermione Lee is a biographer, critic, and teacher of literature. Her previous books include the internationally acclaimed biography, Virginia Woolf ('One of the most impressive biographies of the decade: moving, eloquent, powerful', Financial Times) and Edith Wharton ('A feat of exhaustive research... a glorious biography', Independent on Sunday), as well as books on Elizabeth Bowen, Willa Cather and Philip Roth. Her collection of essays on life-writing, Body Parts, was published in 2005, and her Biography: A Very Short Introduction in 2009. She is the President of Wolfson College Oxford. In 2013 she was made a Dame for services to Literary Scholarship. She lives in Oxford and Yorkshire.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780701184957 |
| ISBN 10 | 0701184957 |
| Title | Penelope Fitzgerald |
| Author | Hermione Lee |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Vintage Publishing |
| Year published | 2013-11-07 |
| Number of pages | 528 |
| Prizes | Winner of James Tait Black Memorial Prize 2014 (UK) |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |