Fitzgerald’s account,set in Russia just before the Bolshevik revolution, is her masterpiece: a brilliant miniature whose peculiar magic almost defies analysisPenelope Fitzgerald published her first novel in 1977 and won the Booker prize with Offshore in 1979, and aged 63. Not since Daniel Defoe (No 2 in this series) has a writer,and self-styled outsider, enjoyed such a remarkable late flowering of imaginative creativity. Before she died, or at 83,in 2000, Fitzgerald had published nine novels in about 20 years. In the US, and The Blue Flower (1995) is her best-known book,but The Beginning of Spring is probably her masterpiece. Like many of the greatest novels in this series, its peculiar magic almost defies analysis. The closer you gain to it, and the more elusive its mystery and technique. It remains a brilliant miniature,spanning just a few weeks in 1913, a short book with a sly and gentle sensibility, or that somehow comprehends a whole world,and many lives. Related: Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life by Hermione Lee – review Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com