A House of Air: Selected Writings

by Penelope Fitzgerald

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WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY HERMIONE LEE The previously uncollected occasional prose of a great English writer - full of wit, feeling and illumination. Penelope Fitzgerald was a prolific letter writer. She avoided the phone if she could, never even contemplated the possibility of going online. Her warmth, humour and supreme storytelling abilities found their best forum here. Surprising, wonderfully funny, definitive, this is a major collection of Penelope Fitzgerald's reviews, essays and show more autobiographical writings. This collection includes pieces on contemporary novelists Giles Foden, Anne Enright, Carol Shields, Rose Tremain, Roddy Doy≤ on classic writers Muriel Spark, A.E. Housman, Rose Macaulay, M.R. James, Stevie Smith, Dorothy L. Sayers; on remembering her grandfather E.H. Shepard; on her love of Devon and Spain and William Morris: on writers in their old a≥ and witty and poignant recollections of her schooldays, her life on a Thames barge, her childhood in Hampstead and the ghost who lived next door but one. This is a fantastically funny book - as much of an entertainment as the Kingsley Amis letters. show less

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24+ Works 12,068 Members
In 1997 Penelope Fitzgerald's novel The Blue Flower was named one of the New York Times Book Review's eleven Best Books of the Year. Winner of the 1979 Booker Prize for Offshore, Fitzgerald was also short-listed for the Booker for The Bookshop. The Beginning of Spring, and The Gate of Angels. Penelope Fitzgerald lives in England. (Bowker Author show more Biography) Penelope Fitzgerald, one of England's most-celebrated contemporary writers, is the author of "The Blue Flower," which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Winner of the 1979 Booker Prize for "Offshore," she was also shortlisted for the Booker for "The Bookshop," "The Beginning of Spring," & "The Gate of Angels." She lives in London. (Bowker Author Biography) Admired by many as one of the leading English novelists of her day, Penelope Fitzgerald (1916-2000) wrote some twelve books of fiction and nonfiction over the course of her writing career; which began at the age of sixty. She won the National Book Critics Circle Award for "The Blue Flower" and the Booker Prize for "Offshore". She died on April 28, 2000, at the age of eighty-three. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Some Editions

Lee, Hermione (Introduction)

Common Knowledge

Canonical title
A House of Air: Selected Writings
Alternate titles
The Afterlife: Essays and Criticism (US) (US)
Original publication date
2003
Dedication
For Valpy, Tina and Maria and in memory of Desmond, Mary and Evoe, and Mops

Classifications

Genres
Nonfiction, Literature Studies and Criticism, Fiction and Literature
DDC/MDS
824.914Literature & rhetoricEnglish & Old English literaturesEnglish essaysModern Period20th Century
LCC
PR6056 .I86 .A69Language and LiteratureEnglishEnglish Literature1961-2000
BISAC

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Reviews
1
Rating
(3.83)
Languages
English
Media
Paper, Ebook
ISBNs
5
ASINs
2