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Offshore, Human Voices, The Beginning of Spring
After publishing her first novel in 1977 at the age of sixty-one, Penelope Fitzgerald (1916-2000) went on to become one of the most remarkable and highly acclaimed English writers of the last century. Each of the three novels gathered here vividly and unforgettably conjures up an entire world.
The Booker Prize-winning novel Offshore limns the marginal existence of an eccentric assortment of barge dwellers on the Thames in the early 1960s, a group of misfits who are drawn to life on the muddy river in exile from the world of the landlocked. Human Voices takes us behind the scenes at the BBC during World War II, as world-weary directors and nubile young assistants attempt to save Britain’s heritage and keep Britons calm in the face of a feared German invasion. In The Beginning of Spring, a struggling English printer living in Moscow in 1913 is abandoned by his wife and left alone to care for his three young children in the face of the impending revolution.
Fitzgerald is a genius of the relevant detail and the deftly sketched context, and these narrative gems are marvels of compassion, wit, and piercing insight.
The Booker Prize-winning novel Offshore limns the marginal existence of an eccentric assortment of barge dwellers on the Thames in the early 1960s, a group of misfits who are drawn to life on the muddy river in exile from the world of the landlocked. Human Voices takes us behind the scenes at the BBC during World War II, as world-weary directors and nubile young assistants attempt to save Britain’s heritage and keep Britons calm in the face of a feared German invasion. In The Beginning of Spring, a struggling English printer living in Moscow in 1913 is abandoned by his wife and left alone to care for his three young children in the face of the impending revolution.
Fitzgerald is a genius of the relevant detail and the deftly sketched context, and these narrative gems are marvels of compassion, wit, and piercing insight.
442 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1988
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292 people want to read
About the author
Penelope Fitzgerald
44 books775 followersPenelope Mary Fitzgerald was a Booker Prize-winning novelist, poet, essayist and biographer from Lincoln, England. In 2008 The Times listed her among "the 50 greatest British writers since 1945". The Observer in 2012 placed her final novel, The Blue Flower, among "the ten best historical novels". A.S. Byatt called her, "Jane Austen’s nearest heir for precision and invention."
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March 29, 2024It is great that this edition is contributing to keep Fitzgerald in print and so in readers' awareness, though I do feel that I have overdosed reading three of her novels together, but I must confess that actually I read five in one go, which is more than greedy - first Human Voices, then I reread the beginning of spring, followed by reading offshore at which point I started to read this book on Goodreads, before rereading human voices and finally rerereading the beginning of spring. So naturally I feel as though I have scoffed the entire cake, and yes that probably is whipped cram, jam, and chocolate round my mouth and on my clothes, why do you ask?
More seriously is this a sensible combination of books? The first two belong together, one was published directly before the other, both are autobiographical, both are London novels. I don't feel they sit comfortably with the beginning of spring, which is one of her late novels - I suppose all her novels were late, but the last three (or possibly four, I haven't read Innocence yet, were even later than her first few. In the late novels she moves away from her autobiographical material and moves more freely in time and space.
I haven't read enough late twentieth century British literature to say that she is the best or unjustly under appreciated, but she does resonate with me. She is slightly old fashioned as a writer. Another review compares her to Vermeer, there is a relatively small body of work of enigmatic pieces which promise that if you pay attention that you can find hidden or obscured meanings. I also think of Anita Brookner as a painterly novelist, though I feel that Brookner's sense of alienation, a sense of being an outsider, powers her novels, while for Fitzgerald it is her life, at first directly in her first novels, later possibly indirectly drawing on her emotional experience. In Hermione Lee's biography Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life she says that Fitzgerald's books of the century were Conrad's The Secret Agent, Alain-Fournier's Le Grand Meaulnes Kafka's The Trial and Sveto's Confessions of Zeno, elsewhere in the biography she says that Fitzgerald admired Alberto Moravia, Tolstoy's late short stories, Thomas Mann's novellas and Samuel Beckett, particularly Molloy.
Anyhow what should I do? Sit here and frown some more at the screen - generally a favoured option, review the three separately, review them together, do both a collective appreciation with individual reviews? Clearly a grave predicament for which I blame the publisher, Everyman books, although I do like their paper and binding, and the introduction was ok too.
Still reading them together does show them in a different light. I did wonder about the meaning of the presence of Beckstein pianos in two of the novels, I noticed that the setting of the Beginning of Spring and offshore is the same - children, married parents, one of whom is absent and who the other yearns for - this is her own story and we are these marriages not exactly from the perspective of the children, but from the fruit we gain an idea about the tree. The family situations are similar, both are English but marginalised from mainstream English society, one family living on a decaying boat on the Thames, the other in Moscow.
I think you could go on finding links and overlaps between the novels. I used to always suggest Gate of Angels as a good starting point with Fitzgerald, but you could dive in anywhere, perhaps you'll hit a wreck or find a pearl, maybe both.
But if you have the temperament for wry, tragi-comedies, or comi-tragedies, with abrupt endings and minimal plot, that are always about particular places and the people who inhabit them, then Fitzgerald is there for you waiting to be read.
More seriously is this a sensible combination of books? The first two belong together, one was published directly before the other, both are autobiographical, both are London novels. I don't feel they sit comfortably with the beginning of spring, which is one of her late novels - I suppose all her novels were late, but the last three (or possibly four, I haven't read Innocence yet, were even later than her first few. In the late novels she moves away from her autobiographical material and moves more freely in time and space.
I haven't read enough late twentieth century British literature to say that she is the best or unjustly under appreciated, but she does resonate with me. She is slightly old fashioned as a writer. Another review compares her to Vermeer, there is a relatively small body of work of enigmatic pieces which promise that if you pay attention that you can find hidden or obscured meanings. I also think of Anita Brookner as a painterly novelist, though I feel that Brookner's sense of alienation, a sense of being an outsider, powers her novels, while for Fitzgerald it is her life, at first directly in her first novels, later possibly indirectly drawing on her emotional experience. In Hermione Lee's biography Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life she says that Fitzgerald's books of the century were Conrad's The Secret Agent, Alain-Fournier's Le Grand Meaulnes Kafka's The Trial and Sveto's Confessions of Zeno, elsewhere in the biography she says that Fitzgerald admired Alberto Moravia, Tolstoy's late short stories, Thomas Mann's novellas and Samuel Beckett, particularly Molloy.
Anyhow what should I do? Sit here and frown some more at the screen - generally a favoured option, review the three separately, review them together, do both a collective appreciation with individual reviews? Clearly a grave predicament for which I blame the publisher, Everyman books, although I do like their paper and binding, and the introduction was ok too.
Still reading them together does show them in a different light. I did wonder about the meaning of the presence of Beckstein pianos in two of the novels, I noticed that the setting of the Beginning of Spring and offshore is the same - children, married parents, one of whom is absent and who the other yearns for - this is her own story and we are these marriages not exactly from the perspective of the children, but from the fruit we gain an idea about the tree. The family situations are similar, both are English but marginalised from mainstream English society, one family living on a decaying boat on the Thames, the other in Moscow.
I think you could go on finding links and overlaps between the novels. I used to always suggest Gate of Angels as a good starting point with Fitzgerald, but you could dive in anywhere, perhaps you'll hit a wreck or find a pearl, maybe both.
But if you have the temperament for wry, tragi-comedies, or comi-tragedies, with abrupt endings and minimal plot, that are always about particular places and the people who inhabit them, then Fitzgerald is there for you waiting to be read.
September 18, 2007
In my opinion, Penelope Fitzgerald is one of the most under-rated writers of our age. Her prose is spare, lucid and extraordinarily evocative. Her early novels are rooted in experience (of life on a London houseboat, running a decidedly third rate drama school etc). In her later years she turned to historical settings, but retained her ability to transport the reader to a demi-monde that consumes our interest in unexpected ways.
June 19, 2023
Fitzgerald schrijft zo verschrikkelijk goed en elegant dat je haar vergeeft dat vrijwel alles wat ze schrijft plotloos is. Prachtig
January 21, 2018
"Offshore" - the first novella I read - and in which Penelope Fitzgerald won the Booker Prize in 1979 - was not fabulous, not great, not five stars - but wonderful, brilliant, amazing, and ten stars!!!!!!!
And then - after doing some massive research, after falling in love with Penelope Fitzgerald - I decided to read "The Beginning of Spring" - and it was horrible. Horrible is a strong word, but after reading the WONDERFUL "Offshore" - I so, so, so, so recommend it - but after reading "Offshore," The Beginning of Spring was just a complete and UTTER letdown.
The Five Stars - and should be ten and a hundred stars! - is for "Offshore." If there were a zero option, I'd give that to "The Beginning of Spring."
But harsh as that sounds, Penelope Fitzgerald is an underrated treasure. Underrated, underrated. I am hoping that The Beginning of Spring is merely an anomaly.
Read "Offshore!" It is wonderful.
And then - after doing some massive research, after falling in love with Penelope Fitzgerald - I decided to read "The Beginning of Spring" - and it was horrible. Horrible is a strong word, but after reading the WONDERFUL "Offshore" - I so, so, so, so recommend it - but after reading "Offshore," The Beginning of Spring was just a complete and UTTER letdown.
The Five Stars - and should be ten and a hundred stars! - is for "Offshore." If there were a zero option, I'd give that to "The Beginning of Spring."
But harsh as that sounds, Penelope Fitzgerald is an underrated treasure. Underrated, underrated. I am hoping that The Beginning of Spring is merely an anomaly.
Read "Offshore!" It is wonderful.
March 10, 2019
I read this after watching the movie of The Bookstore (which I loved) I was persuaded by the fact that this had won a Booker prize. I couldn't work out who was who and the switching between the character name and the barge name just confused me. Given that the place where the barges were moored is now prime real estate with multi million pound flats owned by Russian oligarchs and when this was written in the 1970s the people living on the barges were described as river rats and were literally scraping a living finding treasure in the Thames mud. Strange little book but visually strong and quite memorable.
September 21, 2025
Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald
Offshore is a wonderful novel, rather short, but exceptional, with characters that try to find a way in their confusion, seeing as they live on the water, but anchored, tied near the shore, in a domain that is not sailing, navigation, but it can neither be called suburban, country or urban accommodation.
Woodie, who lives on the Rochester is perhaps the only one who lives on his houseboat only for the summer season and then he and his wife, Janet, move to Purley.
Most of the narrative follows Nenna James, who is Canadian, not yet thirty, but has two daughters, Martha, who is eleven and Tilda who is six.
Nenna lives separated from her husband, on the boat Grace and the author has drawn inspiration from her own living on the Thames, at Battersea.
On the one hand, Nenna James is determined, brave, outspoken, resilient and like able, but on the other hand, she has chosen poorly, for her husband, Edward, appears as a failure, neglecting father and spent human being.
This man has went to Central America to work, saying she cannot take his family, but when he returned, he rather lived with a school friend and his mother than move back with his wife and daughters.
Nenna decides to visit her estranged spouse, travels all the way across London and is stopped at the door by the friend, who only reluctantly admits her to the house.
It is more than an outre arrangement, with uncomfortable premises, in which the friend starts playing the piano, which sounds like some cats crying and prompts the protagonist, when the mother of the friend talks about her son as a pianist, to say...
No, he is not.
She is accused by her husband of always antagonizing others and other such exaggerated, trumped up charges and besides, he has no intention to come and live on the boat with his wife and children.
The hero is devasted by this attitude and she walks out of the house in a hurry, clashing with the owner of the apartment and leaving her purse behind.
It is late, she has no money and needs to travel all the way the houseboat, she walks losing her way, meets a predator, loses one shoe and then the other, is injured and finally taken home by a Good Samaritan, a taxi driver that knowing she has no money, helps her and takes her to Grace.
In the first chapter, Richard Blake, married to Laura, seems to be the main character, he is the one who helps organize subscriptions when a member of the inhabitants of houseboats is in need, he appears to be crucial for the survival of these people.
Richard has been in Royal Navy, he is a perfect gentleman, polite, always ready to offer support, with two handkerchiefs on him, even when he is just relaxing at four a.m., yet overcome when it comes to words and expressing feelings.
After Nenna returns from her night of adventure in London and the fiasco of the meeting with her husband, she finds Richard Blake at four in the morning, awake on board his ship, Lord Jim and they talk about his wife having left him, at least that is his impression and about emotions.
The man is of the opinion that expressing feelings, talking about our inner lives diminishes somehow the emotions.
Nenna explains that she has always been like that, talkative, although she finds the questions about what she feels for Edward, if she loves him awkward, somewhat embarrassing and she cannot answer clearly, saying first no, then adding that she has stopped hating him.
Her daughters are absent from school and the father from the institution comes to have a word about that...they may move to Canada, for Nenna's sister is in Europe and has some plans about getting them all off that unhealthy boat and all the way near the aunt.
The girls are extremely smart, amusing, able to understand so much and they love each other and spend almost all the time together, except when the sixteen year old count arrives from Vienna, for a two day stop in London and Martha takes him along to see the Swinging Capital.
There is a worry that Tilda, as she is alone on their boat and observes a villain on the neighbor Maurice's property, might get abused, because the criminal starts talking about things he wants to show her, pictures with acts she has no idea about and such horrendous propositions.
If only six, Tilda is composed, Emotionally Intelligent, she does not listen for a bit to the villain, rejects all his offers, form her own houseboat and indicates that she knows he is a thief and good for nothing, if not in those words.
Alas, Richard is not so lucky, for he observes the same suspicious activity and in his regular manner, he cannot help but make sure everything is proper and when he understands that Maurice will have damage on his property, he tries to interfere.
Offshore is an excellent, phenomenal novel!
Offshore is a wonderful novel, rather short, but exceptional, with characters that try to find a way in their confusion, seeing as they live on the water, but anchored, tied near the shore, in a domain that is not sailing, navigation, but it can neither be called suburban, country or urban accommodation.
Woodie, who lives on the Rochester is perhaps the only one who lives on his houseboat only for the summer season and then he and his wife, Janet, move to Purley.
Most of the narrative follows Nenna James, who is Canadian, not yet thirty, but has two daughters, Martha, who is eleven and Tilda who is six.
Nenna lives separated from her husband, on the boat Grace and the author has drawn inspiration from her own living on the Thames, at Battersea.
On the one hand, Nenna James is determined, brave, outspoken, resilient and like able, but on the other hand, she has chosen poorly, for her husband, Edward, appears as a failure, neglecting father and spent human being.
This man has went to Central America to work, saying she cannot take his family, but when he returned, he rather lived with a school friend and his mother than move back with his wife and daughters.
Nenna decides to visit her estranged spouse, travels all the way across London and is stopped at the door by the friend, who only reluctantly admits her to the house.
It is more than an outre arrangement, with uncomfortable premises, in which the friend starts playing the piano, which sounds like some cats crying and prompts the protagonist, when the mother of the friend talks about her son as a pianist, to say...
No, he is not.
She is accused by her husband of always antagonizing others and other such exaggerated, trumped up charges and besides, he has no intention to come and live on the boat with his wife and children.
The hero is devasted by this attitude and she walks out of the house in a hurry, clashing with the owner of the apartment and leaving her purse behind.
It is late, she has no money and needs to travel all the way the houseboat, she walks losing her way, meets a predator, loses one shoe and then the other, is injured and finally taken home by a Good Samaritan, a taxi driver that knowing she has no money, helps her and takes her to Grace.
In the first chapter, Richard Blake, married to Laura, seems to be the main character, he is the one who helps organize subscriptions when a member of the inhabitants of houseboats is in need, he appears to be crucial for the survival of these people.
Richard has been in Royal Navy, he is a perfect gentleman, polite, always ready to offer support, with two handkerchiefs on him, even when he is just relaxing at four a.m., yet overcome when it comes to words and expressing feelings.
After Nenna returns from her night of adventure in London and the fiasco of the meeting with her husband, she finds Richard Blake at four in the morning, awake on board his ship, Lord Jim and they talk about his wife having left him, at least that is his impression and about emotions.
The man is of the opinion that expressing feelings, talking about our inner lives diminishes somehow the emotions.
Nenna explains that she has always been like that, talkative, although she finds the questions about what she feels for Edward, if she loves him awkward, somewhat embarrassing and she cannot answer clearly, saying first no, then adding that she has stopped hating him.
Her daughters are absent from school and the father from the institution comes to have a word about that...they may move to Canada, for Nenna's sister is in Europe and has some plans about getting them all off that unhealthy boat and all the way near the aunt.
The girls are extremely smart, amusing, able to understand so much and they love each other and spend almost all the time together, except when the sixteen year old count arrives from Vienna, for a two day stop in London and Martha takes him along to see the Swinging Capital.
There is a worry that Tilda, as she is alone on their boat and observes a villain on the neighbor Maurice's property, might get abused, because the criminal starts talking about things he wants to show her, pictures with acts she has no idea about and such horrendous propositions.
If only six, Tilda is composed, Emotionally Intelligent, she does not listen for a bit to the villain, rejects all his offers, form her own houseboat and indicates that she knows he is a thief and good for nothing, if not in those words.
Alas, Richard is not so lucky, for he observes the same suspicious activity and in his regular manner, he cannot help but make sure everything is proper and when he understands that Maurice will have damage on his property, he tries to interfere.
Offshore is an excellent, phenomenal novel!
August 19, 2024
This was a really interesting read and though I did not connect entirely to all the tales, I was still impressed by the writing and descriptions. The best was definitely the last one, The Awakening of Spring. For that one, I didn't mind it didn't necessarily go anywhere for a while, but I finally got it. There were many themes which were repeated in these three stories (estrange spouses, older man loving a younger woman, precocious children) which also made it a bit predictable, but such is the case with short stories.
March 29, 2019
The Beginning of Spring: marvelous & strange.
Want to read
April 6, 2015SUPRISIngly many reviews of her novels on goodreads! [due to booker prize?]
[see my other TO-READ of hers [innocence]]
I saw an ad for a new book:
"Penelope Fitzgerald: a life" by Hermione Lee [2014 or 2015]
This biography [said to be excellent] was reviewed in LRB 19 dec 2013 by jenny turner: "In the potato patch"
Fitz is a very literary writer, in the sense of drawing a lot [tho often implicitly so I would not even know, probably] on other literature, incl. Tolstoy, the German Romantics, a poem used in Winterreise, and so on.
Her early [i.e. before the novels] bio of Burne -Jones [painter] might be worth reading too.
A.S.Byatt: "her novels are best approached as very English versions of European metaphysical fables".
Her husband was badly damaged in WW II and came back violent and unemployable>>> living near poverty level, raising 3 children, struggling to make ends meet. So writing career postponed to age 60... [she was raised in a well to do family and all were highly educated].
Books she has written include Human Voices 1980 about BBC in WW II [holland.net has it = library loan]
At Freddie's 82
Beg of spring 88, set in Moscow, a British couple [holland.net has it = library loan]
gate of angels [historical novel, 1990[holland.net has it = library loan]
bookshop, 78, her first novel i believe [holland.net has it = library loan]
offshore 79 [holland.net has it = library loan]
blue flower [fict bio of german poet] [holland.net has it = library loan]
[see my other TO-READ of hers [innocence]]
I saw an ad for a new book:
"Penelope Fitzgerald: a life" by Hermione Lee [2014 or 2015]
This biography [said to be excellent] was reviewed in LRB 19 dec 2013 by jenny turner: "In the potato patch"
Fitz is a very literary writer, in the sense of drawing a lot [tho often implicitly so I would not even know, probably] on other literature, incl. Tolstoy, the German Romantics, a poem used in Winterreise, and so on.
Her early [i.e. before the novels] bio of Burne -Jones [painter] might be worth reading too.
A.S.Byatt: "her novels are best approached as very English versions of European metaphysical fables".
Her husband was badly damaged in WW II and came back violent and unemployable>>> living near poverty level, raising 3 children, struggling to make ends meet. So writing career postponed to age 60... [she was raised in a well to do family and all were highly educated].
Books she has written include Human Voices 1980 about BBC in WW II [holland.net has it = library loan]
At Freddie's 82
Beg of spring 88, set in Moscow, a British couple [holland.net has it = library loan]
gate of angels [historical novel, 1990[holland.net has it = library loan]
bookshop, 78, her first novel i believe [holland.net has it = library loan]
offshore 79 [holland.net has it = library loan]
blue flower [fict bio of german poet] [holland.net has it = library loan]
June 28, 2016
Three novellas in which people make the best (or a mess) of difficult circumstances. The author has a wonderful knack for demonstrating how a character's inner life intersects with events beyond their control. I know I'll reread these again in a few years and enjoy them just as much!
June 8, 2011
I am falling in love with Penelope Fitzgerald's elegantly unpredictable novels.
June 16, 2013
Penelope Fitzgerald--brilliant as always.
August 28, 2014
The Beginning of Spring. 8/28/14
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews