Human Voices by Penelope Fitzgerald

Human Voices by Penelope Fitzgerald

A tribute to the unsung and quintessentially English heroism of imperfect people. New Criterion

When British listeners tuned in to the BC's Nine O'Clock News in the middle of 1940, they had no idea what human dramas and follies were unfolding behind the scenes. Targeted by enemy bombers, the BC had turned its concert hall into a dormitory for both sexes, and personal chaos rivaled the political. Amidst the bombs and broadcasts two program directors fight for power while their younger female assistants fall prey to affairs, abandonment, and unrequited love. Reading this intimate glimpse behind the scenes of the BC in its heyday, one is left with the sensation, William Boyd wrote in London Magazine, that this is what it was really like.

Human Voices is funny and touching and authentic, but it is more. It is affirmative in the best and most important sense. Sunday Times

Perfectly describes the moment when the British stiff upper lip begins to tremble in the face of overwhelming historical and emotional events. Publishers Weekly

PENELOPE FITZGERALD (1916 2000) was one of the most elegant and distinctive voices in British fiction. She won the National Book Critics Circle Award in fiction for The Blue Flower, the Booker Prize for Offshore, and three of her novels The Bookshop, The Gate of Angels, and The Beginning of Spring were short-listed for the Booker Prize.

Fitzgerald, Penelope: - PENELOPE FITZGERALD wrote many books small in size but enormous in popular and critical acclaim over the past two decades. Over 300,000 copies of her novels are in print, and profiles of her life appeared in both The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine. In 1979, her novel Offshore won Britain's Booker Prize, and in 1998 she won the National Book Critics Circle Prize for The Blue Flower. Though Fitzgerald embarked on her literary career when she was in her 60's, her career was praised as the best argument ... for a publishing debut made late in life (New York Times Book Review). She told the New York Times Magazine, In all that time, I could have written books and I didn't. I think you can write at any time of your life. Dinitia Smith, in her New York Times Obituary of May 3, 2000, quoted Penelope Fitzgerald from 1998 as saying, I have remained true to my deepest convictions, I mean to the courage of those who are born to be defeated, the weaknesses of the strong, and the tragedy of misunderstandings and missed opportunities, which I have done my best to treat as comedy, for otherwise how can we manage to bear it?

SKU	CIN039595617XG
ISBN 13	9780395956175
ISBN 10	039595617X
Title	Human Voices
Author	Penelope Fitzgerald
Condition	Good
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Houghton Mifflin
Year published	1999-05-05
Number of pages	143
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us