The Blue Flower is set in the age of Goethe, in the small towns and great universities of late eighteenth-century Germany. It tells the true story of Friedrich von Hardenberg, a passionate, impetuous student of philosophy who will later gain fame as the Romantic poet Novalis. Fritz seeks his father's permission to wed his "heart's heart," his "spirit's guide"--a plain, simple child named Sophie von K hn. It is an attachment that shocks his family and friends. Their brilliant young Fritz, betrothed to a twelve-year-old dullard? How can this be?

The irrationality of love, the transfiguration of the commonplace, the clarity of purpose that comes with knowing one's own fate--these are the themes of this beguiling novel, themes treated with a mix of wit, grace, and mischievous humor unique to the art of Penelope Fitzgerald.

"An extraordinary imagining . . . an original masterpiece." --Hermione Lee, Financial Times

Item Information Item Information

Format: TradePaperback
Author: Fitzgerald, Penelope
ISBN: 9780544359451
Condition: Used
Dimensions: 7.90 x 0.90
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Year: 2014

The Blue Flower

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