The Blue Flower - Penelope Fitzgerald

nAn astonishing book . . .

Fitzgerald's greatest triumph. --New York Times Book Review nThe 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? n nThe 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. n nAn extraordinary imagining .

. . an original masterpiece.

--Hermione Lee, Financial Timesn