The Blue Flower

Penelope Fitzgeralds talent found its fullest expression in the last novel she wrote
before her death, The Blue Flower. It is a fictionalised account of the tragic love of the
young Fritz von Hardenburg, who later became famous as the poet Novalis, for the girl
Sophie. It draws the reader into the world of 18th century Germany from the beginning,
with its description of the annual wash day at the Hardenburg household. It whisks the
reader effortlessly round the life of the time, of students at university, of the work of
inspectors of salt mines, of the running of large households. The author has the gift, like
Jane Austen, of sketching in the characters who inhabit this world with just a few lines of
dialogue. Funny, moving, tragic, enigmatic, the story unfolds in such a way that, without
understanding how she works her magic, we are captivated.
December 2005
Vidya Borooah