FITZGERALD, Penelope ~ Innocence. Signed and inscribed by the author.

FIRST UK PRINTING. Collins, London: 1986

8vo., terracotta boards lettered in gilt to spine with publisher's device to foot; together in the unclipped pictorial dustwrapper (£9.95 net) featuring a detail taken from The Annunciation by Pontormo in S. Michele, Carmignano, Florence; THE BOOK with tiny bruises to spine tips, else fine; THE WRAPPER aside from very slight creasing and dustiness, also fine. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. First UK edition, first printing. This copy signed by the author beneath her crossed-out name to title, together with the inscription 'Michael - best wishes' at upper margin. The sixth novel by the booker prize-winning author, set in Italy in the 1950s, and one of four historical novels published towards the end of her career. Fitzgerald was almost 70 years old when the book was published, and had moved away from the works which had been rooted in her own personal experiences, and towards peoples, cultures and countries which did not closely mirror her own life. "[I] had finished writing about the things in my own life, which I wanted to write about", she claimed. The author had travelled many times to Italy, and her husband Desmond had served in the country during the Second World War. Drawing directly from these inspirations, Fitzgerald crafted a narrative in post-war Italy, and surrounding the Ridolfi family, a family of Florentine lineage. The plot focuses on Chiara, the eighteen year old daughter who has her sights set on Salvatore, a young and fiercely independent doctor, and combines their love story with the politics of family, money, and tradition. "Such people tend to think that love in itself is sufficient" Julian Barnes wrote of Fitzgerald's 'Italian Novel', "and that happiness might be its merited consequence. They speak their minds at the wrong time and in the wrong way; they deal in a kind of robustly harmful innocence." A lovely example.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Fine
JACKET: Fine