FITZGERALD, Penelope ~ The Beginning of Spring. Signed by the author.

FIRST UK PRINTING. Collins, London: 1988

8vo., dark green boards lettered in gilt to spine with publisher's device to foot; in the unclipped pictorial dustwrapper (£10.95 net) featuring an illustration by Frederic Cayley Robinson; THE BOOK essentially fine, aside from tiny bruise to foot of spine and spot to upper edge and previous ownership signature to front free endpaper; THE WRAPPER also fine, with the lightest creasing to the edges. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. First edition, first printing. Signed by the author in blue ink beneath her crossed-out name to title 'Best wishes Penelope Fitzgerald'. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, 'The Beginning of Spring' was inspired by Fitzgerald's travels to Moscow in the mid 1970s, during which time she visited Tolstoy's house and a dacha, or country house, in a birch forest. Fitzgerald had always regarded Russian literature highly, and had studied the language in the 1960s. In 1970, she befriended the Swiss art curator, Mary Chamot, whose family owned a greenhouse business in Moscow, and the plot of 'The Beginning of Spring' developed directly from these experiences. Set in the capital city in 1913 just before the Bolshevik revolution, the story follows Frank, an English printer, whose wife has left him, and his subsequent relationship with Lisa, a beautiful Russian woman who he employs to look after his children. The novel was originally titled 'The Greenhouse', but was changed at the request of Fitzgerald's editor. "Reading a Penelope Fitzgerald novel is like being taken for a ride in a peculiar kind of car", author Sebastian Faulks once wrote of her work, "Everything is of top quality – the engine, the coachwork and the interior all fill you with confidence. Then, after a mile or so, someone throws the steering-wheel out of the window." A lovely example.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Near Fine
JACKET: Fine