Synopsis
Set in Moscow in 1913, this novel concerns Frank Reid, whose wife suddenly leaves him without explanation to return to London. The author goes on to depict the Reid household, the expatriate community, Frank's colleagues, friends and children and the Russians with whom he comes into contact. This is set against the background of the life of the city itself, hardly aware of the upheaval about to break upon it. The author has also written "Innocence" and "Offshore".
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Review
In March 1913, Frank Reid's wife abruptly leaves him and Moscow for her native England. Naturally, she takes their daughters and son with her. The children, however, only make it as far as the train station--and even after returning home remain unaffected by their brief exile. "They ought either to be quieter or more noisy than before," their father thinks, "and it was disconcerting that they seemed to be exactly the same." Frank's routines, however, drift into disorder as he tries desperately to take charge of life at home and work. Even his printing plant is suddenly confronted by the specters of modernization and utter instability.
In Penelope Fitzgerald's fiction, affection and remorse are all too often allied, and desire and design seem never to meet. Frank wants little more than a quiet, confident life--something for which he is deeply unsuited, and which Russia certainly will not go out of her way to provide. The Beginning of Spring is filled with echoes of past wrongs and whispers of the revolution to come, even if the author evokes these with abrupt comic brio. (In one disturbance, "A great many shots had hit people for whom they were not intended.") As ever, Fitzgerald makes us care for--and want to know ever more about--her characters, even the minor players. Her two-page description of Frank's chief type compositor, for instance, is a miracle of precision and humor, sympathy and mystery. And the accountant Selwyn Crane--a Tolstoy devotée, self-published poet, and expert at making others feel guilty--is a sublime creation. His appetite for do-gooding is insatiable. After one fit of apparent altriusm, "Selwyn subsided. Now that he saw everything was going well, his mind was turning to his next charitable enterprise. With the terrible aimlessness of the benevolent, he was casting round for a new misfortune." As she evokes her household of tears and laughter, Fitzgerald's prose is as witty as ever, rendering the past present and the modern timeless. --Kerry Fried
Book Description
Mariner paperback, 1998, previous ISBN 978-0-395-90871-6
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The Beginning of Spring
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ISBN 10: 0002232618
ISBN 13: 9780002232616
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The Beginning of Spring
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ISBN 13: 9780002232616
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Hardcover. Condition: Like New. First Edition. First Edition, 2nd Printing. Published by Collins, 1988. Octavo. Hardcover. Book is like new. Dust jacket is like new with price clipped on left flap. Lovely copy of Penelope Fitzgerald's novel.100% positive feedback. 30 day money back guarantee. NEXT DAY SHIPPING! Excellent customer service. Please email with any questions. All books packed carefully and ship with free delivery confirmation/tracking. All books come with free bookmarks. Ships from Sag Harbor, New York. Seller Inventory # 327066
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THE BEGINNING OF SPRING
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Hardcover. First Edition. Octavo, 187 pages. In Very Good condition with a Very Good minus dust jacket. Dust jacket protected with a mylar covering. Spine light grayish green with dark green lettering. Exterior has slight wear including sunning to the spine and minor edge wear. Boards have very slight wear including mild sunning and light edge wear. Text block has very slight wear. First edition. NOTE: Shelved in Locked Annex, Column X. 1407254. FP New Rockville Stock. Seller Inventory # 1407254
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The Beginning of Spring.
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Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. This Book bound in green boards with bright gilt letters on the spine. There is Very, very light wear on the spine tips. The Contents are clean & unmarked. The Dust jacket has very, very light wear on the top tip of the spine and on the 2 top corners. Not price clipped but no price on the flap. Seller Inventory # 158 (box 7)
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The beginning of spring
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ISBN 10: 0002232618
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First Edition. Previous owner's inscription. Fine cloth copy in an equally fine dust-wrapper. Particularly well-preserved overall; tight, bright, clean and especially sharp-cornered. Physical description: 187 pages ; 23cm. Subjects: British -- Russia (Federation) -- Fiction. 3 Kg. Seller Inventory # 304952
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THE BEGINNING OF SPRING (1/2)
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Seller: Orlando Booksellers, Lincoln, United Kingdom
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Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. First Edition. Second printing of the true first edition - Booker Prize short-listed novel. ***Very good in dark green cloth-covered boards with gilt titles to the spine. The boards are clean and unmarked. Corners sharp. Head and tail of spine slightly creased. There is a slight reading lean to the binding and a light vertical reading crease to the spine. Top edge of page-block slightly marked. Fore-edge of page-block has a small indentation affecting the fore-edge of a few pages slightly. Internally also very good with no inscriptions. Interior pages clean without any foxing. No creases or tears. ***In a very good colour-illustrated dustwrapper, which has not been price-clipped, retaining the original publisher's printed price of £10.95 net. The dustwrapper is complete with no tears or chips, just some light rubbing and creasing at the extremities. There is some fading to the sun-sensitive colour on the spine of the dustwrapper, which extends to the front and back panels near the spine (please see scans). ***223mm x145mm. 187 pages. ***Penelope Fitzgerald was born Penelope Mary Knox at the Old Bishop's Palace, Lincoln, the daughter of Edmund Knox, later editor of Punch, and Christina Hicks, daughter of Edward Hicks, the Bishop of Lincoln, and she was one of the first women students at Oxford. "The Beginning of Spring" is set in Moscow in 1913, and tells the story of a Moscow-born English-educated print shop owner whose English wife has suddenly abandoned him and their three children. The novel was shortlisted for the 1988 Booker Prize. Fitzgerald had a strong interest in Russian literature, and starting in the 1960s took courses in Russian language. She visited Moscow and environs in 1975, which included a visit to Tolstoy's house and a dacha in a birch forest. In the early 1970s, as part of her research on Edward Burne-Jones, Fitzgerald became friends with a Swiss art curator, Mary Chamot, who had been brought up in pre-revolution Russia. Chamot's family had had a greenhouse business in Moscow since the mid-1800s, and they had stayed on for a few years after the revolution. The original title of the novel was to be "The Greenhouse". Later, Fitzgerald considered "Nellie and Lisa", but her editor did not approve and suggested "The Coming of Spring" instead, an idea that the author modified for the published title.' (Wik) ***Second printing of the true first edition, complete in its original dustwrapper. Booker Prize shortlisted for 1988. A nice reading copy of the novel. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc. Seller Inventory # 8519
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The beginning of spring
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