The Means of Escape - Hardcover

Fitzgerald, Penelope

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0618079947 ISBN 13: 9780618079940

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin, 2000

Synopsis

A collection of stories skips across the globe from England to New Zealand between the seventeenth century and the modern day, exploring the shifting fortunes of class and wealth.

About this title

About the Author

Penelope Fitzgerald wrote many books small in size but enormous in popular and critical acclaim over the past two decades. Over 300,000 copies of her novels are in print, and profiles of her life appeared in both The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine. In 1979, her novel OFFSHORE won Britain's Booker Prize, and in 1998 she won the National Book Critics Circle Prize for THE BLUE FLOWER.

Though Fitzgerald embarked on her literary career when she was in her 60's, her career was praised as "the best argument.. for a publishing debut made late in life" (New York Times Book Review). She told the New York Times Magazine, "In all that time, I could have written books and I didn’t. I think you can write at any time of your life."

Dinitia Smith, in her New York Times Obituary of May 3, 2000, quoted Penelope Fitzgerald from 1998 as saying, "I have remained true to my deepest convictions, I mean to the courage of those who are born to be defeated, the weaknesses of the strong, and the tragedy of misunderstandings and missed opportunities, which I have done my best to treat as comedy, for otherwise how can we manage to bear it?"

Reviews

When a brilliant writer like Fitzgerald births her first work at age 60, her death at age 83 earlier this year seems sadly premature. This posthumous volume of eight short stories, none of them previously published here, is thus a signal event. Strange, whimsical, sometimes gothic or bizarre, these tales demonstrate Fitzgerald's cool and civilized wit and the merciless eye she casts on worldly pretensions. Many of the protagonists are eccentric, and in every story, something is askew: an individual is at odds with the everyday world. With settings ranging from England, Scotland and France to New Zealand and old Istanbul, and in historical period from the mid-19th century to the present day, each ends with a surprising twist. A story about the perseverance of rigid class values, "The Prescription," is a cautionary tale about a man of entrenched tradition who despises the outstanding individual achievement of someone of a "lower order." In several other tales, however, a self-satisfied character is undone by someone who appears powerless but manages to triumph. The title story, in which Fitzgerald's spare description blossoms in the mind's eye to create vivid scenes capturing the social milieu of 1852 Hobart, Tasmania, deals with a minister's virgin daughter, an escaped convict and an inscrutable servant who turns the tables. In most stories, the respectable social classesDupper and middleDare cold, "just" and supercilious. The poor are clever, resourceful and doomed to suffer. Crisp, with the economical suggestiveness of poetry, these stories will be treasured by Fitzgerald's readersDwho will, however, mourn the lack of information about their chronology. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Fitzgerald is noted for working with the absurdity of human behavior, but with Anderson and Lethem also in this review, absurdity moves to another plane. Better to note her exquisite, precise use of language in the present company and her firm grasp of the way people use power in social and family relationships. She is indeed splendid at that game. These stories take place in various countries and different ages. In the title story, a young woman, Alice Godfrey, living in the port city of Hobart in Australia around 1852, meets an escaped prisoner in the church. Alice, the rector's daughter, decides to help him flee by ship. Gradually she decides to escape with him, but before she can, the unfortunate Mrs. Watson, the wretched housekeeper at the rectory and Alice's charge, replaces Alice as the convict's conspirator. This intriguing story initiates Fitzgerald's first and last collection of short fiction. Bonnie Smothers
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0618079947
• ISBN 13: 9780618079940
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224