Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Fourth Estate Ltd (1991), Edition: New Ed, 226 pages
Description
It is 1912, and at Cambridge University the modern age is knocking at the gate. In lecture halls and laboratories, the model of a universe governed by the mind of God is at last giving way to something wholly rational, a universe governed by the laws of physics. To Fred Fairly, a junior fellow at the College of St. Angelicus, this comes as a great comfort. Science, he is certain, will soon explain everything. Mystery will be routed by reason, and the demands of the soul will be seen for what they are-a distraction and an illusion. Into Fred's orderly life comes Daisy, with a bang-literally. One moment the two are perfect strangers, fellow cyclists on a dark country road; the next, they are casualties of a freakish accident, occupants of the same warm bed. Fred has never been so close to a woman before, and none so pretty, so plainspoken, and yet so-mysterious. Is she a manifestation of Chaos, or is she a sign of another kind of Order?… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member sonofcarc
When I wake up tomorrow I will probably no longer think this is the best book I have ever read, so I will review it now.
I do not understand how Penelope Fitzgerald so consistently managed to pack so much into her very short novels. This one is both an unsurpassably charming romantic comedy and a
Half the novel is centered around a (fictional) Cambridge college that still clings to the rules imposed on it by a (not-fictional) medieval pope -- Faculty members are forbidden to marry, and no female animal is allowed within the walls. But those same faculty members are participating in the great discoveries of atomic physics.
The other half is an unsparing narrative of the trials and lack of opportunities that beset a poor girl growing up in London. As a counterpoint to this, the scholar-hero goes home to his conservative clerical family and finds that his mother and two sisters have abruptly turned into ardent campaigners for women's suffrage.
The book is set in 1912, which means that if the male protagonist had been real, he would have had less than an even chance of being alive and unscarred six years later. No hints are dropped, however, although the author does not neglect to remind is of what is just over the horizon: "There was a vacancy in the College, not through death, but through a lecturer in Propellant Explosives being suddenly recalled to Germany."
[As a sidelight: One of the characters, "Dr. Matthews, the Provost of St. James'", is transparently based on M.R. James, the great writer of ghost stories (collected as Ghost Stories of an Antiquary). Fitzgerald even produces a convincing though condensed pastiche of a James story!]
I do not understand how Penelope Fitzgerald so consistently managed to pack so much into her very short novels. This one is both an unsurpassably charming romantic comedy and a
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meditation on tradition and revolutionary change.Half the novel is centered around a (fictional) Cambridge college that still clings to the rules imposed on it by a (not-fictional) medieval pope -- Faculty members are forbidden to marry, and no female animal is allowed within the walls. But those same faculty members are participating in the great discoveries of atomic physics.
The other half is an unsparing narrative of the trials and lack of opportunities that beset a poor girl growing up in London. As a counterpoint to this, the scholar-hero goes home to his conservative clerical family and finds that his mother and two sisters have abruptly turned into ardent campaigners for women's suffrage.
The book is set in 1912, which means that if the male protagonist had been real, he would have had less than an even chance of being alive and unscarred six years later. No hints are dropped, however, although the author does not neglect to remind is of what is just over the horizon: "There was a vacancy in the College, not through death, but through a lecturer in Propellant Explosives being suddenly recalled to Germany."
[As a sidelight: One of the characters, "Dr. Matthews, the Provost of St. James'", is transparently based on M.R. James, the great writer of ghost stories (collected as Ghost Stories of an Antiquary). Fitzgerald even produces a convincing though condensed pastiche of a James story!]
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LibraryThing member lucybrown
Penelope Fitzgerald wrote such rare small gems,and there just are not enough of them, so I spread them out. This time I chose The Gate of Angels, a novel set in turn of the century Cambridge. The plot is slender,a simple love story,but it is the comic backdrop of a pre-war Cambridge with its silly
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clubs, long worn out traditions and eccentric personalities that makes this book something to cherish. Fred Fairly's college is having a remarkably difficult time crossing the bridge from the 19th to the 20th century, no women are admitted on the premises, not even tabby cats, "but the starlings were more difficult to regulate." Throw into this mix a very literal working class girl on a bike...and magic happens. Maybe real magic. No one is real sure why some of the things happen that happen. Angels? Fun book, easy one long sitting or day and half broken up reading. The Gate of Angels was a perfect comfit of a story Show Less
LibraryThing member ffortsa
I haven't read any Penelope Fitzgerald before, and was almost put off by the beginning of this book, which is a little twee, but the Pearl Rule carried me past my first reaction, to good effect.
This little comedy takes place in 1912, divided in its setting between an obscure celibate Cambridge
Let me tell you what is going to happen, over the coming centuries, to atomic research.
There will be many apparent results, some useful, some spectacular, some, very possibly, unpleasant. But since the whole basis of the present research is unsound, cracks will appear in the structure one by one. The physicists will begin by constructing models of the atom, in fact there are some very nice ones in the Cavendish at the moment. Then they'll find that the models won't do, because they would only work if atoms really existed, so they'll replace them by mathematical terms which can be stretched to fit. As a result, they'll find that since they're dealing with what they can't observe, they can't measure it, and so we shall hear that all that can be said is that the position is probably this and the energy is probably that. The energy will be beyond their comprehension, so they'll be driven to the theory that it comes and goes more or less at random. Now their hypotheses will be at the beginning of collapse and they will have to pull out more and more bright corners. There will be elementary particles which are too strange to have anything but curious names, and anti-matter which ought to be there, but isn't. By the end of the century they will have to admit that the laws they are supposed to have discovered seem to act in a profoundly disorderly way.
A pretty good description of what happened in physics in the 20th century, as predicted by a denier, wouldn't you say? Of course, Fitzgerald has the advantage of writing in 1990.
Fred's comic activities in College, and at home at his father's Rectory where his mother and sisters have flung themselves into the Suffrage Movement, are contrasted to those of Daisy, growing up exceedingly poor in London, who, after several secretarial jobs in which she found herself holding off her employers' advances, decides to become a nurse. Through a variety of mishaps, she finds herself in Cambridge, where she and Fred collide, literally. And thereby hangs this comic romance, one part physics, one part accident, one part social movement. I found it a delightful little entertainment.
This little comedy takes place in 1912, divided in its setting between an obscure celibate Cambridge
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college and a less obscure poor section of London. Fred, attempting to study modern physics, is appointed to a post in the college by a professor who believes that the only physics we can know is what we can observe. Consequently, modern theories about the atom are dangerously speculative.Let me tell you what is going to happen, over the coming centuries, to atomic research.
There will be many apparent results, some useful, some spectacular, some, very possibly, unpleasant. But since the whole basis of the present research is unsound, cracks will appear in the structure one by one. The physicists will begin by constructing models of the atom, in fact there are some very nice ones in the Cavendish at the moment. Then they'll find that the models won't do, because they would only work if atoms really existed, so they'll replace them by mathematical terms which can be stretched to fit. As a result, they'll find that since they're dealing with what they can't observe, they can't measure it, and so we shall hear that all that can be said is that the position is probably this and the energy is probably that. The energy will be beyond their comprehension, so they'll be driven to the theory that it comes and goes more or less at random. Now their hypotheses will be at the beginning of collapse and they will have to pull out more and more bright corners. There will be elementary particles which are too strange to have anything but curious names, and anti-matter which ought to be there, but isn't. By the end of the century they will have to admit that the laws they are supposed to have discovered seem to act in a profoundly disorderly way.
A pretty good description of what happened in physics in the 20th century, as predicted by a denier, wouldn't you say? Of course, Fitzgerald has the advantage of writing in 1990.
Fred's comic activities in College, and at home at his father's Rectory where his mother and sisters have flung themselves into the Suffrage Movement, are contrasted to those of Daisy, growing up exceedingly poor in London, who, after several secretarial jobs in which she found herself holding off her employers' advances, decides to become a nurse. Through a variety of mishaps, she finds herself in Cambridge, where she and Fred collide, literally. And thereby hangs this comic romance, one part physics, one part accident, one part social movement. I found it a delightful little entertainment.
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LibraryThing member thorold
A delicate little sketch of a young physicist in 1912 Cambridge whose rationalist convictions about the way the world should be are challenged on every side by the way it actually is: modern physics, the complexities of human emotions, feminism and the women's suffrage movement, M.R. James and his
As in The blue flower, we are expected to notice how the men keep themselves busy theorising and analysing whilst the women are solving real-world problems. St Angelicus College, which manages to function entirely without female assistance, is shown to be an absurdity that has never contributed anything useful to the world except as a model of bloody-minded reaction.
When she talks about external historical events, there is obviously a bit of simplification and time-compression going on (e.g. with Marsden and Geiger's visit to Cambridge in the last chapter: what they presented probably didn't come as such a surprise to Cambridge scientists as Fitzgerald implies, given that Rutherford had published his model of the atom a year earlier). It's not a super-realistic historical novel, and it's clearly not intended to be, but it gives a plausible feel to the pre-war Cambridge that it describes, without any intrusive anachronisms.
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ghost stories, the European political situation, etc., etc. As you would expect from Fitzgerald, it's full of gloriously unexpected, subversive details and it's a delight to read, but perhaps she overdid her instinct for compression a bit: there are an awful lot of Big Ideas lurking around on the fringes of this book, but they rely very heavily on the reader to fill in the blanks. As in The blue flower, we are expected to notice how the men keep themselves busy theorising and analysing whilst the women are solving real-world problems. St Angelicus College, which manages to function entirely without female assistance, is shown to be an absurdity that has never contributed anything useful to the world except as a model of bloody-minded reaction.
When she talks about external historical events, there is obviously a bit of simplification and time-compression going on (e.g. with Marsden and Geiger's visit to Cambridge in the last chapter: what they presented probably didn't come as such a surprise to Cambridge scientists as Fitzgerald implies, given that Rutherford had published his model of the atom a year earlier). It's not a super-realistic historical novel, and it's clearly not intended to be, but it gives a plausible feel to the pre-war Cambridge that it describes, without any intrusive anachronisms.
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LibraryThing member dlrichar
Although this was short-listed for the Booker Prize, I found myself forcing myself to read it, hoping something would eventually happen. Halfway through, nothing had so I gave it up. Another of Fitzerald's books that is long on historical detail and way short on story.
LibraryThing member tandah
This book has received excellent reviews - and having read a couple of other Penelope Fitzgerald's books I am familiar with her quirkiness and freshness - however I just didn't get this one. I understand (from the reviews) that is a metaphysical tract, but it was all a little too subtle for me.
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Notwithstanding this, love the unpredictability of her writing and her characters and will continue to work my way through all her works. I much preferred 'Blue Flower'. Show Less
LibraryThing member jklavanian
Of Penelope Fitzgerald's work, I've read Offshore and The Bookshop. Both were very good and I want to read the rest. The Gate of Angels was also very good. You can usually say of her books: short, sad, sweet, funny, interesting.well-written.
LibraryThing member stillatim
This could easily have turned into a fairly silly 'positivist-scientist comes to see that there's at least one thing that he can't explain positivistically, viz., love' kind of tale, which I'd be fine with under other circumstances, but I expect more from Fitzgerald. And she delivers more, much
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more--emotionally compelling, intellectually riveting, and told with her usual cold, charming narrator's voice. But most importantly she avoids the romantic-comedy category by making it very clear that Fred's love for Daisy is nowhere near as important as the many, many other things in life that aren't susceptible to a 'scientific' analysis, such as, say, morality, mystery, and history. Show Less
LibraryThing member rmaitzen
I never quite got hold of this one. It has something of the deftly whimsical quality that I liked in The Bookshop but seemed kind of scattered to me, like fragments of a bigger novel of ideas (ideas about spiritual and material interpretations of human phenomena) that never took form. I liked the
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Daisy parts, and many individual phrases and comments--there's something in Fitzgerald's voice, I guess, that I enjoy, a quirk but slightly acerbic quality. Show Less
LibraryThing member devenish
Fred Fairly is a Tutor at Angels College in Cambridge while the other protagonist is Daisy Saunders who comes from a lower-class family and later becomes a ward helper in a hospital. They are two very different people who are thrown together (literally) when they are involved in a bicycle
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collision. The writing is elegant and witty and makes the reader keen to imbibe more. In the middle of the story a M.R. James type character enters and in the course of a full chapter,tells a ghost story which fits in with the whole very well. Show Less
LibraryThing member lucybrown
Penelope Fitzgerald wrote such rare small gems,and there just are not enough of them, so I spread them out. This time I chose The Gate of Angels, a novel set in turn of the century Cambridge. The plot is slender,a simple love story,but it is the comic backdrop of a pre-war Cambridge with its silly
Show More
clubs, long worn out traditions and eccentric personalities that makes this book something to cherish. Fred Fairly's college is having a remarkably difficult time crossing the bridge from the 19th to the 20th century, no women are admitted on the premises, not even tabby cats, "but the starlings were more difficult to regulate." Throw into this mix a very literal working class girl on a bike...and magic happens. Maybe real magic. No one is real sure why some of the things happen that happen. Angels? Fun book, easy one long sitting or day and half broken up reading. The Gate of Angels was a perfect comfit of a story Show Less
LibraryThing member lucybrown
Penelope Fitzgerald wrote such rare small gems,and there just are not enough of them, so I spread them out. This time I chose The Gate of Angels, a novel set in turn of the century Cambridge. The plot is slender,a simple love story,but it is the comic backdrop of a pre-war Cambridge with its silly
Show More
clubs, long worn out traditions and eccentric personalities that makes this book something to cherish. Fred Fairly's college is having a remarkably difficult time crossing the bridge from the 19th to the 20th century, no women are admitted on the premises, not even tabby cats, "but the starlings were more difficult to regulate." Throw into this mix a very literal working class girl on a bike...and magic happens. Maybe real magic. No one is real sure why some of the things happen that happen. Angels? Fun book, easy one long sitting or day and half broken up reading. The Gate of Angels was a perfect comfit of a story Show Less
LibraryThing member edwinbcn
The Gate of Angels is a novel by Penelope Fitzgerald, set in 1912, but the novel utterly fails to capture the spirit of that time. Besides, by setting the story at a fictional college, all recognition of the cityscape of Cambridge is removed. Thus, the setting of the novel is bleak and devoid of
The novels of Penelope Fitzgerald are often inspired by very simple ideas, or seemingly no ideas at all. Boy meets girl by accident is apparently inspiring to the author, but is essentially very commonplace and banal, about as banal as cows frolicking in a pasture. To conclude that these are instances of the imagination ruling over reason, is a quantum leap requiring more than all the reason of Oxford and Cambridge combined.
The Gate of Angels is a very boring book.
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couleur locale.The novels of Penelope Fitzgerald are often inspired by very simple ideas, or seemingly no ideas at all. Boy meets girl by accident is apparently inspiring to the author, but is essentially very commonplace and banal, about as banal as cows frolicking in a pasture. To conclude that these are instances of the imagination ruling over reason, is a quantum leap requiring more than all the reason of Oxford and Cambridge combined.
The Gate of Angels is a very boring book.
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LibraryThing member WintersRose
Although this was short-listed for the Booker Prize, I found myself forcing myself to read it, hoping something would eventually happen. Halfway through, nothing had so I gave it up. Another of Fitzerald's books that is long on historical detail and way short on story.
LibraryThing member libbromus
'Surely if one doesn't find sex tiresome in life, it won't be tiresome in fiction,' said the Junior Dean. 'I do find it tiresome in life,' Dr. Matthews replied, 'Or rather, I find other people's concern with it tiresome. One is told about it and told and told!'
I quite agree. This is one of
I quite agree. This is one of
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Fitzgerald's real winners. This book, along with The Blue Flower and The Beginning of Spring are my favorites. She writes so well of people who are products of their time and circumstances. These are ordinary people going about their business and it's somehow fascinating. A bonus - this book has a great ghost story too. Show Less
LibraryThing member ptzop
Sweet, really
LibraryThing member LynnB
I enjoyed this comedy of manners; it was like a more accessible Jane Austen novel. But I don't get all the hype. A nice little boy-meets-girl story, well told. Good, quietly funny at times, but not special.
LibraryThing member Petroglyph
From the blurb, The gate of angels is an academic novel and a romance set in 1912 Cambridge. Also, it apparently features a character based on M. R. James, whose early 20thC horror stories I will always have a soft spot for. And an academic novel and a romance set in 1912 Cambridge is indeed a good
In fact, Fitzgerald leaves lots unsaid in this book: she juxtaposes sections that may differ in tone, location, sometimes even genre, and leaves it up to the reader to connect them -- the well-read reader, who knows how romances and academic novels typically develop. Characterization is bare-bones, mainly done through dialogue and Omniscient-Narrator commentary, only hinting at a more coherent personality in the background -- all this is again to be assembled by the reader. I imagine that this may feel disjointed or even unfinished to some, but reading one section in the spirit of the others worked wonderfully for me (or perhaps I merely like the way my own imagination works). Carrying over the subtle silliness and absurdity from some of the sections and treating the novel as though that is the kind of heightened reality in which it is set makes the whole thing come together beautifully.
For silly and absurd is what this novel is -- quietly and occasionally at first, but the mainly straightforward romance plot, which runs so much on readers’ expectations of both romances and academic settings, acquires more and more sudden absurdities and tongue-in-cheek moments until it reaches a crescendo and turns into what I unrepentantly call “uproariously funny”. I giggle-laughed with delight repeatedly.
It turns out there is a character based on M. R. James in there -- a pipe-smoking mediaeval palaeographer who writes ghost stories in his spare time and is fond of reading them out loud to colleagues at various Colleges. Fitzgerald even includesher take on one of his ghost stories -- a case of sudden genre shift, at which point the novel finally comes into its own as an unapologetically funny book. Seriously, the crowning moment of awesome in this book is a reference to another writer’s style -- I love it when media can pull that off. (Does it work if you haven’t read M. R. James? Totally! The genre shift even comes with foreshadowing!) After that, the book coasts to an ending on a wave of good-will.
Penelope Fitzgerald has an exquisitely calibrated sense of humour, and she puts it to excellent use in [The gate of Angels]. I absolutely loved this book: it’s going to be hard to beat this one in terms of liveliness and shameless fun.
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way to describe this novel. The two main characters, Fred Fairly and Daisy Saunders meet by (literal) accident, and since the former is a Physics fellow at a tiny Cambridge College, and the latter is a working-class nurse-in-training, there is the expected attraction of opposites. Well, kind of. The book never specifies that that is what’s going on, but merely implies it. In fact, Fitzgerald leaves lots unsaid in this book: she juxtaposes sections that may differ in tone, location, sometimes even genre, and leaves it up to the reader to connect them -- the well-read reader, who knows how romances and academic novels typically develop. Characterization is bare-bones, mainly done through dialogue and Omniscient-Narrator commentary, only hinting at a more coherent personality in the background -- all this is again to be assembled by the reader. I imagine that this may feel disjointed or even unfinished to some, but reading one section in the spirit of the others worked wonderfully for me (or perhaps I merely like the way my own imagination works). Carrying over the subtle silliness and absurdity from some of the sections and treating the novel as though that is the kind of heightened reality in which it is set makes the whole thing come together beautifully.
It turns out there is a character based on M. R. James in there -- a pipe-smoking mediaeval palaeographer who writes ghost stories in his spare time and is fond of reading them out loud to colleagues at various Colleges. Fitzgerald even includes
Penelope Fitzgerald has an exquisitely calibrated sense of humour, and she puts it to excellent use in [The gate of Angels]. I absolutely loved this book: it’s going to be hard to beat this one in terms of liveliness and shameless fun.
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LibraryThing member amaraki
I didn't warm to this story. I might characterize it as British magical realism, which is about as enticing as British cooking. The events of the story and their timings were unbelievable and unrealistic, Odd characters jumping in and out inexplicably.When these incongruous things happened it would
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just take me out of the narrative. Moreover, the ending was left open to the reader to make his own conclusion to the story which I felt was rather a cheat on the part of the author, I want to hear her story not mine. Show Less
LibraryThing member TheAmpersand
The thing that I liked most about Penelope Fitzgerald's "Offshore" was its marvelous fresh-air quality. The fact that its story revolved around two young girls and a cast of half-bohemian, very British eccentrics probably helped, but that one seemed admirably straightforward and meticulously
I liked the rest well enough -- and admit that the book has a cracking first sentence -- but didn't really love it. Fitzgerald may be trying to draw some parallel in "The Gate of the Angels" between the imperceptible atomic science with which Fred is peripherally involved and the unknowable mechanisms of roamance, but this comparison either isn't drawn particularly well or its subtleties were simply beyond me. It's not that I'd call "The Gate of the Angels" an unserious or unsuccessful novel, but I'd warn readers with decidedly unromantic dispositions to avoid it entirely. In its physical and temporal setting (rural England, 1912) and the sense it gives the reader that an older, Victorian Britain is slipping away, this one reminded me of Forster's "A Room With A View." The author drops a few hints about the coming storm that would break in 1914, but doesn't reveal anything about these characters' ultimate fates. The proudly romantic conclusion of Forster's novel was decidedly optimistic about the coming century. "The Gate of Angels" keeps its characters blissfully ignorant about what's coming next. Maybe that's for the best.
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composed in equal measure. "The Gate of Angels" doesn't have that quality, but then, it's a very different sort of book. Here, Fitzgerald's characters are defined not by their relative freedom but by the restraints that have been placed on their lives: structural poverty, in Daisy's case, and the thousand regulations and social customs that govern life at Cambridge, in Fred's. Her tone may be somewhat ironic, but Fitzgerald's description Daisy's desperately impoverished upbringing and her narrow escape from it is as good a description of the structural factors that held down London's working class during the first half of the twentieth century as you'd get from most historians. This, along with the ghost story that Fitzgerald uses as a plot point but decides to include in the text, seemingly on a whim, might be the most successful parts of this novel. I liked the rest well enough -- and admit that the book has a cracking first sentence -- but didn't really love it. Fitzgerald may be trying to draw some parallel in "The Gate of the Angels" between the imperceptible atomic science with which Fred is peripherally involved and the unknowable mechanisms of roamance, but this comparison either isn't drawn particularly well or its subtleties were simply beyond me. It's not that I'd call "The Gate of the Angels" an unserious or unsuccessful novel, but I'd warn readers with decidedly unromantic dispositions to avoid it entirely. In its physical and temporal setting (rural England, 1912) and the sense it gives the reader that an older, Victorian Britain is slipping away, this one reminded me of Forster's "A Room With A View." The author drops a few hints about the coming storm that would break in 1914, but doesn't reveal anything about these characters' ultimate fates. The proudly romantic conclusion of Forster's novel was decidedly optimistic about the coming century. "The Gate of Angels" keeps its characters blissfully ignorant about what's coming next. Maybe that's for the best.
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LibraryThing member k6gst
Quite good, but not in the first rank of PF books.
LibraryThing member N.W.Moors
This is a lovely book about the end of the Edwardian era set in Cambridge. Fred Fairly is employed at eh College of Angelicus where women are not allowed on the premises. Son of a poor vicar, he's satisfied with his fate until he wakes up next to Daisy Saunders, both of them the victims of a
The writing is delightful, wry and descriptive. The setting of the fens suits the story, adding to the ghostly elements, as well as the wind driving the plot forward. The students and professors at the university debate science vs. faith and Ms. Fitzgerald illustrates the points perfectly:
“You have come to Cambridge to study the interdependence of matter and energy. Please remember that energy and matter are in no way something distinct from yourselves. Remember, too, that scientists are not dispassionate. Your judgement and your ability to do good work will be in part dependent on your digestion, your prejudices and above all, your emotional life. You must face the fact that if another human being, whose welfare means considerably more to you than your own, behaves in a very different way from anything you had expected, then your efficiency may be impaired. When the heart is breaking, it is nothing but an absurd illusion to think you can taste the blood. Still I repeat, your efficiency may be impaired.”
This was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and I can see why. The Gate of Angels is both literal and figurative; it is a doorway to change. I heartily recommend this and any book by Penelope Fitzgerald.
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bicycle accident with a cart. Daisy is from a poorer class, a nursing student let go because she violated patient privacy trying to help him. Fred falls violently in love, but their world is on the cusp of change which may help or hinder his suit.The writing is delightful, wry and descriptive. The setting of the fens suits the story, adding to the ghostly elements, as well as the wind driving the plot forward. The students and professors at the university debate science vs. faith and Ms. Fitzgerald illustrates the points perfectly:
“You have come to Cambridge to study the interdependence of matter and energy. Please remember that energy and matter are in no way something distinct from yourselves. Remember, too, that scientists are not dispassionate. Your judgement and your ability to do good work will be in part dependent on your digestion, your prejudices and above all, your emotional life. You must face the fact that if another human being, whose welfare means considerably more to you than your own, behaves in a very different way from anything you had expected, then your efficiency may be impaired. When the heart is breaking, it is nothing but an absurd illusion to think you can taste the blood. Still I repeat, your efficiency may be impaired.”
This was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and I can see why. The Gate of Angels is both literal and figurative; it is a doorway to change. I heartily recommend this and any book by Penelope Fitzgerald.
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LibraryThing member ptzop
Sweet, really
LibraryThing member annbury
For pure reading pleasure, Penelope Fitzgerald is for me a sure bet, and this novel lives up to her usual standards. The writing is lovely, the humor is subtle but very much there, and the plot keeps the pages turning. The characters are interesting and in some cases very sympathetic -- one gets
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attached to them -- and the sense of place as so often in her books is powerful. Why not five stars, then? I found the book a bit talkier than "The Beginning of Spring", or "The Blue Flower", with extended asides on the theory of physics in the early 20th century. Still, a lovely read. Show Less
Awards
Booker Prize (Longlist — 1990)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1990
Physical description
226 p.; 7.76 inches
ISBN
9780006543602
Similar in this library
DDC/MDS
| 823.914 |