The Beginning of Spring: Introduction By John Bayley (Everyman's Library Contemporary Classics Ser.)

By: Penelope Fitzgerald

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Synopsis: Man Booker Prize Finalist: This &“marvelous novel&” about an abandoned husband, set in Moscow a century ago, is &“bristling with wry comedy&” (Newsday). March 1913. Moscow is stirring herself to meet the beginning of spring. English painter Frank Reid returns from work one night to find that his wife has gone away; no one knows where or why, or whether she&’ll ever come back. All Frank knows for sure is that he is now alone and must find someone to care for his three young children. Into Frank&’s life comes Lisa Ivanovna, a quiet, calming beauty from the country, untroubled to the point of seeming simple. But is she? And why has Frank&’s bookkeeper, Selwyn Crane, gone to such lengths to bring these two together? From a winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, this novel, with a new introduction by Andrew Miller, author of Pure, is filled with &“writing so precise and lilting it can make you shiver&” (Los Angeles Times). &“Fitzgerald was the author of several slim, perfect novels. The Blue Flower and The Beginning of Spring both had me abuzz for days the first time I read them. She was curiously perfect.&” —Teju Cole, author of Open City