A House of Air

A House of Air
Hermione Lee

Penelope Fitzgerald

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY HERMIONE LEEThe previously uncollected occasional prose of a great English writer – full of wit, feeling and illumination.Penelope Fitzgerald was a prolific letter writer. She avoided the phone if she could, never even contemplated the possibility of going online. Her warmth, humour and supreme storytelling abilities found their best forum here. Surprising, wonderfully funny, definitive, this is a major collection of Penelope Fitzgerald’s reviews, essays and autobiographical writings.This collection includes pieces on contemporary novelists Giles Foden, Anne Enright, Carol Shields, Rose Tremain, Roddy Doyle; on classic writers Muriel Spark, A.E. Housman, Rose Macaulay, M.R. James, Stevie Smith, Dorothy L. Sayers; on remembering her grandfather E.H. Shepard; on her love of Devon and Spain and William Morris: on writers in their old age; and witty and poignant recollections of her schooldays, her life on a Thames barge, her childhood in Hampstead and the ghost who lived next door but one.This is a fantastically funny book – as much of an entertainment as the Kingsley Amis letters.

A House of Air

Selected Writings

Penelope Fitzgerald

Edited by Terence Dooley with Mandy Kirkby and Chris Carduff Introduction by Hermione Lee

For Valpy, Tina and Maria and in memory of Desmond, Mary and Evoe, and Mops

Table of Contents

Cover Page (#ua3b62f33-3364-5a51-bb1f-af94d452e54a)

Title Page (#u239eb966-c594-5057-b001-09771fcbab38)

Dedication (#ufb371d63-fa7c-5071-8c71-0276e27b0296)

Introduction (#u6d37e6f3-bd70-58b8-8ec6-018ceea813b3)

Editor’s Note (#u72301845-3e17-5b2d-a447-5f6fc45007c4)

PART I Master-Spirits (#u3fbeda90-3e7e-5d71-a3da-0c0d787f14c5)

JANE AUSTEN Emma’s Fancy (#u71141055-79dc-5751-88e2-cf90467ef3d3)

WILLIAM BLAKE The Unfading Vision (#ufb9b81ce-67d3-509d-9225-8d7e8ab13b5a)

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE Talking Through the Darkness (#ua19d8309-49ef-593e-93c2-9dcf09ae808e)

SARAH ORNE JEWETT The News from Dunnet Landing (#u7fff1ca5-a067-53f3-beef-4b7bfc2b0d9b)

GEORGE ELIOT The Will to Good (#u3d89498b-e183-58c7-9607-597cb2fa47d0)

MRS OLIPHANT The Heart and Soul of Carlingford (#u5f674468-8484-51b6-8d22-7ca4247b53ba)

THE VICTORIANS Called Against His Will (#ud46e6669-6765-52c3-8fd2-54c00cf4c5e6)

WILLIAM MORRIS His Daily Bread (#u0f4a340d-ff4c-5f91-a502-bb2f2c7c1aed)

ARTS AND CRAFTS Lasting Impressions (#uab5c4161-68bb-5983-9fa6-e6aa125adcf3)

RHYME AND METRE Obstacles (#litres_trial_promo)

M. R. JAMES Monty and His Ghosts (#litres_trial_promo)

THE WORLD OF PUNCH Thin, Fat, and Crazy (#litres_trial_promo)

YEATS AND HIS CIRCLE A Bird Tied to a String (#litres_trial_promo)

NEW WOMEN AND NEWER Dear Sphinx (#litres_trial_promo)

BLOOMSBURY A Way Into Life (#litres_trial_promo)

MODERNS AND ANTI-MODERNS The Great Encourager (#litres_trial_promo)

THE FORTIES AND AFTER What’s Happening in the Engine Room (#litres_trial_promo)

PART II Writers and Witnesses 1980-2000 (#litres_trial_promo)

WRITERS A Secret Richness (#litres_trial_promo)

WITNESSES Grandmother’s Footsteps (#litres_trial_promo)

PART III Places (#litres_trial_promo)

THE MOORS (#litres_trial_promo)

PART IV Life and Letters (#litres_trial_promo)

CURRICULUM VITAE (#litres_trial_promo)

SCENES OF CHILDHOOD Well Walk (#litres_trial_promo)

ASPECTS OF FICTION Following the Plot (#litres_trial_promo)

WHY I WRITE (#litres_trial_promo)

How I WRITE: DAISY’S INTERVIEW (#litres_trial_promo)

PART V Coda (#litres_trial_promo)

LAST WORDS (#litres_trial_promo)

INDEX (#litres_trial_promo)

About The Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Praise (#litres_trial_promo)

By the same author (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)