Fitzgerald, Penelope ~ Innocence : Signed by the Author

Collins, London : 1986

The First UK printing published by Collins, London in 1986. 8vo., terracotta boards lettered in gilt to spine with publisher's device to foot; together in the unclipped pictorial wrapper (£9.95 net) featuring a detail taken from 'The Annunciation' by Pontormo in S. Michele, Carmignano, Florence; The BOOK with tiny bruises to spine tips, else in near Fine condition ; The WRAPPER aside from very slight creasing and dustiness, also near Fine. The wrapper is protected in a removable Brodart archival cover. The book has been signed by the author beneath her crossed-out name to the title, together with the inscription 'Michael - best wishes' at the upper margin. The sixth novel by the Booker prize-winning author, set in Italy in the 1950s, and one of four historical novels published towards the end of her career. Fitzgerald was almost 70 years old when the book was published, and had moved away from the works which had been rooted in her own personal experiences, and towards peoples, cultures and countries which did not closely mirror her own life. "[I] had finished writing about the things in my own life, which I wanted to write about", she claimed. The author had travelled many times to Italy, and her husband Desmond had served in the country during the Second World War. Drawing directly from these inspirations, Fitzgerald crafts a narrative in post-war Italy, and surrounding the Ridolfi family, a family of Florentine lineage. The plot focuses on Chiara, the eighteen year old daughter who has her sights set on Salvatore, a young and fiercely independent doctor, and combines their love story with the politics of family, money, and tradition. "Such people tend to think that love in itself is sufficient" Julian Barnes wrote of Fitzgerald's 'Italian Novel', "and that happiness might be its merited consequence. They speak their minds at the wrong time and in the wrong way; they deal in a kind of robustly harmful innocence." A lovely example and scarce with such attributes.

BINDING: Hardcover
CONDITION: Near Fine
JACKET: Near Fine