The Blue Flower

I have just finished reading Penelope Fitzgerald's "The Blue Flower". Since Jack suggested me to read it--while he was in Rome just a few weeks ago--I felt the desire to buy myself a copy. And, it has been such an astonishing read. This book on the impetuous student of philosophy and future Romantic poet Georg Friederich von Hardenberg, better known as Novalis, is a precious little jewel. It is a wonderful and lively portrait of an age, of Novalis' family and of his adamantine love for 12-year-old Sophie von Kuhn, his "true Philosophy". But, really, it much more than this: the novel is an interrogation on life, love, courage, purpose, desire, Poetry and, the metaphysical striving for the infinite symbolized by the blue flower.


Comments

  1. K. A. LaityOctober 24, 2011 at 10:50 PM

    That sounds wonderful -- and inspirational.

    ReplyDelete
  2. John Claude SmithOctober 24, 2011 at 11:37 PM

    I look forward to reading it in Rome when I am back there... Everything you've said about it seems most fascinating, here and in conversations. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Alessandra BavaOctober 25, 2011 at 6:20 AM

    It is inspirational and so beautifully written!

    ReplyDelete

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