7.2 /10 1 Votes7.2
Originally published 1986 | 3.6/5 Goodreads Media type Print (Hardback) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Similar The Beginning of Spring, Charlotte Mew and her friends, A House of Air, The Gate of Angels, At Freddie's | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Innocence is a novel by British author Penelope Fitzgerald. Set in Italy, it is a comedy of manners concerning the marriage of the young daughter of an old but impoverished aristocratic family, and a beginning neurologist who has tried to cut himself off from emotion.
Contents
Background
Fitzgerald had visited Italy frequently during the years 1949–83, including her belated honeymoon with Desmond (who had partly spent World War II in Italy), and a solo trip in 1976 as Desmond was dying, at his insistence. The Fitzgeralds had published Italian fiction in World Review in the 1950s. Fitzgerald was familiar with the Communist Cesare Pavese.
Reception
The result is as satisfying as it is entertaining.
Critical review
The novel has a chapter of its own in Peter Wolfe Understanding Penelope Fitzgerald and Hermione Lee Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life.