The Knox Brothers

By Penelope Fitzgerald

Here is a biography whose eccentric genius perfectly matches that of its subjects. Penelope Fitzgerald tells the lives of four extraordinary Englishmen–her father and his brothers–with style and wit. Here is the story of a deeply fascinating family mind, shared by four brothers and passed along to their remarkable biographer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Sep 14, 2013
• ISBN: 9781619022690

Penelope Fitzgerald

PENELOPE FITZGERALD wrote many books small in size but enormous in popular and critical acclaim over the past two decades. Over 300,000 copies of her novels are in print, and profiles of her life appeared in both The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine. In 1979, her novel Offshore won Britain's Booker Prize, and in 1998 she won the National Book Critics Circle Prize for The Blue Flower. Though Fitzgerald embarked on her literary career when she was in her 60's, her career was praised as "the best argument ... for a publishing debut made late in life" (New York Times Book Review). She told the New York Times Magazine, "In all that time, I could have written books and I didn’t. I think you can write at any time of your life." Dinitia Smith, in her New York Times Obituary of May 3, 2000, quoted Penelope Fitzgerald from 1998 as saying, "I have remained true to my deepest convictions, I mean to the courage of those who are born to be defeated, the weaknesses of the strong, and the tragedy of misunderstandings and missed opportunities, which I have done my best to treat as comedy, for otherwise how can we manage to bear it?"

Reviews for The Knox Brothers

[yooperprof · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The randomness of life. . . the peculiarity of families. . . the intensity of belief, and of unbelief . . . the relentless search for patterns in what initially appears to be a random universe . . . the calm essence of the English countryside.Careful readers of this collective biography of Penelope Fitzgerald's uncles (and her father) will discover many clues to understanding the matrix of meanings in her delightful and deep fiction.One brother the editor of "Punch," England's most successful humor magazine. One brother a brilliant classical scholar and code-breaker who played a central role in deciphering the German Enigma code-machine during World War II. One brother a quiet and holy Anglo-Catholic recluse. One brother a widely beloved Roman Catholic priest who translated the Bible singlehandedly - and wrote detective novels on the side.Penelope Fitzgerald (1916-2000) was a Booker-prize winning novelist who published a much-admired series of small, gem-like novels from the late 1970s through the 1990s. Set in a variety of places - Italy, Germany, Russia, London - and in a variety of times - the 1950s, pre World War I Cambridge, early 19th century Germany - they are among my favorite recent fictions. In "The Knox Brothers" you really get a clear sense "where she was coming from." I much enjoyed the fondness and the sympathy which was behind nearly every page of this "family history." This was only the second book which Penelope Fitzgerald wrote, but it is written with a modest mastery that readers will also find in her later books.