I wasn't sure about this book when I first picked it up, but it was given to me as a gift so I figured I should give it a try. I didn't read the introduction until after I finished the novel, and then I only skimmed it. This is a work of historical, biographical fiction, about an 18th century German poet and philosopher called Novalis. It is a strange little book, oddly compelling, filled with terminology that was probably used at the end of the 18th century to describe the ranks and professions of members of the noble classes. Novalis, known as Fritz von Hardenburg, meets and falls in love with a 12-year-old girl, a member of a family he is somehow associated with. For reasons not just of the girl's youth (less an issue in that time and place), many people abhor the match. Yet Fritz persists with his engagement, insisting that Sophie is his muse and his reason for living. Many romantic entanglements are suggested and none are fulfilled, among the supporting players in this romance. Really, to call it such is to oversimplify, and yet it is as uncomplicated a story as one can ever read. Yet somehow it evokes complex emotions and defies description. It is a beautiful little tale, and I had to check to see if it was, in fact, true. ( )

a weird book, nothing at all like her three others I've read, each of which I thought exceptional. It is a very unusual view for me, but I simply did not get the point of this work at all- as I opened with, just weird. Even the artwork in the folio edition is grotesque and ugly, and it seems I am just missing some underlying vein. ( )

Mmm. I've heard how excellent this book is so I'd love to consume it, but in audio form, I haven't got into it - I'll persist a bit longer. I must admit, the idea that the poet falls in love with a 12 year old was a barrier. ( )

i am not sure what the purpose of this was. it was much easier to read a period piece (late 1700s) than i expected, and i came to care more about the characters than i thought i would, but...i don't feel there was any reason for this book. i know that sounds harsh. maybe there is value in showing me that perhaps it wasn't totally gross for a man in his mid twenties to "fall in love" with a girl of 12? (he was waiting until she was of age to marry her or touch her, so there's that.) maybe i learned a little what it was like to live around 1800 in germany. but not much, so i don't know.

this was easy to read, well written, a little funny in parts, and probably commentary on something. but seemed to me to be largely pointless. i'd read her again as this subject was certainly a bit niche. ( )

This was an odd one, but I liked it. The novel is ostensibly a fictionalization of the life of Friedrich von Hardenberg, the romantic poet who wrote under the pseudonym Novalis. But it's more a tragicomedy of manners, painting a fascinating little portrait of the 18th-century German aristocratic intelligentsia—Goethe makes a cameo—with a really delightfully arch tone. You just can't beat period snark, and Fitzgerald pulls it off coupled with plenty of sympathy for her characters—many of whom are hapless, doomed, or both. What there is of plot kind of knuckles under to the very precise details of the day and the language... it reminded me a bit of Sylvia Townsend Warner's The Corner That Held Them in that regard. Anyway, a strange little book but a fun one. ( )