Rating: 
Summary: Not For Every Taste
Review: Cutting straight to the chase after reading the very polarized views of other reviewers: Although Penelope Fitzgerald's slender novel contains much to admire, it is most certainly not composed to be a popular entertainment, and its successes will appeal more to admirers of "literary fiction"--and, hence, to "critics"--than perhaps to the general reader. Fitzgerald presumes the reader knows something, and cares, about the late 18th Century context; she hopes we might be stimulated by imagining contemporaries of Fichte and Kant discussing their ideas; she presumes that, to us, "romanticism" is more than a word or a line from Shelly and that, by recovering, or compiling, everyday details from a time and world long lost, she can help us understand the romantic sensibility and, ultimately, Hardenberg's--and our--ambiguous longing for "the Blue Flower."I particularly enjoyed Fitzgerald's vignette approach--55 short chapters, each of which is a set piece, generally with a wry punchline--which allows Fitzgerald to view Friedrich von Hardenberg's improbable romance at odd angles. I for one marvel at this choice of subject, a decision by a professional author as seemingly improbable and hopelessly romantic as the subject itself. And yet, despite the author's absolute mastery of her material, her strong cast of winning characters, and the wonderful--although irretrievably high-brow--sense of humor suffusing the entire narrative, I never felt myself emotionally drawn in. One reads on because each page is delightful, and, for many readers (obviously, me included) this is sufficient. But on the basis of slender narrative evidence, we are expected to understand, rather than led toward empathy with, Hardenberg and his inconceivable attachment. Perhaps Fitzgerald's plan was, in writing the simplest of love stories, to avoid cluttering the universe with additional examples of cheap sentimentalism, leaving us with a "mystery of love." In different hands, the novel clearly might have become just that--dismissively sentimental. Instead, she goes the other way: Fitzgerald is a cool observer keenly attuned, in a very modern sense, to the ironies her story poses, but she never truly enages our hearts.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful. A miracle of compression.
Review: It is astounding that a novel barely longer than two-hundred pages can create this many characters one cares deeply about, even more astonishing considering how distant a bunch of late 18th century Germans would seem in the hands of any lesser novelist. I've never read a book this short that had the same emotional impact - and was so unsentimental. The last page, essentially just a list, is one of the most powerful sections of prose I've ever read, simply because it contains the weight of all the perfectly written pages, and complete human beings, that went before it. A beautiful, sad, funny, moving book.
Rating: 
Summary: Overrated....
Review: I did not enjoy this book and I am still trying to figure out why it was hyped by the critics and the media. Perhaps this is a case of the "Emperor's new clothes?" Or, perhaps, even though I think I understand, and like, British literature, maybe I don't. Freidrich von Hardenburg, a young university student known to his family as Fritz, falls in love with a 14-year old girl, the blonde Sophie van Kuhn. This is an historical novel, and in "olden" times, couples fell in love at young ages. Romeo and Juliet were teenagers. I did not object to the book because the heroine was a teenager, ignorant, ill-educated, and totally unsuitable for the literate poet protagonist (although I thought "maybe it's all physical attraction", "maybe she's his muse"). She would have made a marriage partner comparable to the one Charles Dickens suffered, or Mr. Bennett in "Pride and Prejudice." But, young Sophie dies. End of story. No plot, no character development, no mise en scene, no imagery, no metaphors (that I could discern), no nothing -- except the praise of the critics and an award or two. ????
Rating:
Summary: She doesn¿t hand this one to you
Review: "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?" The quote above appeared in a story about Penelope Fitzgerald written just after her death. The quote and the ideas it states appear to be very appropriate to "The Blue Flower". I have read two other works of hers "The Bookshop" and "The Golden Child". All three books share her wonderful style of writing, which she can modify to produce three very different books, all the while maintaining the quality of her writing, while demonstrating incredible range. Of the three I have read this work is the one she makes you work the hardest for. The two previous books laid out their stories in comfortable, familiar settings, both in place and time. The books were constructed so the reader was able to follow a distinct story line. In the case of "The Blue Flower" the story, and her method of telling it leaves the reader to fill in the details necessary to make the story flow in a more conventional manner, to read more easily, more comfortably. For those who want all the details, all the motivation of the characters detailed and laid out with a beginning, middle, and end, this work may not rate as one of their favorite works. This book was comparatively lengthy set side by side with the other books I have mentioned. The briefer works are very straightforward, and I commented when I wrote about "The Bookshop" that I was curious with what she would do with the added length. True to having been not only a brilliant and highly original Authoress, as the length of her work expanded, it became more complex, less apparent, but yet another phenomenal read.
Rating:
Summary: Admirable, but not really engaging
Review: I'm addicted to historical novels, and had great hopes for this novel before I read it. I was a bit disappointed in the reading of it: while there's no question that Fitzgerald has done her research and is grappling with some weighty issues concerning Romanticism, desire, and the quotidian, THE BLUE FLOWER is hardly engaging or enthralling. It reads mostly like an intellectaul exercise (especially in that its language and syntax reads almost exactly as if it were translated from the German--as if this were Goethe rendered into English). While (for what it is) the book is quite well done, it wasn't what I was hoping for when I picked it up. It seems more like a writer's novel--that is, a novel for other writers to admire--than a book to really enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: Vastly Overrated
Review: I kept reading this novel, hoping that the conclusion would reveal the motivation behind the actions of the main protaganist and the people around him but I came away disappointed. Characters seemed to drift in and out of the novel, revealing little about what they do or are about. The epilogue could be made more poignant if only the reader could connect with the characters at some level but this was made difficult by the author's inability to reveal the motivations about the characters. The positive side to this novel is the brief exploration of European aristocracy in the 17th Century. Check out Penelope Fitzgerald's Booker Prize-winning Offshore instead where the characters are rich and heart-warming.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't wait for it to end
Review: I wanted to like this book -- really. I tried and tried to until I got about 3/4th of the way through, then I had to own up to being bored. I wish I could have just appreciated the quality writing, but I couldn't get past dull characters and a slow plot.
Rating:
Summary: Moving and very real-seeming story
Review: _The Blue Flower_ is the story of the romance of Friedrich von Hardenburg, later famous as the German Romantic poet-novelist-philosopher Novalis, with a 12-year old girl, Sophie Von Kuhn. The story is told in brief chapters, from the points of view of several characters: Hardenburg himself, a female friend who may fancy herself a rival of Sophie's, Hardenburg's sister, Sophie's sister, and so on. The large cast of characters is wonderfully described, each character briefly and accurately limned, and all treated with humor and affection. In addition, details of how life was lived in 18th century Saxony are casually strewn throughout the book, and a very accurate-feeling picture of everyday life, and more importantly, how everyday people thought, is the result. The main characters are odd but interesting: Fritz von Hardenburg is a young artist with Romantic attitudes: and at the same time realistically a brother and a son, and also a fairly conscientious apprentice salt-mine inspector. Sophie is a 12-year old girl of very little intelligence, and is unsparingly presented as such (indeed, her character is probably treated with less sympathy than any other in the book.) As far as I can tell, every character in the book (at least every even moderately prominent character) is historical, though it is hard for me to be sure how closely Fitzgerald's characterizations resemble the historical record. Knowledge of the historical events depicted here cast a sort of pall over the events of the novel: we know that Sophie will die very young, and von Hardenburg not much later. (Novalis first became famous for a series of prose poems written in Sophie's memory ("Hymns to the Night"), and his major work, the novel _Heinrich von Ofterdingen_, was left uncompleted at his death.) Despite this pall, the book is funny, engaging, and beautiful in a delicate-seeming fashion.
Rating:
Summary: Graceful, enduring
Review: Penelope Fitzgerald has a tremendous gift, and she displays it to full effect in this short but moving novel. By putting the protagonist's budding philosophical and literary career in perspective, by depicting him as a talented but still immature young man finding his way in life, she raises intriguing questions about youth and Romanticism. The vaguely archaic language may trouble some, but this should be seen more as a challenge to a reader than a shortcoming of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable.
Review: On the strength of rave reviews, I bought and read "The Blue Flower." It strikes me as the sort of book that only the British can write and only the critics (and other authors) can really love. The book is unquestionably finely written, and Penelope Fitzgerald is unquestionably a writer of extraordinary talent. I found it impossible, however, to become actively engaged as a reader when the main character is an early nineteenth century romantic poet in love with a 14-year-old girl with whom he has absolutely nothing in common. The girl's lack of intelligence, lack of experience, lack of education, and lack of any strong traits of character make her so unlikely a love object that I found I could not sympathize with Fritz, much less identify with his woes
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