Short-listed for the Booker Prize. “A singular accomplishment.” — Boston Globe “Powerfully bewitching.” — Los Angeles Times In 1912, rational Fred Fairly, one of Cambridge’s best and brightest, crashes his bike and wakes up in bed with a stranger — fellow casualty Daisy Saunders, a charming, pretty, generous working-class nurse. So begins a series of complications — not only of the heart but also of the head — as Fred and Daisy take up each other’s education and turn each other’s philosophies upside down. This new edition features an introduction by Philip Hensher, author of Scenes from Early Life , along with new cover art. "A singular accomplishment." Boston Globe "Powerfully bewitching" The Los Angeles Times "Funny, touching, wise." The Washington Post A singular accomplishment. Boston Globe In 1912, rational Fred Fairly, one of Cambridge s best and brightest, crashes his bike and wakes up in bed with a stranger fellow casualty Daisy Saunders, a charming, pretty, generous working-class nurse. So begins a series of complications not only of the heart but also of the head as Fred and Daisy take up each other s education and turn each other s philosophies upside down. A delight! ... Gilbert could have written this and Sullivan set it to music. Daily Mail PENELOPE FITZGERALD (1916 2000) was one of the most elegant and distinctive voices in British fiction. She won the National Book Critics Circle Award in fiction for The Blue Flower, the Booker Prize for Offshore, and three of her novels The Bookshop, The Gate of Angels, and The Beginning of Spring were short-listed for the Booker Prize." 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?" The Gate of Angels By Penelope Fitzgerald Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company Copyright © 1990 Penelope Fitzgerald All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-544-48410-8 Contents Title Page, Contents, Copyright, Penelope Fitzgerald, Introduction, PART ONE, Fred's Three Notes, A Few Words about St Angelicus, How Fred Got this Job in the First Place, Dinner at St Angelicus, At the Rectory, The Disobligers' Society, Who Is Daisy?, PART TWO, Daisy, The Blackfriars Hospital, The Men's Ward, The Case of James Elder, Kelly, Daisy Leaves London, PART THREE, No Mystery about Daisy's Movements, A Walk in the Country, A Visit from the Fairlys, PART FOUR, Dr Matthews' Ghost Story, An Unusual Court Case, Kelly Laid to Rest, Fred's Advice to His Students, At Dr Sage's Hospital, The Gate of Angels, About the Author, CHAPTER 1 Fred's Three Notes How could the wind be so strong, so far inland, that cyclists coming into the town in the late afternoon looked more like sailors in peril? This was on the way into Cambridge, up Mill Road past the cemetery and the workhouse. On the open ground to the left the willow-trees had been blown, driven and cracked until their branches gave way and lay about the drenched grass, jerking convulsively and trailing cataracts of twigs. The cows had gone mad, tossing up the silvery weeping leaves which were suddenly, quite contrary to all their experience, everywhere within reach. Their horns were festooned with willow boughs. Not being able to see properly, they tripped and fell. Two or three of them were wallowing on their backs, idiotically, exhibiting vast pale bellies intended by nature to be always hidden. They were still munching. A scene of disorder, tree-tops on the earth, legs in the air, in a university city devoted to logic and reason. Fairly was making the best pace he could. He did not much like being overtaken by other bicyclists. No-one likes being overtaken by other bicyclists. The difficult conditions (some were blown over) turned the Mill Road into a display of pride. The year was 1912 so that Fairly's bicycle, a Royal Sunbeam, must have been thirteen years