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The Beginning of Spring
The Beginning of Spring is a 1988 novel by the British author Penelope Fitzgerald. Set in Moscow in 1913, it tells the story of a Moscow-born English-educated print shop owner whose English wife has suddenly abandoned him and their three children. The novel was shortlisted for the 1988 Booker Prize.
In March 1913, Nellie Reid leaves her husband Frank, a Russian-born Englishman who runs a printing shop in Moscow. She returns to England without warning or explanation and he urgently needs to find someone to look after his three children, Dolly, Ben and Annie (Annushka).
The Kuriatins, the family of a business partner, prove unsuitable: Frank's visit to them ends in disaster when a bear cub given as a birthday present to the son of the family becomes drunk, wreaks havoc in the dining room, and has to be shot. Then, Mrs Graham, wife of the Anglican chaplain, introduces him to Muriel Kinsman, an English governess who has for reasons that are unclear recently been dismissed from her post. He considers her equally unsuitable.
Frank's chief accountant Selwyn Crane is an idealistic follower of Tolstoy who spends much of his spare time seeking out those he considers to be oppressed; he is also a poet and author of Birch Tree Thoughts. Selwyn introduces Frank to Lisa Ivanovna, a young shop-girl found weeping at the men's handkerchief department of the local store. She is said to be the daughter of a country joiner. Frank employs her, and finds himself attracted by her beauty and serene presence. The children quickly become attached to her.
One night, Frank is called out to his printing works after hours where he surprises a student, Volodya Vasilych, who fires two shots. The intruder says he is there to print revolutionary pamphlets, but later confesses his true motivation: he is jealous of Frank, whom he suspects of courting Lisa. Lisa says that she does not know the student well but that he was one of those who used to hang about the men's handkerchief department.
Frank has been writing regularly to Nellie in England, but has received no reply and is unsure if his letters are reaching her. When her brother Charlie, who lives in Norbury, arrives in Moscow for a visit, Frank hopes for news, but Charlie does not know where Nellie is living. During his stay, Charlie becomes attracted to Lisa and suggests that he should take her and the children back to England with him. But the children want to stay in Moscow, and Frank declines.
Frank's feelings for Lisa can no longer be denied; he makes advances, and she reciprocates.
Lisa takes the children to stay at the family's dacha in the countryside. When Dolly catches Lisa leaving the dacha at night, Lisa says that she should come with her. In a clearing in the wood they see many mysterious and silent figures – unexplained within the novel – each pressing themselves against a separate birch tree. Lisa comments that if Dolly remembers this, "she'll understand in time what she's seen". They return to the dacha, the potent smell of birch sap following Dolly to her bed.
The Beginning of Spring
The Beginning of Spring is a 1988 novel by the British author Penelope Fitzgerald. Set in Moscow in 1913, it tells the story of a Moscow-born English-educated print shop owner whose English wife has suddenly abandoned him and their three children. The novel was shortlisted for the 1988 Booker Prize.
In March 1913, Nellie Reid leaves her husband Frank, a Russian-born Englishman who runs a printing shop in Moscow. She returns to England without warning or explanation and he urgently needs to find someone to look after his three children, Dolly, Ben and Annie (Annushka).
The Kuriatins, the family of a business partner, prove unsuitable: Frank's visit to them ends in disaster when a bear cub given as a birthday present to the son of the family becomes drunk, wreaks havoc in the dining room, and has to be shot. Then, Mrs Graham, wife of the Anglican chaplain, introduces him to Muriel Kinsman, an English governess who has for reasons that are unclear recently been dismissed from her post. He considers her equally unsuitable.
Frank's chief accountant Selwyn Crane is an idealistic follower of Tolstoy who spends much of his spare time seeking out those he considers to be oppressed; he is also a poet and author of Birch Tree Thoughts. Selwyn introduces Frank to Lisa Ivanovna, a young shop-girl found weeping at the men's handkerchief department of the local store. She is said to be the daughter of a country joiner. Frank employs her, and finds himself attracted by her beauty and serene presence. The children quickly become attached to her.
One night, Frank is called out to his printing works after hours where he surprises a student, Volodya Vasilych, who fires two shots. The intruder says he is there to print revolutionary pamphlets, but later confesses his true motivation: he is jealous of Frank, whom he suspects of courting Lisa. Lisa says that she does not know the student well but that he was one of those who used to hang about the men's handkerchief department.
Frank has been writing regularly to Nellie in England, but has received no reply and is unsure if his letters are reaching her. When her brother Charlie, who lives in Norbury, arrives in Moscow for a visit, Frank hopes for news, but Charlie does not know where Nellie is living. During his stay, Charlie becomes attracted to Lisa and suggests that he should take her and the children back to England with him. But the children want to stay in Moscow, and Frank declines.
Frank's feelings for Lisa can no longer be denied; he makes advances, and she reciprocates.
Lisa takes the children to stay at the family's dacha in the countryside. When Dolly catches Lisa leaving the dacha at night, Lisa says that she should come with her. In a clearing in the wood they see many mysterious and silent figures – unexplained within the novel – each pressing themselves against a separate birch tree. Lisa comments that if Dolly remembers this, "she'll understand in time what she's seen". They return to the dacha, the potent smell of birch sap following Dolly to her bed.