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The Golden Child, by Penelope Fitzgerald
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Penelope Fitzgerald's first novel, THE GOLDEN CHILD, combines a deft comedy of manners with a classic mystery set in London's most refined institution -- the museum. When the glittering treasure of ancient Garamantia, the golden child, is delivered to the museum, a web of intrigue tightens around its personnel, especially the hapless museum officer Waring Smith. While prowling the halls one night, Waring is nearly strangled. Two suspicious deaths ensue, and only the cryptic hieroglyphics of the Garamantes can bring an end to the mayhem. Fitzgerald has an unerring eye for human nature, and this satirical look at the art world delivers a terrifically witty read.
- Sales Rank: #658919 in eBooks
- Published on: 1999-09-15
- Released on: 2013-06-18
- Format: Kindle eBook
Amazon.com Review
Penelope Fitzgerald's first novel is packed with institutional follies and fiercely territorial old trouts. Set in a London museum whose officers only appear august, The Golden Child literally proves that authorities are clowns and clowns authorities. As the book opens, all England is queuing up to see the golden treasure of the Garamantes--the remains of a young king who was interred complete with a trove of toys and goodies. Only the man who unearthed the kinglet back in 1913 refuses to go anywhere near the exhibit, despite his constant proximity: "Sir William, in extreme but clear-headed old age, and after a lifetime of fieldwork, had come to roost in the Museum itself." Meanwhile, everyone--from nations to corporations--wants a piece of the Golden Child. (The exhibit is even underwritten by a company that hopes its puff, "Silence is Golden," will give its cigarettes more positive associations.) What, then, if the relics are cursed--or fake?
As both possibilities grow increasingly likely, and the Museum risks ridicule, its director deputizes Waring Smith to transport the mummy's doll to an incorruptible expert. Too bad if Professor Semyonov is in Russia: this junior officer will simply have to smuggle the toy in! Suffice it to say that Waring's covert odyssey to Moscow is but one of The Golden Child's many witty--and enigmatic--episodes. Near the Kremlin, he comes upon a line that makes him think he's back at work. The citizens, though, have assembled for another mummy altogether: The park statues were covered with shrouds of straw to protect them against the cold, but the human beings stood there, wiping the frozen drops from noses and eyelashes, waiting with immemorial patience to see what they had been told was worth seeing. In an hour and a half they would be filing past the embalmed head and hands, and the ghastly evening dress suit, of Lenin. On the surface, Fitzgerald's 1977 novel is a bona fide mystery, complete with a body in the library and a spot of garroting. But adepts of this author will prize it for its pixilated cast of characters and for its gentle, perfect assaults on pretension--whether academic, journalistic, or even gustatory. As ever, Fitzgerald is drawn to explore the power--and sheer inconvenience--of the emotions. No wonder The Golden Child's mysteries go so far beyond those of its genre. --Kerry Fried
Review
"Reading "The Blue Flower," Fitzgerald's 1995 novel about the German romantic poet Novalis, whichwon the National Book Critics Circle Award, gave me a shock of pleasure in her originaland uncommonly forceful literary presence. (That book, by the way, should be requiredreading for all writers and devotees of historical novels.) With the re-issue of "The GoldenChild" and "At Freddie's," all nine of Fitzgerald's novels are now available in Americanpaperback editions. Her dryly smiling wit, more reminiscent of French aphorists than British novelists, was fully evident in her first book, "The Golden Child." It's plotted as a classically dotty English murder mystery, featuring eccentric but deadly ambitious art curators." -- reviewed by Brigitte Frase -- Review
A classically plotted British mystery . . . leavened with a wicked sense of humor. Nobody is safe: pompous art critics with their gobbledygook, precious aesthetes, heads of departments, the public, the cops . . . Miss Fitzgerald has been around - the plot flops all over the place, including a trip to Russia. Somehow Miss Fitzgerald, thanks to her lovely writing style and eye for the absurd, makes everything hang together. -- Newdigate Callendar, NY Times Book Review
A mildly sinister comedy about the pride and bitter jealousy which is the poetry of museum-keeping. -- New Statesman
Already in this [her first] book, she is a forthright critic of manners and morals . . . It has wit and personality, and one comes away from it with a clear sense of Fitzgerald's impatience with . . . the wretched prospects for Western Civilization in an age of hype, self-seeking, phoniness, and philistinism, high and low. -- Bruce Bawer,New Criterion)
"A classically plotted British mystery . . . leavened with a wicked sense of humor. Nobody is safe: pompous art critics with their gobbledygook, precious aesthetes, heads of departments, the public, the cops . . . Miss Fitzgerald has been around - the plot flops all over the place, including a trip to Russia. Somehow Miss Fitzgerald, thanks to her lovely writing style and eye for the absurd, makes everything hang together." -- Newdigate Callendar (The New York Times )
"Reading "The Blue Flower," Fitzgerald's 1995 novel about the German romantic poet Novalis, whichwon the National Book Critics Circle Award, gave me a shock of pleasure in her originaland uncommonly forceful literary presence. (That book, by the way, should be requiredreading for all writers and devotees of historical novels.) With the re-issue of "The GoldenChild" and "At Freddie's," all nine of Fitzgerald's novels are now available in Americanpaperback editions. Her dryly smiling wit, more reminiscent of French aphorists than British novelists, was fully evident in her first book, "The Golden Child." It's plotted as a classically dotty English murder mystery, featuring eccentric but deadly ambitious art curators." -- reviewed by Brigitte Frase (Newsday )
About the Author
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?"
Most helpful customer reviews
42 of 43 people found the following review helpful.
Satire at its best
By A Customer
The English museum is proud of its Winter Exhibition of the GOLDEN CHILD. All students know that the collection comes from the Garamantian, African people who lived in 449 BC. In 1913, Sir William Simkin found the treasure. Though he lives nearby, William seems to be the only person in the country refusing to visit the exhibit, as he apparently fears its' so-called curse. Many foreign visitors plan to travel to England for the display. Other experts insist the treasure is a fake. Is it real or is it a hoax? Is it truly cursed or is its finder senile?
Suddenly, the museum seems primed for scorn as if they hung a Pollack upside down. The director sends Waring Smith to Moscow to have Professor Semyonov authenticate the showcase item. In Russia, he observes long lines waiting for the unveiling of a mummified Lenin that leaves Waring wary about his fellow man.
THE GOLDEN CHILD is a reprint of Penelope Fitzgerald's satirical look at the world of art and people in general. Though in many ways the story line is a typical British mystery, the plot contains much more humor as it laughs at institutions including the typical British mystery. Fans who relish gentle ripping at the guts of the sanctimonious pillars of society will fully enjoy this novel. Houghton Mifflin in their Mariner line is reprinting many of Ms. Fitgerald's other books.
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful.
I�m sorry she waited until 69
By taking a rest
This lady was truly an amazing writer. She started her career at the age of 69, and happily produced a good-sized body of work. "The Golden Child" is the third work of hers that I have read. It's a wonderful book, as I have yet to read anything other from her pen, but it is as different from the other two, as they are from each other.
"The Bookshop" was quite serious, "The Blue Flower" a wonderful historic piece during the period of Goethe's Germany, and now this work which demonstrates her unconstrained wit. She still includes subtle bits of humor, but much is laugh out loud funny. Granted some is a bit dark, but as another reviewer mentioned, it is very "English" as in, "oh...that, well yes, bullet wound you see, no bother, terribly sorry about the carpet". That line is not specifically in the book, but I hope it gives an idea of the fun within "The Golden Child".
The story is populated with great characters; including two of the best curmudgeons I have enjoyed reading. At one point she goes well onto a limb with a performance by one of the Museum's top executives, who is called upon to "lecture" about that which he knows little of. The performance approaches Monty Python humor.
A third book, and a third great read. I look forward to seeing how many other genres she must have handled so well.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
funny as only the English can be
By M. H. Bayliss
Don't expect a mindbending Agatha Christie novel when you pick up Fitzgerald's first novel -- it's much more of a British farce making fun of the stuffy art critic world, the English in general (the main character has to deal with his wife Haggie who finds him uninspiring and boring) and anything to do with pretension. The whole premise of the novel is funny: people are queueing for days in the cold for this incredible exhibition of the so called Golden Child, but it turns out to be a fake. At one point, the main character is strangled by the "golden thread" that is supposedly a key part of the exhibit. There is a superb scene when the main character actually is trying to kill time to avoid his wife and decides to stand on line to see the exhibit for himself. He develops a feeling of solidarity with the people in line who share war stories about their wait to see the statue for the brief 20 seconds they are allotted. Fitzgerald captures perfectly this "fan mania" that anyone who has ever lined up for an event will enjoy reading. He chickens out right before actually seeing the exhibit and never makes it. The mystery part of the book is not that great, but the hilarious characters and dry satire make it an enjoyable read.
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