Innocence

First edition cover
Author	Penelope Fitzgerald
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Published	1986[1]
Publisher	Collins[1]
Media type	Print
Pages	224[1]

Innocence is a 1986 novel by the British author Penelope Fitzgerald. Set in Italy, it is a comedy of manners concerning the marriage of the young daughter of an old but impoverished aristocratic family, and a young neurologist who has tried to cut himself off from emotion. "Innocence" is the first of a group of four historical novels written by Fitzgerald at the end of her career. It was her first book to be published in the USA.

Background

Fitzgerald had visited Italy frequently during the years 1949–83, including her belated honeymoon with Desmond (who had partly spent World War II in Italy), and a solo trip in 1976 as Desmond was dying, at his insistence. The Fitzgeralds had published Italian fiction in World Review in the 1950s. Fitzgerald was familiar with the Communist Cesare Pavese.^{[Note 1]}

Reception

The result is as satisfying as it is entertaining.

— John Gross, New York Times^[2]