The Blue Flower

The Blue Flower is set in theage of Goethe, in the small towns and great universities of lateeighteenth-century Germany. It tells the true story of Friedrich vonHardenberg, a passionate, impetuous student of philosophy who will later gainfame as the romantic poet Novalis. Fritz seeks his father’s permission to wedhis “heart’s heart,” his “spirit’s guide”—a plain, simple child named Sophievon Kühn. It is an attachment that shocks his family and friends. Theirbrilliant young Fritz, betrothed to a twelve-year-old dullard? How can this be?

Theirrationality of love, the transfiguration of the commonplace, the clarity ofpurpose that comes with knowing one’s own fate—these are the themes of thisbeguiling novel, themes treated with a mix of wit, grace, and mischievous humor.