Elizabeth & Her German Garden

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Summary: Life on a turn-of the century Prussian Estate
Review: Elizabeth, a young middle class English woman catches the eye of Count von Arnim, a land rich (40,000 acres) cash poor Pussian gentleman considerably older than her. Her memoir of her life on the country estate, trying to recreate an English garden in the unforgiving climate and soil of Northern Gemany is revealing not only in its picture of "Woman put in her place" but the rigid society in which she lives. Dealing with three babies (each 13 months apart), a cynical, smug (you want to smack him) husband, conventions (as the lady of the estate she could only direct the gardner, never soil her own hands) she struggles valiantly to establish her own personae. Yes, she probably was not an easy person to live with - some of her own nastiness comes through, but read as a blunt portrayal women's roles at that time, you have compassion for her. The book was her first and a best seller in its day.

Rating:
Summary: A delightful book
Review: This book was referred to in Rosamunde Pilcher's "The Shell Seekers". It sounded interesting to me and so I ordered it.

Since it was written in 1898, it tells of a life very different than any today. As an Englishwoman, it was difficult for her to live in the stuffy German society in the city. Having a garden and house in the country where she did quite what she wanted kept her sane. Of course, having a houseful of servants helped.

She has a wonderful sense of humor while describing all the little things that she cannot do as the lady of the house. It must have been a very difficult situation.

I loved the term she gave her husband, "The Man of Wrath". I'm going to look for more books by this author.

Rating:
Summary: Sit and sip
Review: This is expressionist painting made into a book. So very pleasant and refreshing.To read leisurely.

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Summary: A nice look into the past...
Review: This is the story of Elizabeth, who speaks in a facetious and teasing manner...her husband sees her as typical "woman", therefore he can laugh at her and be charmed with her ways...she sees him as "the man of wrath", bound by natural laws to be serious, to be the dose of practicality. These may be stereo-typical views of the sexes, after all, the book was written in 1898. Elizabeth is writing in a biographical, journal style, telling of her days preparing their country estate to be inhabited by her and her "babies". She indulges in "the purest selfishness" by daydreaming with books in her garden. The story is full of sweet, endearing moments. She was an avid reader and has interesting comments on where certain authors are best read; she tells charming stories of her children and their ideas about the "Lieber Gott", and has a, sometimes, sharp sense of humor in regards to the people who will come and disrupt her solitary lifestyle. I would strongly recommend any of her other books you can find-particularly Solitary Summer (which is a continuation of this story), Mr. Skeffington, Enchanted April, and Jasmine Farm

Rating:
Summary: A delightful book
Review: This is the story of Elizabeth, who speaks in a facetious and teasing manner...her husband sees her as typical "woman", therefore he can laugh at her and be charmed with her ways...she sees him as "the man of wrath", bound by natural laws to be serious, to be the dose of practicality. These may be stereo-typical views of the sexes, after all, the book was written in 1898. Elizabeth is writing in a biographical, journal style, telling of her days preparing their country estate to be inhabited by her and her "babies". She indulges in "the purest selfishness" by daydreaming with books in her garden. The story is full of sweet, endearing moments. She was an avid reader and has interesting comments on where certain authors are best read; she tells charming stories of her children and their ideas about the "Lieber Gott", and has a, sometimes, sharp sense of humor in regards to the people who will come and disrupt her solitary lifestyle. I would strongly recommend any of her other books you can find-particularly Solitary Summer (which is a continuation of this story), Mr. Skeffington, Enchanted April, and Jasmine Farm

Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly modern memoirs of Edwardian author
Review: To me, this is much the best of Von Arnim's writing. Describing the joys and tribulations of a young English woman marrying a German aristocrat she centres on the haphazard creation of her garden and the activities of her children in an examination of European mores.

Her tone is anything but dusty. A top-selling author of her day she seems to have more in common with - the best - Sunday newspaper columnists of today than with her contemporaries. She battles both with chauvinism and the demands of running a country house which threaten to quell her free-wheeling attitude to life, in a style as fresh as it was at the turn of the century.


Rating:
Summary: Sticks in the Mind
Review: When I'm having a bad day, just looking at this book sitting on the shelf cheers me. Why? Why? It's nothing but a literary curiosity, a fragment; it has about as much inner narrative drive as the authorial persona, a spoiled aristocrat who patronizes her children by comparing them to flowers, indulges in delightfully modern irony and pours her life's energies into her garden, a dubious pastime at best, in my opinion. (I mean, obviously, a womens' study class would make much of this image.) The book seems a sort of precursor to Bridget Jones and much contemporary girly diary lit. But at the close of the book, when Elizabeth describes her journies to the Baltic, whether through mosquito-infested summer twilight or frozen emptiness, there is something so sublime and inexorable about the image; it captures my imagination like something out of Joyce or Frost. And for all her faults, Elizabeth is alive and vibrant. She's a delightfully unusual personality.