Essential Novelists Elizabeth Von Arnim

Welcome to the Essential Novelists book series, were we present to you the best works of remarkable authors. For this book, the literary critic August Nemo has chosen the two most important and meaningful novels of Elizabeth Von Arnim wich are Elizabeth and her German Garden and The Solitary Summer. Perhaps the best example of von Arnim's mordant wit and unusual attitude, is provided in one her letters: "I'm so glad I didn't die on the various occasions I have earnestly wished I might, for I would have missed a lot of lovely weather" Novels selected for this book: - Elizabeth and her German Garden. - The Solitary Summer.This is one of many books in the series Essential Novelists. If you liked this book, look for the other titles in the series, we are sure you will like some of the authors.

Elizabeth von Arnim (1866 - 1941), born Mary Annette Beauchamp, was an Australian-born British novelist. By marriage she became Grafin (Countess) von Arnim-Schlagenthin, and by a second marriage, Countess Russell. Although known in her early life as Mary, after the publication of her first book, she was known to her readers, eventually to her friends, and finally even to her family as Elizabeth and she is now invariably referred to as Elizabeth von Arnim. She also wrote under the pen name Alice Cholmondeley. In this book: Elizabeth and Her German Garden The Solitary Summer The Enchanted April

Reproduction of the original.

When Elizabeth von Arnim anonymously published her debut Elizabeth and Her German Garden (1898), she became a literary star overnight. The mystery surrounding the identity of this witty aristocratic diarist in her romantic garden kept readers guessing: Who was Elizabeth? A Prussian Princess? The daughter of Queen Victoria? Throughout her long and successful career as one of England’s best satirical novelists, von Arnim never officially revealed her identity. Instead, to her readers and friends she simply became known as “Elizabeth.” From her first book to her capricious autobiography All the Dogs of My Life (1936), throughout her career von Arnim would explore questions of identity and self-representation. And in spite of von Arnim’s love of masquerades and guises, her books include funny and surprisingly personal meditations on the challenges of being a woman writer wrestling with a masculine literary tradition, of taking pride in one’s commercial success while moving in Modernist circles, and of being both a hard-working professional and an elegant hostess. In tracing the conflict between femininity and authorship in von Arnim’s works, this book engages with key literary issues of the time. Von Arnim’s early books offer a witty critique of New Woman fiction. Von Arnim’s self-positioning on the literary market and her relationships with writers like Katherine Mansfield, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf shed light on the relationship between middlebrow and modernist literature. Von Arnim’s complex autobiography, finally, gives a tentative answer to the all-important question: can a writing woman be a lady?

Elizabeth von Arnim and Elizabeth Taylor wrote witty and entertaining novels about the domestic lives of middle-class women. Widely read and enjoyed, their work was often dismissed as middlebrow. Brown argues their skilful use of comedy and irony provided the receptive reader with subversive commentary on the cruelties and disappointments of life.

Explores the literary connection between Katherine Mansfield and Elizabeth von ArnimElizabeth von Arnim is best remembered as the author of Elizabeth and Her German Garden (1898) and The Enchanted April (1922), as well as being the elder cousin of Katherine Mansfield. Recently, new research into the complex relationship between these writers has extended our understanding of the familial, personal and literary connections between these unlikely friends. We know that they were an influential presence on one another and reviewed each other's work.By bringing the work of Mansfield and von Arnim together - including on matters of artistry, on mourning, on gardens, on female resistance - this book establishes shared preoccupations in ways that refine and extend our knowledge of writing in the period. It also deepens our understanding of the historical and literary contexts within which both of these extraordinary authors worked.