Elizabeth And Her German Garden (Virago Modern Classics)

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Then indeed I have felt ashamed of the fewness of my wants; but only for a moment, and only under the withering influence of the eyeglass; for, after all, the owner's spirit is the same spirit as that which dwells in my servants--girls whose one idea of happiness is to live in a town where there are others of their sort with whom to drink beer and dance on Sunday afternoons.

She prefers to spend as much of her day as possible outdoors in the garden, even on the coldest days of winter, and gets labeled as eccentric by her neighbors. I admit one thing got on my nerves a bit – Elizabeth’s somewhat patronizing attitude towards those of a lower social class – namely her gardeners and her house servants. This, being the late 19th century, it seemed unusual for a woman to be sworn off all manner of housework. Sadly, I don't have a housekeeper, handmaiden, workmen, painters, a gardener and his assistant, a cook, maids, nurse and someone to brush my hair in the evening but my garden is still a far-away corner in my kingdom of heaven. In an old house where she lives which was once a convent, Elizabeth spends all her time reading in the garden and planning how to tame the wilderness of a garden she has initially inherited and turn it into a haven.It’s nice to have guests now and then, but how often can we relate to that sigh of relief when our home becomes all our own once again? TRUE, THERE IS LITTLE IN THE WAY OF PLOT BUT IT IS WRITTEN WITH SUCH CHARM THAT ONE NEVER GETS BORED. In my garden you could find a murder of crows, a knot of toads and some gopher tortoises digging holes. Personally I sort of tolerated this kind of botanical rhapsodizing because (a) the book is so short (not much over 100 pages on my Kindle), and (b) Elizabeth pretty much gives equal time to talking--and sometimes snarking--about her family, visitors, and life in general, and she can be extremely funny.

Visitors--some pleasant, some vastly irritating--come and go, or sometimes come and stay, even when Elizabeth would rather they just left. It is nice being the only person who ever goes there or shows it to anybody, but if more people went, perhaps the mosquitoes would be less lean, and hungry, and pleased to see us.She does not actually garden, being a lady; she says on several occasions that she wishes she could just get a spade and dig instead of having to give instructions. Married early to the German Count, Henning von Arnim, she became Elizabeth as she escaped to her German garden and found beauty amidst an oppressive existence.

Even though it could reasonably be claimed that Elizabeth acted very bitchily toward her unwanted guest, I did find myself sympathizing with her. The passion for being for ever with one's fellows, and the fear of being left for a few hours alone, is to me wholly incomprehensible. Her silly little snobberies are not amusing or pleasant to a 21st century reader, She is a self-absorbed and not very kind person, apparently unaware of her life of tremendous privilege. So minus a star for those sections and for the parts when the gardening trivialities and minutiae made my eyes glaze over. By the end, in a “speech” voiced by Elizabeth’s “oh so sage” husband, the satirical message becomes crystal clear.Well, but think how much colder you would have been without all that fur you ate for lunch inside you,’ she said. Elizabeth is at her best and happiest in spring and summer, nominally overseeing the renovation of the her husband’s house, but in truth, reveling in long indolent days in the utter solitude of her garden--reading, dreaming, delighting in each new glory of the unfolding spring. entzückend, reizend, herrlich, wundervoll and süss = adorable, delightful, splendid, wonderful and sweet (I added the umlauts; the Gutenberg copy is missing them.

Still in the context of a witty, humorous, and charming book this brough me up short and dimmed my mood temporarily. Elizabeth and Her German Garden," a novel by Elizabeth von Arnim, was popular and frequently reprinted during the early years of the 20th century. She looked down upon the frivolous fashions of her time writing “I believe all needlework and dressmaking is of the devil, designed to keep women from study.

Elizabeth gently mocks her husband, family and others around her as she describes her efforts to develop a garden on the estate. But in between the lines as well as through many expressions, the readers get a good insight into what Elizabeth's life was. Her memoir was loaded with those funny long sentences containing plenty of commas, semi-colons and dashes that were in fashion back then.