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Elizabeth
The Solitary Summer
This delightful companion to the famous Elizabeth and Her German Garden is a witty, lyrical account of a rejuvenating summer. Descriptions of magnificent larkspurs and burning nasturtiums give way to those of cooling forest walks, and of clambering up the mud bank when the miller is not in view. Rainy days prompt a little philanthropy, until the sun returns the gardener to the refuge of her beloved plants. Yet the months are not as solitary as she'd planned—there's the Man of Wrath to pacify and the April, May, and June babies to amuse. Here, with the pleasing astringency for which she is noted, Elizabeth von Arnim returns to the heroine and the garden she immortalized.
264 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1899
107 people are currently reading
2428 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth von Arnim
216 books660 followersElizabeth von Arnim, born Mary Annette Beauchamp, was an English novelist. Born in Australia, she married a German aristocrat, and her earliest works are set in Germany. Her first marriage made her Countess von Arnim-Schlagenthin and her second Elizabeth Russell, Countess Russell. After her first husband's death, she had a three-year affair with the writer H.G. Wells, then later married Earl Russell, elder brother of the Nobel prize-winner and philosopher Bertrand Russell. She was a cousin of the New Zealand-born writer Katherine Mansfield. Though known in early life as May, her first book introduced her to readers as Elizabeth, which she eventually became to friends and finally to family. Her writings are ascribed to Elizabeth von Arnim. She used the pseudonym Alice Cholmondeley for only one novel, Christine, published in 1917.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 173 reviews
September 22, 2024
Someone suggested this on The Literary Life Facebook page and having loved The Enchanted April and Elizabeth’s German Garden I thought it would be a nice summer read.
The first few pages did not draw me into this novel but by the end I was highlighting and laughing through every paragraph. This novel is a lovely summer diversion. It is as palpably summer as Elizabeth herself must have been. I yearned with Elizabeth to be a goose girl! Her delights in wood, garden, and field are achingly real.
This would make a great reading slump book. It is also a good cheering-up book too. I dare you not to smile while reading.
Elizabeth is 3 for 3 so far.
The first few pages did not draw me into this novel but by the end I was highlighting and laughing through every paragraph. This novel is a lovely summer diversion. It is as palpably summer as Elizabeth herself must have been. I yearned with Elizabeth to be a goose girl! Her delights in wood, garden, and field are achingly real.
This would make a great reading slump book. It is also a good cheering-up book too. I dare you not to smile while reading.
Elizabeth is 3 for 3 so far.
October 12, 2020
It was time for me to read another book by Elizabeth von Arnim. When I originally started reading her, I fell head over heels in love. Well so to speak. After reading now 13 (!) of her works I am a big fan although my ardor has cooled a bit. I vacillated between 3 and 4 stars for this but what the hell — I am biased towards Elizabeth! 😊
This is a continuation or sequel to her first book published a year earlier, Elizabeth and Her German Garden (1898). The chapters are in the form of diary entries from May until September/October, two entries to a month. She relates to the reader what is going on in her life mainly having to do with her garden and also her three ‘babies’ and also going into the village and tending to the people who work for her and her husband known as The Man of Wrath. This is known as a semi-autobiographical work. She actually was married to a Count and was rich and lived on an estate…she did at the time of writing actually have 4 babies (three of whom are supposedly in the book).
Her descriptions of the many flowers she had on the estate are really enjoyable to read. I can picture how she has her gardens laid out…and she has many different kinds of flowers (e.g., pansies, lupines, lilies, tulips, sweet peas, foxglove, narcissus, tea roses, larkspurs, poppies, and lilac bushes). I really like flowers and gardens, so maybe to those who hate them this book would not be their cup of tea. Apparently, the books struck a chord with readers as both books were reprinted numerous times, and these started her on the path to a long writing career.
In her diaries she also lets us in on what’s she reading including Thoreau’s Walden Pond, Walt Whitman, Jane Austen, Lewis Carroll, Goethe, Hawthorne, Bronte (Emily), Boswell, and Oliver Wendell Holmes to name but a few. Just as I can picture her gardens, I really liked her description of her library in the house. Here tis:
• ‘What a blessing it is to love books. … In the center of my library there is a wooden pillar propping up the ceiling, and preventing it, so I am told, from tumbling about our ears; and round this pillar, from floor to ceiling, I have had shelves fixed, and on these shelves are all the books that I have read again and again, and hope to read many times more—all the books, that is, that I love quite the best. In the bookcases round the walls are many that I love, but here in the center of the room, and easiest to get at, are those I love the BEST—the very elect among my favorites. They change from time to time as I get older, and with years some that are in the bookcases come here, and some that are here go into the bookcases, and some again are removed altogether, and are placed on certain shelves in the drawing room which are reserved for those that have weighed in the balance and found wanting, and from whence they seldom, if ever, return.’
The novel is not all peaches and cream. There was one diary entry that was 19 pages in length, in my Virago Modern Classics issue, that had a lot of disturbing things in it. Elizabeth and her husband and her ‘babies’ may have been extremely well off but the people who worked for them lived in squalid conditions in the village (at least that is what she calls it).
• ‘The village consists of one street running parallel to the outer buildings of the farm, and the cottages are one-storied, each with rooms for four families—two in front, looking to the wall of the farmyard, which is the fashionable side, and two at the back, looking on to nothing more than their own pigsties. Each family has one room and a larder sort of place, and shares the kitchen with the family on the opposite side of the entrance; but the women prefer doing their cooking at the grate in their own room rather than expose the contents of their pots to the ill-natured comments of a neighbor.’
• ‘…and the two beds, one for herself and her husband, and the other for her three daughters…It is a mystery to me, when I see the narrowness of the bedsteads, how so many people can sleep in them. They are rather narrower than what are known as single beds, yet father and mother and often a baby manage to sleep very well in one, and three or four children in another. The explanation no doubt is that they do not know what nerves are, and what it is to be wakened by the slightest sound or movement in the room and lie for hours afterwards, often the whole night, totally unable to fall asleep again… No nerves, and a thick skin—what inestimable blessings to these poor people!’
Jim: reminds me of Marie Antoinette’s “Let them eat cake.” This view of life on the other side of the tracks goes on for a while. I don’t think von Arnim is tone-deaf…she is writing not necessarily from her own view and attitude towards these people but from the perspective of a rich wife of a Count in Prussia, and she is showing the reader (she has a vast following in other countries…’Elizabeth and Her German Garden’ was published by Macmillan in both England and the US and reprinted many times just in 1898) what life is like on an estate of a Count. There are riches for the few, but as for the families that have to take care of the farms and stables and the like that are on the estate, well, life is not so idyllic. It’s downright abysmal.
There is also an interesting diary entry on her and her family putting up a whole army regiment on their estate. Apparently in Prussia back in those days, the aristocracy had to put up soldiers (sometimes as few as one but sometimes many many soldiers/officers) in their estate sometimes for weeks at a time. I think they got some reimbursement from the government, but I could well imagine this was one big pain in the butt for those who had to provide temporary room and board for the soldiers. Whether in real life she and her family had to put up regiments, I do not know. The fact that she includes this in her novel leads me to think her family did have to do so.
Notes
• So, in three of her books she talks about her “babies”. They are referred to as the April Baby, the May Baby, and the June Baby, supposedly named after the month they were born. They’re not babies…in the novel they’re old enough to learn French from their French governess. At the time of writing it, Elizabeth von Arnim had three girls, Eva (age 8), Elisabeth Irene (age of 6 years), Beatrix (age of 5 years), and may have been pregnant with her fourth — Felicitas (born in 1899, same year the novel was published). Supposedly the book’s babies were loosely based on her first three daughters, but I am not sure about that, in that only one of them was born in the month of April, May, or June. Sadly, her youngest daughter Felicitas died of pneumonia at around the outbreak of Word War I…von Arnim at that time was living in London, and England and Germany were at war, and Felicitas was stuck in Germany. On or within days of learning of her daughter’s death she learned of her nephew’s death — he was an officer on the Black Prince and it was sunk in the Battle of Jutland (April 30 and May 1, 1916).
• There is some doubt that the gardens that were loved by so many of Elizabeth von Arnim’s readers did in fact exist. From http://www.katherinemansfieldsociety.... : Although the book is semi-autobiographical, the novelist E.M. Forster, who lived at the von Arnim estate in 1905, working as a tutor to the family's children, wrote that there was in fact not much of a garden. "‘The German Garden itself ... did not make much impression.’ ... ‘[The house] appeared to be surrounded by paddocks and shrubberies’ while ‘in the summer’, he notes, ‘some flowers – mainly pansies, tulips, roses [appeared] ... and there were endless lupins ... [that] the Count was drilling for agricultural purposes’. But, Forster adds, ‘there was nothing of a show’."
Reviews (from blog sites):
• https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2018/...
• https://bookssnob.wordpress.com/2012/...
• http://www.thingsmeanalot.com/2010/06...
• https://www.literaryladiesguide.com/b...
This is a continuation or sequel to her first book published a year earlier, Elizabeth and Her German Garden (1898). The chapters are in the form of diary entries from May until September/October, two entries to a month. She relates to the reader what is going on in her life mainly having to do with her garden and also her three ‘babies’ and also going into the village and tending to the people who work for her and her husband known as The Man of Wrath. This is known as a semi-autobiographical work. She actually was married to a Count and was rich and lived on an estate…she did at the time of writing actually have 4 babies (three of whom are supposedly in the book).
Her descriptions of the many flowers she had on the estate are really enjoyable to read. I can picture how she has her gardens laid out…and she has many different kinds of flowers (e.g., pansies, lupines, lilies, tulips, sweet peas, foxglove, narcissus, tea roses, larkspurs, poppies, and lilac bushes). I really like flowers and gardens, so maybe to those who hate them this book would not be their cup of tea. Apparently, the books struck a chord with readers as both books were reprinted numerous times, and these started her on the path to a long writing career.
In her diaries she also lets us in on what’s she reading including Thoreau’s Walden Pond, Walt Whitman, Jane Austen, Lewis Carroll, Goethe, Hawthorne, Bronte (Emily), Boswell, and Oliver Wendell Holmes to name but a few. Just as I can picture her gardens, I really liked her description of her library in the house. Here tis:
• ‘What a blessing it is to love books. … In the center of my library there is a wooden pillar propping up the ceiling, and preventing it, so I am told, from tumbling about our ears; and round this pillar, from floor to ceiling, I have had shelves fixed, and on these shelves are all the books that I have read again and again, and hope to read many times more—all the books, that is, that I love quite the best. In the bookcases round the walls are many that I love, but here in the center of the room, and easiest to get at, are those I love the BEST—the very elect among my favorites. They change from time to time as I get older, and with years some that are in the bookcases come here, and some that are here go into the bookcases, and some again are removed altogether, and are placed on certain shelves in the drawing room which are reserved for those that have weighed in the balance and found wanting, and from whence they seldom, if ever, return.’
The novel is not all peaches and cream. There was one diary entry that was 19 pages in length, in my Virago Modern Classics issue, that had a lot of disturbing things in it. Elizabeth and her husband and her ‘babies’ may have been extremely well off but the people who worked for them lived in squalid conditions in the village (at least that is what she calls it).
• ‘The village consists of one street running parallel to the outer buildings of the farm, and the cottages are one-storied, each with rooms for four families—two in front, looking to the wall of the farmyard, which is the fashionable side, and two at the back, looking on to nothing more than their own pigsties. Each family has one room and a larder sort of place, and shares the kitchen with the family on the opposite side of the entrance; but the women prefer doing their cooking at the grate in their own room rather than expose the contents of their pots to the ill-natured comments of a neighbor.’
• ‘…and the two beds, one for herself and her husband, and the other for her three daughters…It is a mystery to me, when I see the narrowness of the bedsteads, how so many people can sleep in them. They are rather narrower than what are known as single beds, yet father and mother and often a baby manage to sleep very well in one, and three or four children in another. The explanation no doubt is that they do not know what nerves are, and what it is to be wakened by the slightest sound or movement in the room and lie for hours afterwards, often the whole night, totally unable to fall asleep again… No nerves, and a thick skin—what inestimable blessings to these poor people!’
Jim: reminds me of Marie Antoinette’s “Let them eat cake.” This view of life on the other side of the tracks goes on for a while. I don’t think von Arnim is tone-deaf…she is writing not necessarily from her own view and attitude towards these people but from the perspective of a rich wife of a Count in Prussia, and she is showing the reader (she has a vast following in other countries…’Elizabeth and Her German Garden’ was published by Macmillan in both England and the US and reprinted many times just in 1898) what life is like on an estate of a Count. There are riches for the few, but as for the families that have to take care of the farms and stables and the like that are on the estate, well, life is not so idyllic. It’s downright abysmal.
There is also an interesting diary entry on her and her family putting up a whole army regiment on their estate. Apparently in Prussia back in those days, the aristocracy had to put up soldiers (sometimes as few as one but sometimes many many soldiers/officers) in their estate sometimes for weeks at a time. I think they got some reimbursement from the government, but I could well imagine this was one big pain in the butt for those who had to provide temporary room and board for the soldiers. Whether in real life she and her family had to put up regiments, I do not know. The fact that she includes this in her novel leads me to think her family did have to do so.
Notes
• So, in three of her books she talks about her “babies”. They are referred to as the April Baby, the May Baby, and the June Baby, supposedly named after the month they were born. They’re not babies…in the novel they’re old enough to learn French from their French governess. At the time of writing it, Elizabeth von Arnim had three girls, Eva (age 8), Elisabeth Irene (age of 6 years), Beatrix (age of 5 years), and may have been pregnant with her fourth — Felicitas (born in 1899, same year the novel was published). Supposedly the book’s babies were loosely based on her first three daughters, but I am not sure about that, in that only one of them was born in the month of April, May, or June. Sadly, her youngest daughter Felicitas died of pneumonia at around the outbreak of Word War I…von Arnim at that time was living in London, and England and Germany were at war, and Felicitas was stuck in Germany. On or within days of learning of her daughter’s death she learned of her nephew’s death — he was an officer on the Black Prince and it was sunk in the Battle of Jutland (April 30 and May 1, 1916).
• There is some doubt that the gardens that were loved by so many of Elizabeth von Arnim’s readers did in fact exist. From http://www.katherinemansfieldsociety.... : Although the book is semi-autobiographical, the novelist E.M. Forster, who lived at the von Arnim estate in 1905, working as a tutor to the family's children, wrote that there was in fact not much of a garden. "‘The German Garden itself ... did not make much impression.’ ... ‘[The house] appeared to be surrounded by paddocks and shrubberies’ while ‘in the summer’, he notes, ‘some flowers – mainly pansies, tulips, roses [appeared] ... and there were endless lupins ... [that] the Count was drilling for agricultural purposes’. But, Forster adds, ‘there was nothing of a show’."
Reviews (from blog sites):
• https://heavenali.wordpress.com/2018/...
• https://bookssnob.wordpress.com/2012/...
• http://www.thingsmeanalot.com/2010/06...
• https://www.literaryladiesguide.com/b...
October 18, 2022
I love Elizabeth Von Arnim. Not everyone can write a 190 page book about spending time in her garden and make it this wonderful. We get her reverence for the flowers and trees and growing things, but interspersed with dialogue and activities from her children, (the babies) her husband (the Man of Wrath), and her own witty, hilarious thoughts on other people and the world at large. I always finish one of her books charmed to my toes. High on my list of people I wish I had known.
November 28, 2021
I want to be alone for a whole summer, and get to the very dregs of life. I want to be as idle as I can, so that my soul may have time to grow. Nobody shall be invited to stay with me, and if any one calls they will be told that I am out, or away, or sick. I shall spend the months in the garden, and on the plain, and in the forests.
The nameless narrator, an autobiographical version of von Arnim herself, who married a Prussian count and lived with him and their children on his estate in Pomerania, proposes this to her husband, the Man of Wrath, at the outset of this charming, short novel. He predicts she'll be bored, but agrees that they won't invite guests for the duration of the summer.
She's confident she'll revel in the solitude, which is, in any case, relative. She sees her husband, their children, referred to as the April, May, and June Babies, their tutor, a governess, a gardener, the women of the village she's expected to look in on, a candidate for pastor her husband must interview, and a horde of soldiers and officers they're obligated to quarter in September.
She does revel in the solitude and observes and describes exquisitely the glories of her garden at all times of day and night during her enchanted summer. Stories of time she spends with her Babies are endearing, especially when their innocent questions overwhelm her theological expertise. Yet her accounts of servants and village households sometimes reveal that not everyone's lives are as charmed as her own or her family's.
I highly recommend for anyone interested in a soothing escape to a quiet summer garden in the country.
What a blessing it is to love books. Everybody must love something, and I know of no objects of love that give such substantial and unfailing returns as books and a garden.
The nameless narrator, an autobiographical version of von Arnim herself, who married a Prussian count and lived with him and their children on his estate in Pomerania, proposes this to her husband, the Man of Wrath, at the outset of this charming, short novel. He predicts she'll be bored, but agrees that they won't invite guests for the duration of the summer.
She's confident she'll revel in the solitude, which is, in any case, relative. She sees her husband, their children, referred to as the April, May, and June Babies, their tutor, a governess, a gardener, the women of the village she's expected to look in on, a candidate for pastor her husband must interview, and a horde of soldiers and officers they're obligated to quarter in September.
She does revel in the solitude and observes and describes exquisitely the glories of her garden at all times of day and night during her enchanted summer. Stories of time she spends with her Babies are endearing, especially when their innocent questions overwhelm her theological expertise. Yet her accounts of servants and village households sometimes reveal that not everyone's lives are as charmed as her own or her family's.
I highly recommend for anyone interested in a soothing escape to a quiet summer garden in the country.
What a blessing it is to love books. Everybody must love something, and I know of no objects of love that give such substantial and unfailing returns as books and a garden.
February 5, 2017
Doesn't quite reach the heights of Elizabeth and Her German Garden, but there are so many passages that just sing so joyously, and others that might have been lifted from Austen- others that are horribly dated, some terribly modern, or grasping their way towards being so.
My thoughts on this book and Elizabeth and Her German Garden may be found here at Book Riot: http://bookriot.com/2016/10/18/readin...
My thoughts on this book and Elizabeth and Her German Garden may be found here at Book Riot: http://bookriot.com/2016/10/18/readin...
March 9, 2023
Resoconto di un'estate trascorsa espressamente senza il disturbo di ospiti esterni, godendosi il giardino così faticosamente sistemato e la vita in campagna. Alla fine dei conti è un nì. Splendide le pagine in cui il giardino viene metaforicamente traslato a svelare la bellezza della vita, splendide le descrizioni sensoriali del contesto, presente, ma non eccessivamente insistita, la critica alla società patriarcale dell'epoca e all'ignoranza imperante nelle classi povere, ma altre parti sono davvero noiose, prolisse senza motivo, solite indugiare in particolari abbastanza neutri ai fini della trama.
October 15, 2019
Solitudine come piacere
Una gradevole lettura, in particolare per chi ama la natura e sa assaporare la solitudine.
Il testo può essere considerato la continuazione di "Il giardino di Elizabeth" , ma consente anche una fruizione autonoma.
Qui la vicenda si dispiega fra maggio e settembre : è intenzione della protagonista "restare da sola per l'intera estate, e giungere all'essenza della vita". "Là fuori (...) tutto è silenzio e dove c'è silenzio, ho scoperto, c'è la pace" .
"Sola" ma non proprio : nella dimora contornata dall'ampio parco ci sono il marito, 'L'uomo di Rabbia' , e le tre deliziose bambine che portano i nomi dei mesi fioriti, Aprile Maggio Giugno.
Per quanto ho letto dell'autrice, la Von Arnim non mi pare scrittrice adatta a trame e intrecci. Riesce meglio se, come qui, con sfumature autobiografiche non è ingombrata da troppe vicende e troppi personaggi. Ama gli spazi aperti che lascino aleggiare tra le pagine, lieve, la brezza . Sicuramente è Donna di Fiori, sensibile com'è a colori e profumi di cui la natura è prodiga. Troppo intelligente per non sapere che "la felicità viene da dentro, e non dall'esterno" , e "l'amore per i libri è una vera benedizione" .
La scrittura si presenta particolarmente bella, dotata di una leggerezza profonda e non priva di un Umorismo 'molto inglese' : la signora, che ama sdraiarsi "sull'erba a guardare le nuvole" e sentirsi "contenta di essere viva", desidera solo che tutto proceda senza sussulti, convinta com'è che il marito non veda l'ora di pronunciare "quel commento tanto prezioso per il cuore di una donna sposata : 'Mia cara, te l'avevo detto' " .
Una gradevole lettura, in particolare per chi ama la natura e sa assaporare la solitudine.
Il testo può essere considerato la continuazione di "Il giardino di Elizabeth" , ma consente anche una fruizione autonoma.
Qui la vicenda si dispiega fra maggio e settembre : è intenzione della protagonista "restare da sola per l'intera estate, e giungere all'essenza della vita". "Là fuori (...) tutto è silenzio e dove c'è silenzio, ho scoperto, c'è la pace" .
"Sola" ma non proprio : nella dimora contornata dall'ampio parco ci sono il marito, 'L'uomo di Rabbia' , e le tre deliziose bambine che portano i nomi dei mesi fioriti, Aprile Maggio Giugno.
Per quanto ho letto dell'autrice, la Von Arnim non mi pare scrittrice adatta a trame e intrecci. Riesce meglio se, come qui, con sfumature autobiografiche non è ingombrata da troppe vicende e troppi personaggi. Ama gli spazi aperti che lascino aleggiare tra le pagine, lieve, la brezza . Sicuramente è Donna di Fiori, sensibile com'è a colori e profumi di cui la natura è prodiga. Troppo intelligente per non sapere che "la felicità viene da dentro, e non dall'esterno" , e "l'amore per i libri è una vera benedizione" .
La scrittura si presenta particolarmente bella, dotata di una leggerezza profonda e non priva di un Umorismo 'molto inglese' : la signora, che ama sdraiarsi "sull'erba a guardare le nuvole" e sentirsi "contenta di essere viva", desidera solo che tutto proceda senza sussulti, convinta com'è che il marito non veda l'ora di pronunciare "quel commento tanto prezioso per il cuore di una donna sposata : 'Mia cara, te l'avevo detto' " .
July 30, 2019
”What a blessing it is to love books. Everybody must love something, and I know of no objects of love that give such unfailing returns as books and a garden.”
I suspect that most readers will come to this having read (and enjoyed) Elizabeth and her German Garden, its predecessor. The book picks up where it has left off, with a reiteration of her attempts to create a garden (with its successes and failures), but from the first page she announces her intention and desire “to be alone for a whole summer and get to the very dregs of life.”
The book is divided into months - and each month has at least two topics on which the author dwells on at some length. Probably my favourite comes near the beginning, in June, when she describes favourite authors and how they are suited to different moods and landscapes.
”Books have their idiosyncrasies as well as people, and will not show me their full beauties unless the pace and time in which they are read suits them.”
Much given to what she describes herself as “rhapsodies”, Elizabeth’s flights of fancy are tempered by her sly sense of humour and self-awareness. Although she takes her garden very seriously, she tends to poke fun at nearly everything else - and since she does not have visitors to gently mock in this novel (with the exception of some soldiers in September), she goes into far more detail about the locals and their strange beliefs and ways. The German passion for essen (eating) is also discussed, with much humour (and some disgust), and there are many opportunities to contrast the higher and lower nature of her fellow Germans.
“Love and sorrow appear to be flowers of civilisation, and most to flourish where life has the broadest margin of leisure and abundance.
The Man of Wrath (her husband) and the April, May and June babies make cameo appearances again, but this book is almost entirely about Elizabeth - and her passionate love of solitude and the beauties of her garden. I enjoyed her below description of women, but don’t think it much applies to this unique and self-sufficient woman. I would love to read a really good biography of her.
Women have ”a good deal of ivy nature still left in her, and an unhealthy caring for sympathy and support.”
I suspect that most readers will come to this having read (and enjoyed) Elizabeth and her German Garden, its predecessor. The book picks up where it has left off, with a reiteration of her attempts to create a garden (with its successes and failures), but from the first page she announces her intention and desire “to be alone for a whole summer and get to the very dregs of life.”
The book is divided into months - and each month has at least two topics on which the author dwells on at some length. Probably my favourite comes near the beginning, in June, when she describes favourite authors and how they are suited to different moods and landscapes.
”Books have their idiosyncrasies as well as people, and will not show me their full beauties unless the pace and time in which they are read suits them.”
Much given to what she describes herself as “rhapsodies”, Elizabeth’s flights of fancy are tempered by her sly sense of humour and self-awareness. Although she takes her garden very seriously, she tends to poke fun at nearly everything else - and since she does not have visitors to gently mock in this novel (with the exception of some soldiers in September), she goes into far more detail about the locals and their strange beliefs and ways. The German passion for essen (eating) is also discussed, with much humour (and some disgust), and there are many opportunities to contrast the higher and lower nature of her fellow Germans.
“Love and sorrow appear to be flowers of civilisation, and most to flourish where life has the broadest margin of leisure and abundance.
The Man of Wrath (her husband) and the April, May and June babies make cameo appearances again, but this book is almost entirely about Elizabeth - and her passionate love of solitude and the beauties of her garden. I enjoyed her below description of women, but don’t think it much applies to this unique and self-sufficient woman. I would love to read a really good biography of her.
Women have ”a good deal of ivy nature still left in her, and an unhealthy caring for sympathy and support.”
March 20, 2021
” 2 maggio. Ieri sera dopo cena, mentre eravamo in giardino, dissi: «Voglio restare da sola per l’intera estate, e giungere all’essenza della vita. Voglio impigrirmi quanto più possibile, perché la mia anima abbia il tempo e l’agio di crescere. Non inviterò nessuno, e se qualcuno verrà a trovarmi gli si risponderà che sono fuori, lontana, o indisposta. Trascorrerò i mesi sui prati e nei boschi. Osserverò le cose che accadono in giardino e vedrò se e dove ho sbagliato. Nei giorni di pioggia mi addentrerò nel fitto della pineta, dove gli aghi sempreverdi rimangono asciutti, e nei giorni di sole mi sdraierò sulla brughiera per vedere la ginestra sfolgorante sul fondale di nuvole. Sarò felice, nessuno verrà a disturbarmi. Là fuori, sulla piana, tutto è silenzio e dove c’è silenzio, ho scoperto, c’è la pace».
Scrive così. Elizabeth, sulla prima pagina del suo diario.
Ferma nell’intento di vivere la sua piena libertà.
” Non sarebbe perfetto alzarsi la mattina, giorno dopo giorno per intere settimane, e sentire di appartenere a te stessa e a nessun altro?”
Immergersi nella natura e in un buon libro senza dover ricevere ospiti o rispettare altri impegni se non quello di presentarsi a pranzo con le tre figlie ed il marito altrimenti detto l’Uomo della Rabbia.
Ne “Il giardino di Elizabeth” c’è la scoperta di una passione che cresce giorno dopo giorno.
Lì la solitudine è spezzata dall’arrivo di due ospiti e dalla stagione invernale che impedisce di vivere pienamente all’aria aperta.
Il pensiero però è sempre rivolto al giardino e alle semine su cui vuole aumentare la sua conoscenza.
Qui l’intento di passare le giornate all’aria aperta è quasi un compimento dei frutti della creazione.
Non tutto andrà esattamente come previsto ma:
” Come puoi non essere felice se sei in buona salute e vivi nel luogo in cui desideri?”
Elizabeth Von Armin, anche in questo secondo volume, conferma la vena ironica che riesce a far sorridere quando parla delle sue divertenti bambini o del ridicolo cinismo del marito.
Quasi contagioso lo sguardo d’amore rivolto alla natura che si fa complice di vivaci riflessioni.
” Si tratta di gioie semplici, è vero, e del genere che facilmente provocano la puzza sotto il naso dei più mondani; ma a chi interessano i nasi altrui? Io sono semplicemente me stessa, e non mi stanco mai della benedetta libertà da tutte le costrizioni. Persino un dettaglio in apparenza minore, quale l’essere in grado di uscire all’aperto senza dover indossare cappello, guanti e veletta, reca in sé un fascino sottile del quale non potrò mai stancarmi. È chiaro che sono nata per una placida vita di campagna, e placida lo è certamente, al punto che le giornate sono a volte più simili a un sogno che alla realtà, dedicate interamente alla lettura, al pensiero, all’osservare come cambia la luce del sole o come crescono e appassiscono i fiori; freschi giorni sereni quando la vita trabocca entusiasmo e non riesci a smettere di cantare perché sei troppo felice, e caldi giorni sereni sdraiata sull’erba in un angolo appartato ad ammirare la processione delle nuvole – una posizione, lo ammetto, particolarmente sconveniente, ma pensate al conforto morale!”
Scrive così. Elizabeth, sulla prima pagina del suo diario.
Ferma nell’intento di vivere la sua piena libertà.
” Non sarebbe perfetto alzarsi la mattina, giorno dopo giorno per intere settimane, e sentire di appartenere a te stessa e a nessun altro?”
Immergersi nella natura e in un buon libro senza dover ricevere ospiti o rispettare altri impegni se non quello di presentarsi a pranzo con le tre figlie ed il marito altrimenti detto l’Uomo della Rabbia.
Ne “Il giardino di Elizabeth” c’è la scoperta di una passione che cresce giorno dopo giorno.
Lì la solitudine è spezzata dall’arrivo di due ospiti e dalla stagione invernale che impedisce di vivere pienamente all’aria aperta.
Il pensiero però è sempre rivolto al giardino e alle semine su cui vuole aumentare la sua conoscenza.
Qui l’intento di passare le giornate all’aria aperta è quasi un compimento dei frutti della creazione.
Non tutto andrà esattamente come previsto ma:
” Come puoi non essere felice se sei in buona salute e vivi nel luogo in cui desideri?”
Elizabeth Von Armin, anche in questo secondo volume, conferma la vena ironica che riesce a far sorridere quando parla delle sue divertenti bambini o del ridicolo cinismo del marito.
Quasi contagioso lo sguardo d’amore rivolto alla natura che si fa complice di vivaci riflessioni.
” Si tratta di gioie semplici, è vero, e del genere che facilmente provocano la puzza sotto il naso dei più mondani; ma a chi interessano i nasi altrui? Io sono semplicemente me stessa, e non mi stanco mai della benedetta libertà da tutte le costrizioni. Persino un dettaglio in apparenza minore, quale l’essere in grado di uscire all’aperto senza dover indossare cappello, guanti e veletta, reca in sé un fascino sottile del quale non potrò mai stancarmi. È chiaro che sono nata per una placida vita di campagna, e placida lo è certamente, al punto che le giornate sono a volte più simili a un sogno che alla realtà, dedicate interamente alla lettura, al pensiero, all’osservare come cambia la luce del sole o come crescono e appassiscono i fiori; freschi giorni sereni quando la vita trabocca entusiasmo e non riesci a smettere di cantare perché sei troppo felice, e caldi giorni sereni sdraiata sull’erba in un angolo appartato ad ammirare la processione delle nuvole – una posizione, lo ammetto, particolarmente sconveniente, ma pensate al conforto morale!”
August 11, 2023
120 Jahre alt ist dieser kleine Roman. Selbstbewusst, klug und humorig reflektiert die Autorin sich und ihre Umwelt. Trotz aller Leichtigkeit sollte das Bändchen langsam und aufmerksam gelesen werden, in dem viele Bonmots zu entdecken sind.
May 19, 2023
A new book best friend! I am a huge Elizabeth von Arnim fan, but this book is now my favorite. I don't know what it was about it specifically except that reading this book felt like home to me. The way EVA writes truly speaks to me. This summer memoir(ish) story was the ultimate in coziness for me with her flower garden descriptions, the way she describes her 'babies', her everyday activities and her encounters with the 'Man of Wrath'.
Even though it seems like a strictly light-hearted book, it's actually very deep. I added so many book darts on the passages that I wanted to remember. Can't wait to read this book again. It's definitely now my favorite EVA, even more than The Enchanted April. Looking forward to reading the last book in this trilogy very soon.
Highly recommended!
Even though it seems like a strictly light-hearted book, it's actually very deep. I added so many book darts on the passages that I wanted to remember. Can't wait to read this book again. It's definitely now my favorite EVA, even more than The Enchanted April. Looking forward to reading the last book in this trilogy very soon.
Highly recommended!
January 20, 2021
Sometimes, you have trouble rating a book. Is the recollection of a rich aristocratic woman of a summer spent in her garden with her books worth 5 stars ? There is no riveting plot, nothing really happens and her life sometimes feels unreal.
However, Elizabeth von Arnim knows how to share her deep abiding love for her garden, for her books, those she loves to read again and again and those that won't remain on her shelves for long. She writes delightfully about soldiers billeted in her home (= invading her privacy) and how she has to entertain them, the gardeners who happen on her when she wants to remain alone and quiet, the strange customs of the villagers, but mostly, she writes of how impossible it is for her to spend one day without her garden, in all seasons. The plants she chose, the struggle it was to make them grow, the fails, the wild flowers, wild gardens, the scents, the colours, and mostly the peace and happiness she finds there, the beauty she enjoys.
She was a woman who didn't have much to do during the day but play a little with her children, dine with her family, entertain accointances, read, write, enjoy her gardens, so her life doesn't have much in common with mine. Yet I love the way she writes : she communicates her passions effortlessly, like she's not even trying, with tongue in cheek humour, just like Ella Fitzgerald sang so wonderfully with apparently so little effort on her behalf. She was kind and took pleasure in little things, she enjoyed quiet and beauty. Re-reading this in winter, while it is cold and damp and there is hardly any flower in sight is like a balm on my spirit, it suffused me with a warmth that put a smile on my face during all these pages *happy sigh*...
"He was a good man, for he loved his garden" - that is the epitaph I would have put on his monument, because it gives one a far clearer sense of his goodness and explains it better than any amount of sonorous Latinities. How could he be anything but good since he loved a garden - that divine filter that filters all the grossness out of us, and leaves us, each time we hav been in it, clearer, and purer, and more harmless ?"
On German novels and the German love of food :
"Any story-book or novel you take up is full of feeling descriptions of what everybody ate and drank, and there are a great many more meals than kisses ; so that the novel-reader who expects a love-tale finds with disgust that he is put off with menus."
However, Elizabeth von Arnim knows how to share her deep abiding love for her garden, for her books, those she loves to read again and again and those that won't remain on her shelves for long. She writes delightfully about soldiers billeted in her home (= invading her privacy) and how she has to entertain them, the gardeners who happen on her when she wants to remain alone and quiet, the strange customs of the villagers, but mostly, she writes of how impossible it is for her to spend one day without her garden, in all seasons. The plants she chose, the struggle it was to make them grow, the fails, the wild flowers, wild gardens, the scents, the colours, and mostly the peace and happiness she finds there, the beauty she enjoys.
She was a woman who didn't have much to do during the day but play a little with her children, dine with her family, entertain accointances, read, write, enjoy her gardens, so her life doesn't have much in common with mine. Yet I love the way she writes : she communicates her passions effortlessly, like she's not even trying, with tongue in cheek humour, just like Ella Fitzgerald sang so wonderfully with apparently so little effort on her behalf. She was kind and took pleasure in little things, she enjoyed quiet and beauty. Re-reading this in winter, while it is cold and damp and there is hardly any flower in sight is like a balm on my spirit, it suffused me with a warmth that put a smile on my face during all these pages *happy sigh*...
"He was a good man, for he loved his garden" - that is the epitaph I would have put on his monument, because it gives one a far clearer sense of his goodness and explains it better than any amount of sonorous Latinities. How could he be anything but good since he loved a garden - that divine filter that filters all the grossness out of us, and leaves us, each time we hav been in it, clearer, and purer, and more harmless ?"
On German novels and the German love of food :
"Any story-book or novel you take up is full of feeling descriptions of what everybody ate and drank, and there are a great many more meals than kisses ; so that the novel-reader who expects a love-tale finds with disgust that he is put off with menus."
September 22, 2013
Free download available at Project Gutenberg.
Opening lines:
May 2nd.—Last night after dinner, when we were in the garden, I said, "I want to be alone for a whole summer, and get to the very dregs of life. I want to be as idle as I can, so that my soul may have time to grow. Nobody shall be invited to stay with me, and if any one calls they will be told that I am out, or away, or sick. I shall spend the months in the garden, and on the plain, and in the forests. I shall watch the things that happen in my garden, and see where I have made mistakes.
Page 10:
What a blessing it is to love books. Everybody must love something, and I know of no objects of love that give such substantial and unfailing returns as books and a garden. And how easy it would have been to come into the world without this, and possessed instead of an all-consuming passion, say, for hats, perpetually raging round my empty soul!
Page 12:
I prefer sitting here on the verandah and looking down through a frame of leaves at all the rosebuds June has put in the beds round the sun-dial, to ponder over nothing, and just be glad that I am alive.
Page 39:
Any story-book or novel you take up is full of feeling descriptions of what everybody ate and drank, and there are a great many more meals than kisses; so that the novel-reader who expects a love-tale, finds with disgust that he is put off with menus.
Page 42:
Oh a garden is a sweet, sane refuge to have! Whether I am tired because I have enjoyed myself too much, or tired because I have lectured the servants too much, or tired because I have talked to missionaries too much, I have only to come down the verandah steps into the garden to be at once restored to quiet, and serenity, and my real and natural self.
What else should I say about this book? Only this: another little gem written by Elizabeth von Arnim.
4* The Enchanted April
3* The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rugen
4* Elizabeth and Her German Garden
3* The Solitary Summer
TBR Christopher And Columbus
TBR Vera
Opening lines:
May 2nd.—Last night after dinner, when we were in the garden, I said, "I want to be alone for a whole summer, and get to the very dregs of life. I want to be as idle as I can, so that my soul may have time to grow. Nobody shall be invited to stay with me, and if any one calls they will be told that I am out, or away, or sick. I shall spend the months in the garden, and on the plain, and in the forests. I shall watch the things that happen in my garden, and see where I have made mistakes.
Page 10:
What a blessing it is to love books. Everybody must love something, and I know of no objects of love that give such substantial and unfailing returns as books and a garden. And how easy it would have been to come into the world without this, and possessed instead of an all-consuming passion, say, for hats, perpetually raging round my empty soul!
Page 12:
I prefer sitting here on the verandah and looking down through a frame of leaves at all the rosebuds June has put in the beds round the sun-dial, to ponder over nothing, and just be glad that I am alive.
Page 39:
Any story-book or novel you take up is full of feeling descriptions of what everybody ate and drank, and there are a great many more meals than kisses; so that the novel-reader who expects a love-tale, finds with disgust that he is put off with menus.
Page 42:
Oh a garden is a sweet, sane refuge to have! Whether I am tired because I have enjoyed myself too much, or tired because I have lectured the servants too much, or tired because I have talked to missionaries too much, I have only to come down the verandah steps into the garden to be at once restored to quiet, and serenity, and my real and natural self.
What else should I say about this book? Only this: another little gem written by Elizabeth von Arnim.
4* The Enchanted April
3* The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rugen
4* Elizabeth and Her German Garden
3* The Solitary Summer
TBR Christopher And Columbus
TBR Vera
September 18, 2017
Its most interesting to see that a Solitary Summer in Elizabeth's World didn't mean going to live in splendid isolation in a wood somewhere.. it just meant not having any house guests but spending time with a husband, children, servants and neighbours. I wouldn't call that very solitary myself. However it is a wonderful book with beautiful descriptions of nature and gardens and reading.. and witty descriptions of neighbours and particularly the children. There is a rather dark side to it, with some people living very difficult lives.. I think her descriptions of the lives of the poor are far less sanitized than they usually are.. I would love to have known Elizabeth, she is a delight. I particularly loved it when she said how few of her friends really thought like her .. and that she grew distant from her closest friend because of an argument about being a goose girl. Oh Elizabeth! I would have agreed with you on the goose girl!
August 16, 2012
There are so many lovely passages in this book! This is a sequel to "Elizabeth and Her German Garden," which is also a favorite of mine.
"What a blessing it is to love books. Everybody must love something, and I know of no objects of love that give such substantial and unfailing returns as books and a garden."
"How glad I am I need not hurry. What a waste of life, just getting and spending. Sitting by my pansy beds, with the slow clouds floating leisurely past, and all the clear day before me, I look on at the hot scramble for the pennies of existence and am lost in wonder at the vulgarity that pushes, and cringes, and tramples, untiring and unabashed. And when you have got your pennies, what then? They are only pennies, after all -- unpleasant, battered copper things, without a gold piece among them, and never worth the degradation of self, and the hatred of those below you who have fewer, and the derision of those above you who have more."
"I wish I were not so easily affected by each other's looks. Sometimes, during the course of a long correspondence with a friend, he grows to be inexpressibly dear to me; I see how beautiful his soul is, how fine his intellect, how generous his heart, and how he already possesses in great perfection those qualities of kindness, and patience, and simplicity, after which I have been so long and so vainly striving."
"If one believed in angels one would feel that they love us best when we are asleep and cannot hurt each other; and what a mercy it is that once in every twenty-four hours we are too utterly weary to go on being unkind. The doors shut, and the lights go out, and the sharpest tongue is silent, and all of us, scolder and scolded, happy and unhappy, master and slave, judge and culprit, are children again, tired, and hushed, and helpless, and forgiven."
"What a blessing it is to love books. Everybody must love something, and I know of no objects of love that give such substantial and unfailing returns as books and a garden."
"How glad I am I need not hurry. What a waste of life, just getting and spending. Sitting by my pansy beds, with the slow clouds floating leisurely past, and all the clear day before me, I look on at the hot scramble for the pennies of existence and am lost in wonder at the vulgarity that pushes, and cringes, and tramples, untiring and unabashed. And when you have got your pennies, what then? They are only pennies, after all -- unpleasant, battered copper things, without a gold piece among them, and never worth the degradation of self, and the hatred of those below you who have fewer, and the derision of those above you who have more."
"I wish I were not so easily affected by each other's looks. Sometimes, during the course of a long correspondence with a friend, he grows to be inexpressibly dear to me; I see how beautiful his soul is, how fine his intellect, how generous his heart, and how he already possesses in great perfection those qualities of kindness, and patience, and simplicity, after which I have been so long and so vainly striving."
"If one believed in angels one would feel that they love us best when we are asleep and cannot hurt each other; and what a mercy it is that once in every twenty-four hours we are too utterly weary to go on being unkind. The doors shut, and the lights go out, and the sharpest tongue is silent, and all of us, scolder and scolded, happy and unhappy, master and slave, judge and culprit, are children again, tired, and hushed, and helpless, and forgiven."
November 9, 2010
Well this is definately one of my favorite books ever. I kept checking to see how much was left and winced to see the right side of the book dwindling. Yes it's true that this seems to be a book about nothing. Well, let me set you all straight, this book is about just who exactly, deep inside, for real and goodness' sake this woman was. And who she was, first of all, brave, for sharing it all with us. She was also very funny and had this beautiful sense of just what beauty is. I loved her witty sarcasm and astonishment at ignorance and customs the village poor that she, as lady of the "big house" felt responsible for. She tells of a few summer months and the things that she loved, people she loved and was annoyed or irritated by. She speaks to my soul, she made me laugh, made me think. She speaks mostly of her garden, which must surely have been a sight to behold. Like my other favorite book of hers, Enchanted April, this one whisks me away to a dreamland for grownups filled with beautiful flowers whose scents I can almost perceive. I know this will be one I turn to again and again when I need comfort or soothing.
September 10, 2017
Another book with barely any plot, it is about a woman who wants to spend a whole summer enjoying her garden by herself, (apart from her children, April baby, May Baby and June Baby). What a luxury, just books and a garden. She does have a lovely turn of phrase, making this a book to savour.
April 25, 2023
"It was the evening of May Day, and the spring had taken hold of me body and soul. The sky was full of stars, and the garden of scents, and the borders of wallflowers and sweet, sly pansies. All day there had been a breeze, and all day slow masses of white clouds had been sailing across the blue. Now it was so still, so motionless, so breath- less, that it seemed as though a quiet hand had been laid on the garden, soothing and hushing it into silence."
Utterly enchanting... breathtakingly beautiful descriptions of nature combined with witty, laugh out loud funny, social commentary! This is the third Von Arnim novel I have read and she has firmly enshrined herself among my list of very favourite classics authors.
The Solitary Summer is the second book in her loosely-veiled autobiographical series of "Elizabeth" books that chronicle her time living with her husband and children on his ancestral country estate in Germany. Told in diary format and covering the events of one summer (May - October) in which Elizabeth decides they won't have any house guests to disturb them from having a peaceful solitary summer.
"And was there ever such a hopeful beginning to a day, and so full of promise for the subsequent right passing of its hours, as breakfast in the garden, alone with your teapot and your book!"
Utterly enchanting... breathtakingly beautiful descriptions of nature combined with witty, laugh out loud funny, social commentary! This is the third Von Arnim novel I have read and she has firmly enshrined herself among my list of very favourite classics authors.
The Solitary Summer is the second book in her loosely-veiled autobiographical series of "Elizabeth" books that chronicle her time living with her husband and children on his ancestral country estate in Germany. Told in diary format and covering the events of one summer (May - October) in which Elizabeth decides they won't have any house guests to disturb them from having a peaceful solitary summer.
"And was there ever such a hopeful beginning to a day, and so full of promise for the subsequent right passing of its hours, as breakfast in the garden, alone with your teapot and your book!"
March 6, 2014
The Solitary Summer Elizabeth von Arnim
gardening (sequel/companion to 3* German Garden)
summer 2013
ebook> project gutenberg
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5991
Opening: May 2nd.—Last night after dinner, when we were in the garden, I said, "I want to be alone for a whole summer, and get to the very dregs of life. I want to be as idle as I can, so that my soul may have time to grow. Nobody shall be invited to stay with me, and if any one calls they will be told that I am out, or away, or sick. I shall spend the months in the garden, and on the plain, and in the forests. I shall watch the things that happen in my garden, and see where I have made mistakes. On wet days I will go into the thickest parts of the forests, where the pine needles are everlastingly dry, and when the sun shines I'll lie on the heath and see how the broom flares against the clouds. I shall be perpetually happy, because there will be no one to worry me. Out there on the plain there is silence, and where there is silence I have discovered there is peace."
To the man of wrath
With some apologies and much love
gardening (sequel/companion to 3* German Garden)
summer 2013
ebook> project gutenberg
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5991
September 24, 2020
Gorgeous book - I enjoyed it even more than her first 'Elizabeth and her German Garden'.
Another 14 still to go in my anthology of von Arnim's work, so looking forward to them.
I saved the dandelions and daisies on that occasion, and I like to believe they know it. They certainly look very jolly when I come out, and I rather fancy the dandelions dig each other in their little ribs when they see me, and whisper, “Here comes Elizabeth; she’s a good sort, ain’t she?” — for of course dandelions do not express themselves very elegantly.
...everybody will have what they never yet have had, a certain amount of that priceless boon, leisure — leisure to sit down and look at themselves, and inquire what it is they really mean, and really want, and really intend to do with their lives. And this, I may observe, is a beneficial process wholly impossible on 100 pounds a year divided by eight.
Another 14 still to go in my anthology of von Arnim's work, so looking forward to them.
I saved the dandelions and daisies on that occasion, and I like to believe they know it. They certainly look very jolly when I come out, and I rather fancy the dandelions dig each other in their little ribs when they see me, and whisper, “Here comes Elizabeth; she’s a good sort, ain’t she?” — for of course dandelions do not express themselves very elegantly.
...everybody will have what they never yet have had, a certain amount of that priceless boon, leisure — leisure to sit down and look at themselves, and inquire what it is they really mean, and really want, and really intend to do with their lives. And this, I may observe, is a beneficial process wholly impossible on 100 pounds a year divided by eight.
September 3, 2018
Utterly delightful, and I wanted to be in her garden with a book, and tea, and peace and quiet.
November 11, 2012
Beautiful, beautiful writing! Only 3 things I regret: 1) apparently this was the sequel to a previous book, which I wish I had read first, 2) the book really should be read sitting outside under a tree in the summer, not on a business trip to Albuquerque in November, and 3) there was a terribly discordant judgmental passage in the book about children born out of wedlock, but I suppose Von Arnim was a product of her time and I shouldn't be too surprised.
May 25, 2012
I've got sunshine on a cloudy day.
When it's cold outside, I've got the month of May.
I guess you'd say
What can make me feel this way?
My girl (my girl, my girl)
Talkin' 'bout my girl (my girl).
When it's cold outside, I've got the month of May.
I guess you'd say
What can make me feel this way?
My girl (my girl, my girl)
Talkin' 'bout my girl (my girl).
January 7, 2021
This is a sequel to Elizabeth and Her German Garden. The author decides to spend a whole summer on her estate without visitors or social events. Of course, it isn’t totally solitary - as well as her family and servants, there are impoverished tenants to visit, and then a number of soldiers are billeted on them, including a talkative lieutenant whose presence drives Elizabeth to distraction.
Nevertheless, the reader is treated to some beautiful descriptions of nature and the joys of peaceful relaxation. Elizabeth’s delight in the trees and flowers bubbles over, she is enthusiastic and positive, and she takes the minor difficulties that she encounters with good humour and kindness. This was a pleasant and delightful read, and I actually enjoyed it more than the previous book as this felt fresher and more spontaneous.
Nevertheless, the reader is treated to some beautiful descriptions of nature and the joys of peaceful relaxation. Elizabeth’s delight in the trees and flowers bubbles over, she is enthusiastic and positive, and she takes the minor difficulties that she encounters with good humour and kindness. This was a pleasant and delightful read, and I actually enjoyed it more than the previous book as this felt fresher and more spontaneous.
September 7, 2014
Beautiful, charming, lyrical, poetic, and worth savoring for all its loveliness.
Solitary Summer is a short book about a woman's desire to spend one summer alone in her garden, inviting no one to visit, being able to enjoy her garden, her family, and herself for the whole summer. Her husband, whom she calls the Man of Wrath, doubted she would be happy, thought she would be dull. The book then follows her summer in diary style, describing her days during the 5 months of May through September.
I personally found the book absolutely charming, even in the free kindle version. Alas, being a book lover, I also coveted a "real" copy of this book, so I bought myself a lovely hardcover copy from 1901, which now has a permanent spot on my bookshelves, and which will be reread by me again in the future when I, like the author, desire an escape from the world into my garden.
Solitary Summer is a short book about a woman's desire to spend one summer alone in her garden, inviting no one to visit, being able to enjoy her garden, her family, and herself for the whole summer. Her husband, whom she calls the Man of Wrath, doubted she would be happy, thought she would be dull. The book then follows her summer in diary style, describing her days during the 5 months of May through September.
I personally found the book absolutely charming, even in the free kindle version. Alas, being a book lover, I also coveted a "real" copy of this book, so I bought myself a lovely hardcover copy from 1901, which now has a permanent spot on my bookshelves, and which will be reread by me again in the future when I, like the author, desire an escape from the world into my garden.
October 10, 2020
4*
This is very much an extension ofElizabeth and Her German Garden, and as such a lot of what I liked and disliked about that one still applies here. Ultimately, though, I like it well enough to maybe eventually reread it!
This is very much an extension ofElizabeth and Her German Garden, and as such a lot of what I liked and disliked about that one still applies here. Ultimately, though, I like it well enough to maybe eventually reread it!
February 3, 2021
Sequel naturale de
Il giardino di Elizabeth
, questo romanzo rappresenta una sorta di autofiction, in cui Mary Annette Beauchamp diventa Elizabeth e vive col marito, un conte tedesco che lei chiama The Man of Wrath (che qui è tradotto L'Uomo di Rabbia, e non L'Uomo della Collera) e le tre figlie - di cui nell'altro romanzo non si sapevano i nomi, ma venivano chiamate rispettivamente la figlia di aprile, la figlia di maggio e la figlia di giugno - che qui diventano direttamente April, May e June, nella campagna tedesca.
Elizabeth chiede al marito di poter restare per un'estate da sola in campagna - nel senso di non ricevere quelle visite che nel Giardino di Elizabeth l'avevano tanto esasperata, anche se, alla fine, è costretta a fare alcune eccezioni, che sono appunto ciò che le rovina l'idillio che un'estate senza mondanità rappresenta. Naturalmente, la mancanza di personaggi da mettere alla berlina fa risultare questo romanzo leggermente meno ironico del precedente, ma comunque estremamente godibile.
Elizabeth chiede al marito di poter restare per un'estate da sola in campagna - nel senso di non ricevere quelle visite che nel Giardino di Elizabeth l'avevano tanto esasperata, anche se, alla fine, è costretta a fare alcune eccezioni, che sono appunto ciò che le rovina l'idillio che un'estate senza mondanità rappresenta. Naturalmente, la mancanza di personaggi da mettere alla berlina fa risultare questo romanzo leggermente meno ironico del precedente, ma comunque estremamente godibile.
September 6, 2019
The Solitary Summer is a sequel to von Arnim's Elizabeth and Her German Garden, and just as good. The title is a little misleading because solitary in this case means that the family did not invite visitors to stay, which invariably they would have for several weeks. Elizabeth wanted a summer with her garden, books, babies and husband.
von Arnim's prose and descriptions are just lovely. Interspersed with descriptions of her garden, she describes the daily life of the then German countryside (I think it's now located in Poland), near the Baltic Sea.
von Arnim's prose and descriptions are just lovely. Interspersed with descriptions of her garden, she describes the daily life of the then German countryside (I think it's now located in Poland), near the Baltic Sea.
May 25, 2020
I often like books where very little action actually takes place. However, at the moment, this is not one of those times. So one day I'll look into my never-finished shelf and see this sitting there, and maybe pick it up. I love the witty, perhaps sardonic at times, fun tone.
I've since come back to this book while I am in another von Arnim reading kick. It was extremely enjoyable! I love this author and I'm grateful she wrote all she did. This stuff is timeless and amusing. Plus there are so many descriptions of gardens, books, and solitude. Just what I was thirsting for in a book.
I've since come back to this book while I am in another von Arnim reading kick. It was extremely enjoyable! I love this author and I'm grateful she wrote all she did. This stuff is timeless and amusing. Plus there are so many descriptions of gardens, books, and solitude. Just what I was thirsting for in a book.
February 25, 2018
Seguito ideale de "Il giardino di Elizabeth", questo secondo capitolo risulta un po' meno brioso del primo ma comunque resta godibile. Quello che si mantiene alto è lo stile della Von Arnim che è brava a descrivere luoghi e sensazioni senza ripetersi. Sembra un libro che parla del niente ma ne parla talmente bene...
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