Elizabeth And Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim

'This study of Elizabeth von Arnim's writing is rich in its treatment of her intermodern cultural contexts.

It is a pleasure to see von Arnim finally given the attention she deserves.' - Trudi Tate, Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, UK

Elizabeth von Arnim was well respected by other writers, including Bertrand Russell, H.G. Isobel Maddison's detailed and engaging study draws upon a wealth of original sources and leads us back to the richness of von Arnim's writing. But there is much more to this witty, talented, intelligent writer who produced more than 20 books in a career which spanned some 40 years. 'Elizabeth von Arnim is remembered now as the author of Elizabeth and Her German Garden, and for being Katherine Mansfield's cousin. On the contrary, various strands of socialist thought and von Arnim's wider political beliefs establish her as a significant author of British anti-invasion literature while weighty social issues underpin much of her later writing. Maddison's exploration of the novelist's critical reception is situated within recent discussions of the ’middlebrow’ and establishes von Arnim as a serious author among her intellectual milieu, countering the misinformed belief that the author of such novels as Elizabeth and Her German Garden, The Caravaners, The Pastor's Wife and Vera wrote light-hearted fiction removed from gritty reality. Wells, Bertrand Russell and her cousin Katherine Mansfield - whose early modernist prose is seen as indebted to von Arnim's earlier literary influence. Organised chronologically and thematically, Maddison's book is informed by unpublished material from the British and Huntington Libraries, including correspondence between von Arnim, her publishers and prominent contemporaries such as H.G. In the first book-length treatment of Elizabeth von Arnim's fiction, Isobel Maddison examines her work in its historical and intellectual contexts, demonstrating that von Arnim's fine comic writing and complex and compelling narrative style reward close analysis.

Elizabeth And Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim