Reading Elizabeth von Arnim Today: An Overview

Abstract

Elizabeth von Arnim is usually remembered as a novelist whose comic writing immortalised a leisurely life of privilege among flowers. Her first book, Elizabeth and Her German Garden (1898) and The Enchanted April (1922) are probably still her best known works. But to know only this is to belie the complexity of her writing and of her place as an author during the first forty years of the twentieth century. Born Mary Annette Beauchamp in Sydney, Australia, on 31 August 1866, she was the youngest of six children. In 1870, when she was three years old, the family left Sydney and went to live in London. Here she developed keen interests in history, literature, art and music. Her musical gifts were nourished at the Royal College of Music, where her principal study was the organ. Soon she was considering a career as a professional musician. Inspired by the beauty of this place, her best-selling novel, Elizabeth and Her German Garden, was published anonymously by Macmillan two years later.

Elizabeth Von Arnim’s Early Novels In The Light Of Eco-Criticism

“…There have been numerous attempts to determine the key of her success and the recipe for popularity and growing interest in her works. There are articles and books dedicated to the problems of genre and literary influence, recurring themes and ideas in her books (Maddison, 2017;Maddison et al, 2017;O'Connell, 2017;Römhild, 2017;Shepherd, 2017). It is necessary to mention that even average readers in their turn also tried to disclose the secret of her novels, as they unravel the patterns which combine the artistic world of the writer (one may find a great number of thought-provoking insights into her literary work while browsing book reviews).…”