Details

Title

Elizabeth and her German Garden

Author

von Arnim, Elizabeth

Place of Publication

New York

Publisher

Macmillan

Date of Publication

1900 Show more1900-01-01T00:00:00.000Z
1900-01-01T00:00:00.000Z Show less

Note

'Elizabeth and her German Garden', another semi-autobiographical, semi-satirical novel, was a longtime favourite of Montgomery's. It was first published in 1898, and Montgomery mentions reading and re-reading it multiple times. In 1905, Montgomery wrote that "My 'twin soul' must live in Elizabeth—at least, as far as gardening is concerned. She has said a hundred things that I always meant to say when I had thought them out sufficiently. I shan't have to say them now—Elizabeth has done it so well" (20 May 1905, Selected Journals 1:307). The titular "Elizabeth" was an fictionalized version of the author, Elizabeth von Arnim (née Mary Annette Beauchamp, later the Countess von Arnim-Schlagenthin and later still Elizabeth Russell, Countess Russell). The book is structured as a diary of "Elizabeth's" struggles and successes as she develops a garden on her estate, and it is filled with humorous reflections and opinions on a lady's life. The book was first published without an author's name attached, as this copy shows, but when it became a runaway bestseller, von Arnim added her pen name and later continued the series and added to "Elizabeth's" story. Read the full text of the novel here.

Genre

novel