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= Elizabeth_von_Arnim =
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Introduction
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Elizabeth von Arnim (31 August 1866 - 9 February 1941), 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 Frank 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.
Arnim published anonymously, or simply as "Elizabeth", or on one
occasion as "Alice Cholmondeley", and her work has been catalogued
under various combinations of her given names, surnames and titles.
Modern bibliography attributes her work to Elizabeth von Arnim, her
preferred name when her literary career began.
Early life
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She was born at her family's home on Kirribilli Point in Sydney,
Australia, to Henry Herron Beauchamp (1825-1907), a wealthy shipping
merchant, and Elizabeth (nicknamed Louey) Weiss Lassetter (1836-1919).
She was called May by her family. She had four brothers and a sister.
One of her cousins was the New Zealand-born Kathleen Beauchamp, who
wrote under the pen name Katherine Mansfield. When she was three years
old, the family moved to England, where they lived in London but also
spent several years in Switzerland.
Arnim was the first cousin of Mansfield's father, Harold Beauchamp,
making her the first cousin once removed of Mansfield. Although
Elizabeth was older by 22 years, she and Mansfield later corresponded,
reviewed each other's works, and became close friends. Mansfield, ill
with tuberculosis, lived in the Montana region of Switzerland (now
Crans-Montana) from May 1921 until January 1922, renting the Chalet
des Sapins with her husband John Middleton Murry from June 1921. The
house was only a "1/2 an hour's scramble away" from Arnim's Chalet
Soleil at Randogne. Arnim visited her cousin often during this period.
They got on well, although Mansfield considered the much wealthier
Arnim to be patronizing. Mansfield satirized Arnim as the character
Rosemary in a short story, "A Cup of Tea", which she wrote while in
Switzerland.
Arnim studied at the Royal College of Music, principally learning the
organ.
Personal life
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On 21 February 1891, Elizabeth married the widowed German aristocrat
Count (1851-1910) in London, whom she had met on a tour of Italy with
her father two years earlier. He was the eldest son of the late Count
Harry von Arnim, the former German Ambassador to France. At first they
lived in Berlin, then in 1896 moved to what was then Nassenheide,
Pomerania (now Rzędziny in Poland), where the Arnim family had a
landed estate. They had four daughters and a son, born between
December 1891 and October 1901. In 1899, Henning von Arnim was
arrested and imprisoned for fraud but was later acquitted.
At the time of the 1901 United Kingdom census, on 1 April 1901, Arnim
was in England, staying with her uncle Henry Beauchamp at The Retreat,
Bexley, without any of her children. Her son Henning Bernd was born in
London in October 1902.
The children's tutors at Nassenheide included E. M. Forster, who
worked there for several months in the spring and summer of 1905.
Forster wrote a short memoir of the months he spent there. From April
to July 1907 the writer Hugh Walpole was the children's tutor.
In 1908, Elizabeth von Arnim moved to London with the children. The
couple did not consider this a formal separation, although the
marriage had been unhappy, owing to the Count's affairs, and they had
slept in separate bedrooms for some time. In 1910, financial problems
meant the Nassenheide estate had to be sold. Later that year, Count
von Arnim died in Bad Kissingen, with his wife and three of their
daughters by his side. In 1911, Elizabeth moved to Randogne,
Switzerland, where she had the Chalet Soleil built, and entertained
literary and society friends. From 1910 until 1913, she was a mistress
of the novelist H. G. Wells.
In 1916, the Arnims' daughter Felicitas, who had been at boarding
schools in Switzerland and Germany, died of pneumonia aged sixteen in
Bremen. She had been unable to return to England because of travel and
financial controls caused by the First World War.
Second marriage and separation, house moves, and death
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In January 1916, Arnim married Frank Russell, 2nd Earl Russell, the
elder brother of the philosopher Bertrand Russell. The marriage ended
in acrimony, with the couple separating in 1919, although they never
divorced. She then went to the United States, where her daughters
Liebet and Evi were living. In 1920 she returned to her home in
Switzerland, using it as a base for frequent trips to other parts of
Europe. In the same year, she embarked on an affair with Alexander
Stuart Frere (1892-1984), who later became chairman of the publishing
house Heinemann. Frere, 26 years her junior, initially went to stay at
the Chalet Soleil to catalogue her large library, and a romance
ensued. The affair lasted several years. In 1933, Frere married the
writer and theater critic Patricia Wallace, and Arnim was the
godmother of the couple's only daughter Elizabeth (later Elizabeth
Frere Jones) who was named in her honour.
In 1930, Arnim set up a home in Mougins in the south of France,
seeking a warmer climate. She created a rose garden there and called
the house 'Mas des Roses'. She continued to entertain her social and
literary circle there, as she had done in Switzerland. She kept this
house to the end of her life, although she moved to the United States
in 1939 at the beginning of the Second World War. She died of
influenza at the Riverside Infirmary, Charleston, South Carolina, on 9
February 1941, aged 74, and was cremated at Fort Lincoln Cemetery,
Maryland. In 1947 her ashes were mingled with those of her brother,
Sir Sydney Beauchamp, in the churchyard of St Margaret's, Tylers
Green, Penn, Buckinghamshire. The Latin inscription on her tombstone
reads 'parva sed apta' (small but apt), alluding to her short stature.
Literary career
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Arnim launched her career as a writer with her satirical and
semi-autobiographical 'Elizabeth and Her German Garden' (1898).
Published anonymously, it chronicled the protagonist Elizabeth's
struggles to create a garden on the family estate and her attempts to
integrate into German aristocratic Junker society. In it, she
fictionalized her husband as "The Man of Wrath". It was reprinted
twenty times by May 1899, a year after its publication. A bitter-sweet
memoir and companion to it was 'The Solitary Summer' (1899).
By 1900, Arnim's books had such success that the identity of
"Elizabeth" caused newspaper speculation in London, New York and
elsewhere.
Other works, such as 'The Benefactress' (1902), 'The Adventures of
Elizabeth on Rügen' (1904), 'Vera' (1921), and 'Love' (1925), were
also semi-autobiographical. Some titles ensued that deal with protest
against domineering 'Junkertum' and witty observations of life in
provincial Germany, including 'The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight'
(1905) and 'Fräulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther' (1907). She would sign
her twenty or so books, after the first, initially as "by the author
of 'Elizabeth and Her German Garden'" and later simply as "By
Elizabeth".
In 1909, 'The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight' was turned into a play
called 'The Cottage in the Air', and in 1929 into the film 'The
Runaway Princess', directed by Anthony Asquith and starring Mady
Christians.
Although Arnim never wrote a conventional autobiography, 'All the
Dogs of My Life' (1936), an account of her love for her pets, contains
many glimpses of her glittering social circle.
Reception
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Arnim's 1921 novel 'Vera', a dark tragi-comedy drawing on her
disastrous marriage to Earl Russell, was her most critically acclaimed
work, described by John Middleton Murry as "'Wuthering Heights' by
Jane Austen".
Her 1922 work, 'The Enchanted April', inspired by a month-long holiday
to the Italian Riviera, is perhaps the lightest and most ebullient of
her novels. It has regularly been adapted for the stage and screen: as
a Broadway play in 1925, a 1935 American feature film, an Academy
Award-nominated feature film in 1992 (starring Josie Lawrence, Jim
Broadbent and Joan Plowright among others), a Tony Award-nominated
stage play in 2003, a musical play in 2010, and in 2015 a serial on
BBC Radio 4. Terence de Vere White credits 'The Enchanted April' with
making the Italian resort of Portofino fashionable. It is also,
probably, the most widely read of all her works, having been a
Book-of-the-Month club choice in America upon publication.
Her 1940 novel 'Mr. Skeffington' was made into an Academy
Award-nominated feature film by Warner Bros. in 1944, starring Bette
Davis and Claude Rains, and a 60-minute "Lux Radio Theater" broadcast
radio adaptation of the movie on 1 October 1945.
Since 1983, the British publisher Virago has been reprinting her work
with new introductions by modern writers, some of which claim her as a
feminist. 'The Reader's Encyclopedia' reports that many of her later
novels are "tired exercises", but this opinion is not widely held.
Perhaps the best example of Arnim's mordant wit and unusual attitude
to life is provided in one of her letters: "I'm so glad I didn't die
on the various occasions I have earnestly wished I might, for I would
have missed a lot of lovely weather."
Selected publications
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Arnim's writings are in the public domain. Project Gutenberg has
transcribed [
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/603 many of her
works], with at least
[
https://gutenberg.net.au/plusfifty-n-z.html#letterV one additional
title] at Project Gutenberg Australia. Several of her books are also
available at the Internet Archive.
* 'Elizabeth and Her German Garden' (1898)
* 'The Solitary Summer' (1899)
* 'The April Baby's Book of Tunes' (1900) -- illustrated by Kate
Greenaway
* 'The Benefactress' (1901)
* 'The Ordeal of Elizabeth' (1901) -- draft of a novel, published
posthumously
* 'The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rügen' (1904)
* 'Princess Priscilla's Fortnight' (1905)
* 'Fräulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther' (1907)
* 'The Caravaners' (1909
* 'The Pastor's Wife' (1914)
* 'Christine' (1917) -- written under the pseudonym Alice Cholmondeley
* 'Christopher and Columbus' (1919)
* 'In the Mountains' (1920)
* 'Vera' (1921)
* 'The Enchanted April' (1922)
* 'Love' (1925)
* 'Introduction to Sally' (1926)
* 'Expiation' (1929)
* 'Father' (1931)
* 'The Jasmine Farm' (1934)
* 'All the Dogs of My Life' (1936) -- autobiography
* 'Mr. Skeffington' (1940)
Notes
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Sources
*
*
*
*
Further reading
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* Lisa Bekaert, 'An Analysis of Elizabeth von Arnim's 'The
Benefactress' and Charlotte P. Gilman's 'Herland' as New Woman
writings & Henry R. Haggard's 'She' and 'Ayesha' as a masculine
retort.' Master's thesis, Ghent University, 2009
([
http://lib.ugent.be/fulltxt/RUG01/001/414/037/RUG01-001414037_2010_0001_AC.pdf]
PDF; 378 KB)
* de Charms, Leslie: 'Elizabeth of the German Garden: A Biography' -
London: Heinemann, 1958
* Amanda DeWees, "Elizabeth von Arnim". 'An Encyclopedia of British
Women Writers,' ed. Paul Schlueter and June Schlueter. New Jersey:
Rutgers University Press, 1998, pp. 13 ff.
* Iwona Eberle, [
https://www.grin.com/document/167846 'Eve with a
Spade: Women, Gardens, and Literature in the Nineteenth Century'].
(Master's thesis, Zurich University, 2001). Munich: Grin, 2011,
* Kate Browder Heberlein, "Arnim, Elizabeth von". 'Dictionary of
British Women Writers', ed. Jane Todd. London: Routledge, 1998, No. 12
* Alision Hennegan, "In a Class of Her Own: Elizabeth von Arnim",
'Women Writers of the 1930s: Gender, Politics and History', ed. and
introduction by Maroula Joannou. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University
Press, 1999, pp. 100-112
* Michael Hollington, "'Elizabeth' and Her Books" 'AUMLA' 87 (May
1997), pp. 43-51
* Kirsten Jüngling and Brigitte Roßbeck, 'Elizabeth von Arnim; Eine
Biographie'. Frankfurt: Insel, 1996,
* Isobel Maddison, ‘Elizabeth von Arnim: ‘Beyond the German Garden,’
Routledge, 2013
* Isobel Maddison, ‘Elizabeth and Katherine’ in The Bloomsbury
Handbook to Katherine Mansfield, ex Todd Martin, London: Bloomsbury,
2020
* ‘The Enchanted April’ by Elizabeth von Arnim (1922) edited with
introduction by Isobel Maddison, Oxford: Oxford World’s Classics, 2022
-- first scholarly edition
* Isobel Maddison, "The Curious Case of Christine: Elizabeth von
Arnim's Wartime Text", 'First World War Studies', vol 3 (2) October
2012, pp. 183-200
* Ashley Oles, 'The Angel in the Garden: Recovering Elizabeth von
Arnim's 'The Pastor's Wife, Master's thesis, East Carolina University,
2012
([
http://thescholarship.ecu.edu/bitstream/handle/10342/4083/Oles_ecu_0600M_10856.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y]
PDF; 378 KB)
* Juliane Roemhild, 'Feminity and Authorship in the Novels of
Elizabeth von Arnim'. New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson University
Press, 2014
* Talia Schaffer, "Von Arnim [née Beauchamp], Elizabeth [Mary Annette,
Countess Russell]". 'The Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in
English', ed. Lorna Sage, advis. eds. Germaine Greer et al. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1999, p. 646
* George Walsh, "Lady Russell, 74, Famous Novelist, Author of
'Elizabeth and Her German Garden' Dies in a Charleston, S. C.,
Hospital". Obituary in 'New York Times', 10 February 1941
* Katie Elizabeth Young, 'More than 'Wisteria and Sunshine': The
Garden as a Space of Female Introspection and Identity in Elizabeth
von Arnim's 'The Enchanted April' and 'Vera. Master's thesis, Brigham
University, 2011
([
http://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4032&context=etd
PDF])
* Ruth Derham, 'Bertrand's Brother: The Marriages, Morals and
Misdemeanours of Frank, 2nd Earl Russell.' Stroud: Amberley
Publishing,
Other biographies
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* Joyce Morgan, 'The Countess from Kirribilli'. Sydney: Allen &
Unwin, 2021
*
* Katie Roiphe, 'Uncommon Arrangements: Seven Portraits of Married
Life in London Literary Circles 1910-1939'. New York: Dial Press, 2008
* Jennifer Walker, 'Elizabeth of the German Garden - A Literary
Journey'. Brighton: Book Guild, 2013
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