8 h 49 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 8 h 49 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if escaping a royal court is easier than learning how to live in an English village?
Princess Priscilla wants a day that belongs to her. At her German court, officials and relatives watch, guide and plan her life from morning to night. Clever and restless, she leaves for England, hoping to live unknown for a short time among people who see a newcomer, not a princess.
But a quiet village has rules of its own. Its people have habits, opinions and ways of speaking that Priscilla does not understand. In The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight, Elizabeth von Arnim brings gentle wit to this meeting of royal expectations and ordinary life, asking what freedom costs and what makes a day worth living.
What you’ll discover
- A restless royal heroine Follow Priscilla's wish to exchange a carefully planned existence for days she can call her own.
- Village life through fresh eyes See English cottages, gardens and local manners through a newcomer unprepared for their unwritten rules.
- The price of freedom Explore the gap between dreaming of a simple life and learning how to live it.
- Satire with a kind heart Enjoy an ironic voice that laughs at court and village manners without treating Priscilla cruelly.
- Kindness beyond the court Meet the English acquaintances whose kindness and habits give Priscilla a taste of ordinary life.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you like witty novels with a chatty narrator, runaway stories, English village comedy, and gentle satire about ideals meeting everyday life.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A palace can feel like a gilded cage
- An old librarian teaches a princess to dream
- A suitor forces the runaway into action
- Running away is clumsier than it sounds
- A pretty village and a pile of false names
- Helpful young men open every door
- Doing good is tricky work
- The simple life asks for skills she lacks
- Ideals meet money, and money wins
- A teasing narrator watches over everything
Who’s who
- PriscillaA tall, red-haired princess of twenty-one who runs away from her duties to live simply and do good among ordinary people.
- FritzingThe court librarian, a learned and excitable old man who taught Priscilla her ideals and now has to carry them out.
- AnnalisePriscilla's maid, who dreams of palaces and footmen, and finds a way to make her employers pay for her silence.
- TussieAugustus Shuttleworth, a frail young poet and landowner who falls helplessly for Priscilla and tries to ease her path.
- Robin MorrisonThe vicar's tall, bold son, home from Cambridge, who is charmed and puzzled by the mysterious girl and her odd uncle.
- Mrs. MorrisonThe vicar's wife, who rules the parish with leaflets and organ music and sees Priscilla as a danger to her plans.
- Lady ShuttleworthThe practical, kindly mistress of Symford Hall, who protects her son and her village and keeps a sharp eye on newcomers.
- Countess DisthalPriscilla's heavy, sleepy lady-in-waiting, who guards her manners at Kunitz and stands for everything she wants to leave behind.
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La Quinzaine de la princesse Priscilla
by Elizabeth von Arnim · 1905
A princess leaves her palace by bicycle at dusk, seeking a simpler life in England.
Medium level5–10 hours to readfrançais
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In short
Imagine being watched every minute from waking to sleeping, and never alone for a single hour. That is the daily life of Princess Priscilla of Lothen-Kunitz, and at twenty-one she has had enough.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A palace can feel like a gilded cage
The Grand Duchy of Lothen-Kunitz lies in the sunny south of Europe. Its capital, Kunitz, surrounds a hill crowned with a palace of turrets and battlements. Tourists gaze up and sigh. Princess Priscilla, who lives inside, sees something else.
To her, palace life means never being alone. Lackeys and officials watch her face for any change they might use. She must smile exactly enough. Her two sisters like all this and marry suitable princes without a murmur. Priscilla is quiet and obedient, so nobody notices that she is different. Her father believes she has no opinions at all, and her lady-in-waiting sleeps through most afternoons.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 8 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1905
- Language
- français
- Reading time
- 5 h 40 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Arnim, Elizabeth von. The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-princess-priscillas-fortnight.
Arnim, E. von. (2026). The Princess Priscilla's fortnight. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-princess-priscillas-fortnight (Original work published 1905)
Arnim, Elizabeth von. The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-princess-priscillas-fortnight.
@book{arnim2026princess,
author = {Arnim, Elizabeth von},
title = {The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-princess-priscillas-fortnight},
note = {First published 1905}
}
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What is The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight about?
It follows Princess Priscilla of Lothen-Kunitz, who runs away from her palace with her old librarian to live in a plain Somerset cottage. Her ideals meet daily reality, and the village is thrown into confusion.
Who is Fritzing in The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight?
Fritzing is the court librarian who taught Priscilla English and fed her love of freedom. He is learned, anxious, and quick to anger, and he poses as her uncle, Mr. Neumann, to protect her secret.
Is The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight a true story?
No, it is a comic novel by Elizabeth von Arnim, published in the early twentieth century. The Grand Duchy of Lothen-Kunitz is an invented place, though the village of Symford and its customs feel true to English country life.
The author
Elizabeth von Arnim
1866–1941 · British-Australian novelist
Elizabeth von Arnim was an Australian-born British novelist celebrated for her wry, sunlit comedies of manners — most famously The Enchanted April, the story of four women transformed by a month in an Italian castle.
More by Elizabeth von Arnim
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