5 h 28 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 5 h 28 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if a neglected garden offers more freedom than a house full of company?
Elizabeth leaves Berlin for her husband's family estate in Pomerania and falls in love with its neglected garden. In diary entries that follow the seasons from spring to spring, she seeks time outdoors with her plants, her books and her children. But her wish to be left alone meets resistance.
Her husband, the Man of Wrath, regards her gardening with indulgence and impatience. Workers have firm ideas about what is proper, while visitors expect meals, conversation and constant company. Drawing on her own life, Elizabeth von Arnim gives this struggle for solitude a voice full of dry humour, tenderness and stubborn resolve.
What you’ll discover
- A garden worth defending Watch a neglected patch of earth become the refuge Elizabeth wants to make her own.
- Company with a cost Meet guests whose demands test a hostess who would rather be among her plants.
- A sharp diary voice Enjoy Elizabeth's casual, direct observations, where a friendly smile often carries a pointed edge.
- Children among the flowers Spend time with the April, May and June Babies, watched with fond amusement.
- Freedom in quiet choices Explore a woman's determination to choose her own company despite the expectations around her.
Who will love it
For readers who love gardens, diaries, dry humour and quiet stories about choosing your own company. It also suits anyone drawn to women's lives in the nineteenth century and themes of freedom and solitude.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A neglected garden becomes a refuge
- She plants and digs against advice
- The Man of Wrath and the household
- Visitors test her love of solitude
- What the book is really about
- How the diary voice works
Who’s who
- ElizabethThe diarist, a landowner's wife who loves her garden above all else and guards her solitude with wit and stubbornness.
- The Man of WrathElizabeth's husband, a Prussian landowner, busy and often impatient, who views her gardening with mixed indulgence.
- The April BabyElizabeth's youngest small daughter, named by Elizabeth for her month of birth, who plays in the garden.
- The May BabyElizabeth's eldest small daughter, also named for her birth month, who grows up among the flowers.
- The June BabyElizabeth's middle small daughter in the diary, watched with fond amusement as she grows.
- IraisA young woman guest at the estate whose charm and company give Elizabeth real pleasure.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 5 h 28 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 8 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Elizabeth e il suo giardino tedesco
by Elizabeth von Arnim · 1898
Elizabeth turns a neglected garden into a refuge, guarding her solitude against visitors and the Man of Wrath.
Challenging5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Elizabeth and Her German Garden is a year in the life of a woman who falls in love with a neglected country estate. Elizabeth von Arnim published it in 1898, without her name on the title page.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A neglected garden becomes a refuge
The diary opens in spring with Elizabeth already in love. She has left the city life of Berlin for her husband's family estate at Nassenheide in Pomerania. The house has stood nearly empty for years, and the grounds have gone wild. To most people this would look like a burden. To Elizabeth it looks like a gift, because nobody has told her yet what a garden is supposed to be.
She writes from the garden itself, and that choice sets the mood of the whole book. Sitting among the trees and the new leaves, she feels a happiness that she does not bother to explain or defend. Her pleasure is physical and plain. She likes the smell of the earth, the first blossom and the long light of the northern evenings.
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What is Elizabeth and Her German Garden about?
It is a year of diary entries by a woman who restores a neglected garden on an estate in northern Germany. She describes her plants, her family and her guests, and her wish for freedom and solitude.
Is Elizabeth and Her German Garden a true story?
It is a novel, but it draws closely on the author's own life. Elizabeth von Arnim lived on a Pomeranian estate with her husband and children, and the garden and household come from that experience.
Who is the Man of Wrath in the book?
He is Elizabeth's husband, a Prussian landowner. She gives him this teasing nickname in her diary, and he stands for the demands of ordinary married life that she tries to manage.
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.
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