8 h 49 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 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
Readers who love gentle satire, runaway heroines and English village comedy will find a home here, along with anyone fond of witty narrators, odd couples and stories about ideals meeting daily life.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A princess who longs to vanish
- A bicycle ride into the unknown
- Across the Channel to Somerset
- Winning the cottage through charm and temper
- Goodness with no brakes
- The cottage, the maid and the empty purse
- Tussie's fever and a promise she cannot keep
- What the story is really about
- How the story is told
Who’s who
- PriscillaThe red-haired princess of Lothen-Kunitz who runs away to live simply and do good, though she knows nothing of money or ordinary life.
- FritzingThe old court librarian and her teacher, who helps her flee as her pretend uncle, and who is brilliant with books but hopeless with money and tempers.
- AnnalisePriscilla's maid, who longs for palaces and footmen and soon learns that she holds the runaways' secret in her hand.
- TussieSir Augustus Shuttleworth, a small, sickly young poet who loves quiet and adores Priscilla with all his heart.
- Robin MorrisonThe vicar's clever, bold son, who is curious about the mysterious new neighbour and sure of his own charm.
- Mrs. MorrisonThe vicar's wife, who runs the parish with leaflets and an organ, and who sees Priscilla as a danger to her village and her children.
- Lady ShuttleworthTussie's brisk, kind mother, who manages the estate for him and wants only that her delicate son stays well and happy.
- The PrinceThe eligible prince who wanted to marry Priscilla and whose proposal set her flight in motion.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 8 h 49 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 13 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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La quindicina della principessa Priscilla
by Elizabeth von Arnim · 1905
A pampered princess swaps her palace for a Somerset cottage and learns what the simple life costs.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight is a comic novel by Elizabeth von Arnim, who died in 1941. It follows a young grand duke's daughter who is tired of palace life and decides to run away to England to live as a plain village girl.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A princess who longs to vanish
The story opens in Kunitz, the capital of the small Grand Duchy of Lothen-Kunitz, where a sprawling palace stands on a hill above a red-roofed town. Princess Priscilla is the middle daughter of the Grand Duke. Her sisters have married suitable princes. She has done nothing wrong, which is exactly why nobody suspects a thing.
Outwardly she is calm, tall and graceful, with a slightly crooked nose and golden eyelashes. Inwardly she is stifled. Every hour of her day is watched by lackeys and officials, and she is never alone. Her lady-in-waiting, the large and sleepy Countess Irmgard von Disthal, follows her everywhere and dozes whenever there is food to digest.
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What is The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight about?
It follows a grand duke's daughter who runs away from her palace to live as an ordinary village girl in Somerset. She goes with her old librarian, and their plan for a simple life meets many surprises.
Who is Fritzing in The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight?
Fritzing is the ducal librarian and Priscilla's teacher of English literature. He helps her escape, poses as her uncle, and is clever with books but has no talent for lying, money or managing servants.
Why does Priscilla run away?
She finds court life suffocating, with no privacy and endless ceremony, and Fritzing has taught her to admire freedom and plain living. A prince's offer of marriage gives her the push to leave at last.
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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