Elizabeth and Her German Garden
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Published anonymously in 1898, Elizabeth and Her German Garden is a witty, intimate record of a woman’s growing attachment to the garden of her country home in northern Germany. Presented as a sequence of dated reflections, it follows Elizabeth through the changing seasons as she plants, observes, quarrels with domestic conventions and discovers a form of independence in the company of flowers, books and open air. Her husband, referred to as the Man of Wrath, and the social expectations surrounding marriage provide a comic counterpoint to the pleasures of gardening.
Part diary, part social satire, the book uses horticulture as a means of thinking about solitude, creativity and the limits imposed on women by respectable society. Von Arnim’s voice is playful and self-aware, combining the delights of the natural world with a sharp eye for human absurdity. Its success established her literary reputation and inaugurated a body of work distinguished by its irreverent treatment of domesticity and its conviction that a woman’s inner life deserves room to flourish.
From the book
“I love my garden, and I love my books.”
— Elizabeth von Arnim, Elizabeth and Her German Garden
On Elizabeth and Her German Garden
“A delightful book about gardening, domestic life and the pleasures of solitude.”
— Descriptive critical summary