Elizabeth von Arnim (31 August 1866 – 9 February 1941), born
Mary Annette Beauchamp, was an Australian born
BritishGreat Britain is an island lying to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island. With a population of about 59.6 million people, it is the third most populated island on Earth. Great Britain is surrounded by over 1000 smaller...
novelist. By marriage she became Gräfin (Countess) von Arnim-Schlagenthin, and by a second marriage, Countess Russell. Although known in her early life as May, "after the publication of her first book, she was known to her readers, eventually to her friends, and finally even to her family as Elizabeth." and she is now invariably referred to as Elizabeth von Arnim.
Elizabeth von Arnim (31 August 1866 – 9 February 1941), born
Mary Annette Beauchamp, was an Australian born
BritishGreat Britain is an island lying to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island. With a population of about 59.6 million people, it is the third most populated island on Earth. Great Britain is surrounded by over 1000 smaller...
novelist. By marriage she became Gräfin (Countess) von Arnim-Schlagenthin, and by a second marriage, Countess Russell. Although known in her early life as May, "after the publication of her first book, she was known to her readers, eventually to her friends, and finally even to her family as Elizabeth." and she is now invariably referred to as Elizabeth von Arnim. She also wrote under the pen name
Alice Cholmondeley.
Life
She was born in
Kirribilli PointKirribilli is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Kirribilli is located 3 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of North Sydney Council...
(today part of
SydneySydney is the largest city in Australia, and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney has a metropolitan area population of approximately 4.34 million and an area of approximately 12,000 square kilometres. Its inhabitants are called Sydneysiders, and Sydney is often called "the Harbour City"...
),
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
. When she was three years old the family returned to
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
where she was raised. Her parents were Henry Herron Beauchamp (1825-1907), merchant, and her mother Elizabeth (Louey) Weiss Lassetter (1836-1919). Arnim had four brothers, a sister and an adopted cousin from New Zealand, Kathleen Beauchamp, who later married John Middleton Murray and wrote under the pen name
Katherine MansfieldKathleen Mansfield Murry was a prominent modernist writer of short fiction from New Zealand who wrote under the pen name of Katherine Mansfield.-Biography:-Early life:...
.
In 1891 Elizabeth married Count Henning August von Arnim-Schlagenthin, a
PrussiaPrussia was a historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries this state had substantial influence on German and European history...
n aristocrat, whom she had met during an Italian tour with her father. They married in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
but lived in
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
and eventually moved to the countryside where, in Nassenheide,
PomeraniaPomerania is a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdańsk in the East. It is inhabited...
, the Arnims had their family estate. The couple had five children, four daughters and a son. The children's tutors at Nassenheide included
E. M. ForsterEdward Morgan Forster OM, CH , was an English novelist, short story writer, essayist and librettist. He is known best for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy and also the attitudes towards gender and homosexuality in early 20th-century British society...
and
Hugh WalpoleSir Hugh Seymour Walpole was an English novelist. A prolific writer, he published thirty-six novels, five volumes of short stories, two plays and three volumes of memoirs. His skill at scene-setting, his vivid plots, his high profile as a lecturer and his driving ambition brought him a large...
.
Arnim would later refer to her domineering husband as the "Man of Wrath". Writing was her refuge from what turned out to be an incompatible marriage. Arnim's husband had increasing debts and was eventually sent to prison for fraud. This was when she created her pen name "Elizabeth" and launched her career as a writer by anonymously publishing her semi-autobiographical, brooding yet satirical
Elizabeth and her German Garden (1898). It would be such a success as to be reprinted twenty times in its first year. A bitter-sweet memoir and companion to it was
The Solitary Summer, (1899) and
The Benefactress (1902) was also semi-autobiographical. Other titles dealing with feminist protest and witty observations of life in provincial Germany to follow were
The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight (1905) and
Fraulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther. (1907) In 1908 Arnim left Nassenheide to return to London. She was all too aware of the lack of feminine power in a male-dominated world, and did not lack for sympathy of human frailty. She would sign her next twenty or so books simply as written "By the author of
Elizabeth and Her German Garden" and later simply "By Elizabeth".
Count von Arnim died in 1910, and in 1916 his widow married John Francis Stanley Russell, 2nd Earl Russell, elder brother of
Bertrand RussellBertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was an English philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. Although he spent the majority of his life in England, he was born in Wales, where he also died.Russell led the British "revolt against idealism" in the...
. The marriage ended in disaster and the couple separated in 1919, with Elizabeth escaping to the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and the couple separating, though they never divorced. In 1920 she embarked on an affair with Alexander Stuart Frere Reeves (1892-1984), a British publisher nearly 30 years her junior; he later married and named his only daughter Elizabeth in her honor.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D01EFDD1739F935A25753C1A962948260 From 1910 until 1913 she was a mistress of the novelist H.G. Wells.
Elizabeth died in
Charleston, South CarolinaCharleston is a city in Charleston County, South Carolina in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It is the largest city and county seat of Charleston County. The city was founded as Charlestown or Charles Towne, Carolina in 1670, and moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of...
, in 1941, aged 74.
Literary career
In 1898 she started her literary career by publishing
Elizabeth and Her German GardenElizabeth and Her German Garden is a novel by Elizabeth von Arnim, first published in 1898; it was very popular and frequently reprinted during the early years of the 20th century....
, a
semi-autobiographicalAn autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
novel about a rural idyll published anonymously and, as it turned out to be highly successful, reprinted 21 times within the first year. Von Arnim wrote another 20 books, which were all published "By the author of
Elizabeth and Her German Garden".
Enchanted AprilThe Enchanted April is a 1922 novel by Elizabeth von Arnim. An Academy Award-nominated film based on the novel, directed by Mike Newell, was released in 1992...
was adapted into an Academy Award-nominated feature film, directed by Mike Newell, in 1992, and a Tony Award-nominated stage play by Matthew Barber, in 2003. Her book
Mr. SkeffingtonMr. Skeffington is a 1944 drama film about a beautiful woman whose many suitors, and self-love, distract her from returning the affections of her husband, Job Skeffington. It also makes a point about Skeffington's status as a Jew in 1914 high society and, later, in relation to Nazi Germany. It...
was made into a movie starring
Bette DavisRuth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theatre. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres; from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
and
Claude RainsClaude Rains was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned 47 years; he later held American citizenship. He was known for many roles in Hollywood films, among them The Invisible Man, the corrupt senator in Mr...
.
Select bibliography
- Elizabeth and Her German Garden
Elizabeth and Her German Garden is a novel by Elizabeth von Arnim, first published in 1898; it was very popular and frequently reprinted during the early years of the 20th century....
(1898The year 1898 in literature involved some significant new books.-New books:*Elizabeth von Arnim - Elizabeth and Her German Garden*F. W. Bain - A Digit of the Moon*L...
)
- The Solitary Summer (1899
The year 1899 in literature involved some significant new books.-Events:*Edgar Rice Burroughs begins working in his father's business.*Rainer Maria Rilke travels to Moscow to meet Leo Tolstoy....
)
- April Baby's Book of Tunes (1900) (Illustrated by Kate Greenaway
Kate Greenaway was an English children's book illustrator and writer. Her first book, Under The Window , a collection of simple, perfectly idyllic verses concerning children who endlessly gathered posies, untouched by the Industrial Revolution, was a best-seller.The Kate Greenaway Medal,...
)
- The Benefactress (1901)
- The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rugen (1904)
- Princess Priscilla's Fortnight (1905)
- Fräulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther (1907
The year 1907 in literature involved some significant new books.-Events:* June 26 - Mark Twain receives an honorary doctorate of laws degree from Oxford University.*James Joyce meets Ettore Schmitz for the first time....
) (an epistolary novelAn epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of documents. The usual form is letters, although diary entries, newspaper clippings and other documents are sometimes used. Recently, electronic "documents" such as recordings and radio, blogs and e-mails have also come into use...
; see also FräuleinIn German, Fräulein is used as a title for young girls or unmarried women as opposed to Frau for married women. It is used with the first name or last name...
)
- The Caravaners (1909
The year 1909 in literature involved some significant new books.-New books:*L. Frank Baum - The Road to Oz** - Aunt Jane's Nieces at Work *André Billy - La Derive*René Boylesve - La Jeune Fille bien élevée...
)
- The Pastor's Wife (1914)
- Christine
Written by Elizabeth von Arnim and presented under her anonymous pen-name Alice Cholmondeley, Christine is presented as a compilation of letters from a “gifted young English girl studying in Germany just before the outbreak of the war” to her mother in Britain. Dated from May 28, 1914 to August...
(1917The year 1917 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* In January, Francis Picabia produces the first issue of the Dada periodical 391 in Barcelona....
) (written under the pseudonym Alice Cholmondeley)
- Christopher and Columbus (1919)
- In the Mountains (1920)
- Vera
Vera by Elizabeth von Arnim is a black comedy based on her disastrous second marriage to Earl Russell: a mordant analysis of the romantic delusions through which wives acquiesce in husbands' tyrannies. In outline the story of this utterly unromantic novel anticipates DuMaurier's Rebecca. Naive Lucy...
(1921The year 1921 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Edgar Rice Burroughs - Tarzan the Terrible*James Branch Cabell - Figures of Earth*Hall Caine - The Master of Man*Willa Cather - Alexander's Bridge...
)
- The Enchanted April (1922
The year 1922 in literature involved some significant events and new books.Under the current U.S. copyright law, all works published before January 1, 1923 with a proper copyright notice entered the public domain no later than 75 years from the date of the copyright...
)
- Love (1925)
- Introduction to Sally (1926)
- Expiation (1929)
- Father
A father is defined as a male parent of any type of offspring. The adjective "paternal" refers to father, parallel to "maternal" for mother.-Father-child relationship:The Father-child relationship is the defining factor of the fatherhood role...
(1931)
- The Jasmine Farm (1934)
- All the Dogs of My Life (autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
, 1936The year 1936 in literature involved some significant events and new books.- New books :*Eric Ambler - The Dark Frontier*Henry Bellamann - The Gray Man Walks *Gottfried Benn - The Trainee Man*Arna Wendell Bontemps - Black Thunder...
)
- Mr. Skeffington
Mr. Skeffington is a 1944 drama film about a beautiful woman whose many suitors, and self-love, distract her from returning the affections of her husband, Job Skeffington. It also makes a point about Skeffington's status as a Jew in 1914 high society and, later, in relation to Nazi Germany. It...
(1940)
Other biographies
- Elizabeth of the German Garden (1958) (Leslie De Charms, a pseudonym for Elizabeth's daughter, Liebet)
- Uncommon Arrangements, Seven Portraits of Married Life in London Literary Circles 1910-1939 (2008) (Katie Roiphe
Katie Roiphe is an American author and journalist. She is best-known as the author of the non-fiction examination The Morning After: Fear, Sex and Feminism . She is also the author of Last Night in Paradise: Sex and Morals at the Century's End , and the 2007 study of writers and marriage, Uncommon...
)
External links
- Audio recording of The Enchanted April at Librivox