Elizabeth von Arnim
Encyclopedia
Elizabeth von Arnim born Mary Annette Beauchamp, was an Australian-born British novelist. By marriage she became Gräfin (Countess) von Arnim-Schlagenthin, and by a second marriage, Countess Russell. Although known in her early life as Mary, "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.
and wrote under the pen name Katherine Mansfield
.
In 1891 Elizabeth married Count Henning August von Arnim-Schlagenthin, a Prussia
n aristocrat, whom she had met during an Italian tour with her father. They married in London but lived in Berlin and eventually moved to the countryside where, in Nassenheide
, Pomerania, 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. Forster
and Hugh Walpole
.
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 publishing her semi-autobiographical, the 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), Vera (1921) and Love (1925) were also semi-autobiographical. Other titles dealing with feminist protest and witty observations of life in provincial Germany were to follow, including The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight (1905) and Fraulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther (1907). 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". In 1908 Arnim left Nassenheide to return to London.
Count von Arnim died in 1910, and in 1916 his widow married John Francis Stanley Russell, 2nd Earl Russell, elder brother of Bertrand Russell
. The marriage ended in acrimony, with Elizabeth fleeing to the United States and the couple separating in 1919, 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 honour.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 Carolina
, in 1941, aged 74.
, a semi-autobiographical novel published anonymously. She went on to write another 20 books.
Her 1922 novel, The Enchanted April, has been adapted five times: as a Broadway play in 1925; an unsuccessful feature film by RKO in 1935; an Academy Award-nominated feature film by Miramax in 1992
; a Tony Award-nominated stage play in 2003
; and a musical play in 2010.
Her 1940 novel, Mr. Skeffington was made into an Academy Award-nominated feature film by Warner Bros. in 1944
, starring Bette Davis
and Claude Rains
; and a 60-minute "Lux Radio Theater
" broadcast radio adaptation of the movie on 1 October 1945.
Life
She was born at her family's holiday home in Kirribilli Point in Australia. When she was three years old the family returned to England 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 a cousin from New Zealand, Kathleen Beauchamp, who later married John Middleton MurryJohn Middleton Murry
John Middleton Murry was an English writer. He was prolific, producing more than 60 books and thousands of essays and reviews on literature, social issues, politics, and religion during his lifetime...
and wrote under the pen name Katherine Mansfield
Katherine Mansfield
Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp Murry was a prominent modernist writer of short fiction who was born and brought up in colonial New Zealand and wrote under the pen name of Katherine Mansfield. Mansfield left for Great Britain in 1908 where she encountered Modernist writers such as D.H. Lawrence and...
.
In 1891 Elizabeth married Count Henning August von Arnim-Schlagenthin, a Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n aristocrat, whom she had met during an Italian tour with her father. They married in London but lived in Berlin and eventually moved to the countryside where, in Nassenheide
Rzędziny
Rzędziny is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Dobra, within Police County, West Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-western Poland, close to the German border. It lies approximately north-west of Dobra, west of Police, and north-west of the regional capital Szczecin.Before 1945...
, Pomerania, 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. Forster
E. M. Forster
Edward 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 in early 20th-century British society...
and Hugh Walpole
Hugh Walpole
Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole, CBE 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 publishing her semi-autobiographical, the 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), Vera (1921) and Love (1925) were also semi-autobiographical. Other titles dealing with feminist protest and witty observations of life in provincial Germany were to follow, including The Princess Priscilla's Fortnight (1905) and Fraulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther (1907). 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". In 1908 Arnim left Nassenheide to return to London.
Count von Arnim died in 1910, and in 1916 his widow married John Francis Stanley Russell, 2nd Earl Russell, elder brother of Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...
. The marriage ended in acrimony, with Elizabeth fleeing to the United States and the couple separating in 1919, 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 honour.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 Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
, in 1941, aged 74.
Literary career
In 1898 von Arnim started her literary career by publishing Elizabeth and Her German GardenElizabeth 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....
, a semi-autobiographical novel published anonymously. She went on to write another 20 books.
Her 1922 novel, The Enchanted April, has been adapted five times: as a Broadway play in 1925; an unsuccessful feature film by RKO in 1935; an Academy Award-nominated feature film by Miramax in 1992
Enchanted April
Enchanted April is the second film adaptation Elizabeth von Arnim's 1922 novel, The Enchanted April. The novel was adapted as a Broadway play in 1925, and as an RKO Radio film in 1935 - both using the same title as the novel. The 1992 film release received several Golden Globe and Academy Award...
; a Tony Award-nominated stage play in 2003
Enchanted April
Enchanted April is the second film adaptation Elizabeth von Arnim's 1922 novel, The Enchanted April. The novel was adapted as a Broadway play in 1925, and as an RKO Radio film in 1935 - both using the same title as the novel. The 1992 film release received several Golden Globe and Academy Award...
; and a musical play in 2010.
Her 1940 novel, Mr. Skeffington was made into an Academy Award-nominated feature film by Warner Bros. in 1944
Mr. Skeffington
Mr. Skeffington is a 1944 American drama film directed by Vincent Sherman, based on the novel of the same name by Elizabeth von Arnim.The film stars Bette Davis as a beautiful woman whose many suitors, and self-love, distract her from returning the affections of her husband, Job Skeffington...
, starring Bette Davis
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. 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 Rains
Claude Rains
Claude Rains was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned 66 years. He was known for many roles in Hollywood films, among them the title role in The Invisible Man , a corrupt senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington , Mr...
; and a 60-minute "Lux Radio Theater
Lux Radio Theater
Lux Radio Theater, a long-run classic radio anthology series, was broadcast on the NBC Blue Network ; CBS and NBC . Initially, the series adapted Broadway plays during its first two seasons before it began adapting films. These hour-long radio programs were performed live before studio audiences...
" broadcast radio adaptation of the movie on 1 October 1945.
Select bibliography
- Elizabeth and Her German GardenElizabeth 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....
(1898) - The Solitary Summer (1899)
- April Baby's Book of Tunes (1900) (Illustrated by Kate GreenawayKate GreenawayCatherine Greenaway , known as Kate Greenaway, was an English children's book illustrator and writer, who spent much of her childhood at Rolleston, Nottinghamshire. She studied at what is now the Royal College of Art in London, which at that time had a separate section for women, and was headed by...
) - The Benefactress (1901)
- The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rugen (1904)
- Princess Priscilla's Fortnight (1905)
- Fräulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther (1907) (an epistolary novelEpistolary 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 FräuleinFräuleinFräulein is the German language honorific previously in common use for unmarried women, comparable to Miss in English. Fräulein is the diminutive form of Frau, which was previously reserved only for married women. Since the 1970s, Fräulein has come to be used less often, and was banned from...
) - The Caravaners (1909)
- The Pastor's Wife (1914)
- ChristineChristine (book)Christine is purportedly 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. Written by Elizabeth von Arnim and presented under her anonymous pen-name Alice Cholmondeley, the work dated from May 28, 1914 to...
(1917) (written under the pseudonym Alice Cholmondeley) - Christopher and Columbus (1919)
- In the Mountains (1920)
- VeraVera (novel)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...
(1921) - The Enchanted April (1922)
- Love (1925)
- Introduction to Sally (1926)
- Expiation (1929)
- Father (1931)
- The Jasmine Farm (1934)
- All the Dogs of My Life (autobiography, 1936)
- Mr. SkeffingtonMr. SkeffingtonMr. Skeffington is a 1944 American drama film directed by Vincent Sherman, based on the novel of the same name by Elizabeth von Arnim.The film stars Bette Davis as a beautiful woman whose many suitors, and self-love, distract her from returning the affections of her husband, Job Skeffington...
(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 RoipheKatie RoipheKatie 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