The Solitary Summer - Softcover

Von Arnim, Elizabeth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1421801248 ISBN 13: 9781421801247

Publisher: 1st World Library - Literary Society, 2005

Synopsis

Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - May 2nd. - Last night after dinner, when we were in the garden, I said, "I want to be alone for a whole summer, and get to the very dregs of life. I want to be as idle as I can, so that my soul may have time to grow. Nobody shall be invited to stay with me, and if any one calls they will be told that I am out, or away, or sick. I shall spend the months in the garden, and on the plain, and in the forests. I shall watch the things that happen in my garden, and see where I have made mistakes. On wet days I will go into the thickest parts of the forests, where the pine needles are everlastingly dry, and when the sun shines I'll lie on the heath and see how the broom flares against the clouds. I shall be perpetually happy, because there will be no one to worry me. Out there on the plain there is silence, and where there is silence I have discovered there is peace."

About this title

From the Publisher

"The Solitary Summer" is a witty, lyrical account of a rejuvenating summer. Descriptions of magnificent larkspurs and burning nasturiums give way to those of cooling forest walks--and of clambering up a mud bank when the miller is not in view. Rainy days prompt a little philanthropy, until the sun returns the gardener to the refuge of her beloved plants. In her introduction, Deborah Kellaway writes: "All of von Arnim's heroines are escapists. They escape from riches to the simple life, or from conventional home life into foreign travel...In her first two books "[Elizabeth and Her German Garden" and "The Solitary Summer]," the escape is simply into the garden...And it is her capacity to present her joy in that place that made the books bestsellers. Here readers are escaping, with her, into happiness."

About the Author

Elizabeth von Arnim (31 August 1866 – 9 February 1941), 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.

Edition details

• Publisher: 1st World Library - Literary Society
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1421801248
• ISBN 13: 9781421801247
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 132
• Editor: 1stworld Library