Bücher von Arnim Elizabeth von

Christine, originally written under the pen name Alice Cholmondeley, tells the story of a seventeen-year-old virtuoso violinist who travels to Germany in May, 1914 to study with the renowned violin teacher ¿Kloster¿. Christine arrives in Germany just a few weeks before the beginning of the hostilities that would become World War I. Against the backdrop of impending war, Christine studies and prepares for her future. She falls in love. She experiences a precious moment in time when all is perfect. And, as the preface warns, both her dreams and her person succumb at the onset of the war.

First published in 1914, the story centers on Ingeborg who grows up being pushed around by her father, the Bishop. In the first moment she is ever alone and left to her own devices, she decides to take a trip to Switzerland. She is alone for only a few hours, however, and then the next overpowering man comes into her life, a German pastor. Through no effort or even desire of her own she somehow becomes his wife and begins yet another journey in pursuit of control of her life. Includes 8 illustrations by Arthur Litle.

Four women, all strangers, escape the dismal English weather for a month-long retreat in an Italian villa. Once there, the company of the other women along with the "wisteria and sunshine" brings each character to a heartening realization about herself. First published in 1922, The Enchanted April was a best-seller in both England and the United States. It was made into a major motion picture in 1992.

First published in 1904, The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rügen is a travel journal written in the same style as the author's other autobiographical works Elizabeth and Her German Garden and The Solitary Summer. Elizabeth's a goal is to ride her coach around Rügen, Germany's largest island and a popular tourist destination. Von Arnim records her journey with enlightening and always witty observations.

First published in 1905, Princess Priscilla's Fortnight was no doubt written as a true-to-life fairy tale for Von Arnim's children. It tells the story of Priscilla, a hugely popular German princess, who grows tired of her lavish and pampered life. Through the instruction of her mentor, Herr Fritzing, she learns there is a wide and varied world outside the castle walls and yearns to escape.

First published in 1907, this epistolary novel contains the letters from Fraulein (Rose-Marie) Schmidt to Mr (Roger) Anstruther. It is set in the college town of Jena, Germany where Roger, an Englishman, has just spent a year learning German. During his last hour before returning to England, the two confess their feelings and become secretly engaged. Rose-Marie's letters, filled with effusions of life and nature, also chronicle the relationship of these two characters through the year following their engagement.

Elizabeth and Her German Garden was first published in 1898; it was very popular and frequently reprinted during the early years of the 20th century. The story is a year's diary written by the protagonist Elizabeth about her experiences learning gardening and interacting with her friends. This book is followed by The Solitary Summer. The illustrated edition includes watercolors by Simon Harmon Vedder.

First published in 1920, the story is written in first person as a journal. Our narrator is a tired English woman who, after WWI, escapes ambiguous personal troubles in London and seeks refuge at her chalet among the Swiss Alps. As she starts to gain strength, two English women, also of ambiguous personal circumstances, show up literally on her doorstep. The hostess takes them in, and they embark on a strange and endearing path to helping each other.

First published in 1919, Christopher and Columbus relates the journey of orphaned twins, Anna Rose and Anna Felicitas von Twinkle, on a journey of discovery across the ocean from England to America during WWI. Born of a German father and English mother and not belonging culturally to either nation, the twins travel to America in hopes of starting anew and finding relatives to take them in.