Elizabeth and Her German Garden
Ratings3
Average rating4.3
15
Ratings3
Average rating4.3
May 7th -- There were days last winter when I danced for sheer joy out in my frost-bound garden in spite of my years and children. But I did it behind a bush, having a due regard for the decencies ...' Elizabeth's uniquely witty pen records each season in her beloved garden, where she escapes from the stifling routine of indoors: servants, meals, domestic routine, and the presence of her overbearing husband ...
Featured Series
1 primary book2 released booksElizabeth is a 7-book series with 1 primary work first released in 1898 with contributions by Elizabeth von Arnim, Jonathan Butcher, and 2 others.
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Elizabeth tells the story of her year in a diary kept while she and her family lived on her husband's estate in the country. Elizabeth gently mocks her husband, her friends, and others she knows as she tells how she made efforts to create a beautiful garden.
A few samples from the book:
“...if Eve had had a spade in Paradise and known what to do with it, we should not have had all that sad business of the apple.”
“Happiness is so wholesome; it invigorates and warms me into piety far more effectually than any amount of trials and griefs, and an unexpected pleasure is the surest means of bringing me to my knees. In spite of the protestations of some peculiarly constructed persons that they are the better for trials, I don't believe it. Such things must sour us, just as happiness must sweeten us, and make us kinder, and more gentle.”
‘“I hope you are not going to be ill,” said Irais with great concern, “because there is only a cow-doctor to be had here, and though he means well, I believe he is rather rough.” Minora was plainly startled. “But what do you do if you are ill?” she asked. “Oh, we are never ill,” said I; “the very knowledge that there would be no one to cure us seems to keep us healthy.”'
