Cart
Free Shipping in the UK
Proud to be B-Corp

The Caravaners Elizabeth von Arnim

The Caravaners By Elizabeth von Arnim

The Caravaners by Elizabeth von Arnim


£8.30
New RRP £12.99
Condition - Very Good
Only 4 left

Summary

The Caravaners (1909) is a devastating comedy about an Edwardian caravan holiday in Kent, narrated by the pompous and self-important Baron, a Prussian Major in the German army. It reveals the lost world of European crusted assumptions that disappeared forever with the First World War, and is one of the funniest feminist novels ever written.

The Caravaners Summary

The Caravaners by Elizabeth von Arnim

Elizabeth von Arnim's eighth novel is a sharp contrast to the sunny optimism of her first best-seller Elizabeth and her German Garden (1898) and her later hit The Enchanted April (1922, adapted several times for screen and stage, including the 1991 film). The Caravaners (1909) is a devastating comedy about an Edwardian caravan holiday in Kent, narrated by the pompous and self-important Baron, a Prussian Major in the German army. His narrative of pained bewilderment at the bizarre behaviour of the English people with whom he has chosen to spend a month in a convoy of horse-drawn holiday caravans (they unaccountably cut the holiday short after only a week) is side-splittingly funny. We sympathise deeply with the lady whom he pursues in a platonic and very one-sided holiday affair, and even more with Baroness Edelgard, the Baron's long-suffering and much younger second wife, who discovers her own holiday freedoms, and becomes newly emancipated in her marriage, to the Baron's horror. `Elizabeth von Arnim' was the pen-name of Mary Annette Beauchamp (1866-1941), an Australian-born British novelist and a cousin of Katherine Mansfield. Her much-loved Prussian husband, Count Henning von Arnim, died a year after she published The Caravaners. The novel reflects her frustration with and exasperated affection for German aristocratic society, and reveals the lost world of European social networks and crusted assumptions that disappeared forever with the First World War, only a few years after The Caravaners' publication. It is also one of the funniest feminist novels ever written.

About Elizabeth von Arnim

Elizabeth von Arnim (1866-1941) was born Mary Annette Beauchamp, and was an Australian-born British novelist. She married a German aristocrat and her best-known works are set in Germany. After her first husband's death, she had a three-year affair with the writer H. G. Wells, then later married Frank Russell, elder brother of the Nobel prize-winning writer and philosopher Bertrand Russell. She was a cousin of the New Zealand-born writer Katherine Mansfield. Her first marriage made her Countess von Arnim-Schlagenthin and her second Elizabeth, Countess Russell. Though known in early life as May, publication of her first book introduced her to readers as Elizabeth, which she eventually became to her friends and finally even to her family. She is now known invariably as Elizabeth von Arnim. She lived in Nassenheide, Prussia, in London and in Switzerland. She died in the USA in 1941 while visiting her married daughter. Juliane Roemhild is a lecturer at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia, and researches British and German interwar literature. She is particularly interested in women's writing, middlebrow novels and representations of happiness in fiction. She is a founding member of the Elizabeth von Arnim Society. Her monograph Authorship & Femininity in the Novels of Elizabeth von Arnim (Fairleigh Dickinson UP) was published in 2014.

Additional information

GOR010072689
9781912766123
1912766124
The Caravaners by Elizabeth von Arnim
Used - Very Good
Paperback
Handheld Press
2019-09-16
304
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - The Caravaners