Femininity and Authorship in the Novels of Elizabeth von Arnim

At Her Most Radiant Moment

Juliane Römhild

When Elizabeth von Arnim anonymously published her debut Elizabeth and Her German Garden (1898), she became a literary star overnight. The mystery surrounding the identity of this witty aristocratic diarist in her romantic garden kept readers guessing: Who was Elizabeth? A Prussian Princess? The daughter of Queen Victoria? Throughout her long and successful career as one of England’s best satirical novelists, von Arnim never officially revealed her identity. Instead, to her readers and friends she simply became known as “Elizabeth.” From her first book to her capricious autobiography All the Dogs of My Life (1936), throughout her career von Arnim would explore questions of identity and self-representation. And in spite of von Arnim’s love of masquerades and guises, her books include funny and surprisingly personal meditations on the challenges of being a woman writer wrestling with a masculine literary tradition, of taking pride in one’s commercial success while moving in Modernist circles, and of being both a hard-working professional and an elegant hostess.
In tracing the conflict between femininity and authorship in von Arnim’s works, this book engages with key literary issues of the time. Von Arnim’s early books offer a witty critique of New Woman fiction. Von Arnim’s self-positioning on the literary market and her relationships with writers like Katherine Mansfield, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf shed light on the relationship between middlebrow and modernist literature. Von Arnim’s complex autobiography, finally, gives a tentative answer to the all-important question: can a writing woman be a lady?

University Press Copublishing Division / Fairleigh Dickinson University Press

Pages: 188 • Trim: 6½ x 9½

978-1-61147-703-0 • Hardback • June 2014 • $107.00 • (£82.00)

978-1-61147-704-7 • eBook • June 2014 • $101.50 • (£78.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / Women Authors, Literary Criticism / General, Literary Criticism / Australian & Oceanian

Femininity and Authorship in the Novels of Elizabeth von Arnim

At Her Most Radiant Moment

Hardback

eBook

Summary

When Elizabeth von Arnim anonymously published her debut Elizabeth and Her German Garden (1898), she became a literary star overnight. The mystery surrounding the identity of this witty aristocratic diarist in her romantic garden kept readers guessing: Who was Elizabeth? A Prussian Princess? The daughter of Queen Victoria? Throughout her long and successful career as one of England’s best satirical novelists, von Arnim never officially revealed her identity. Instead, to her readers and friends she simply became known as “Elizabeth.” From her first book to her capricious autobiography All the Dogs of My Life (1936), throughout her career von Arnim would explore questions of identity and self-representation. And in spite of von Arnim’s love of masquerades and guises, her books include funny and surprisingly personal meditations on the challenges of being a woman writer wrestling with a masculine literary tradition, of taking pride in one’s commercial success while moving in Modernist circles, and of being both a hard-working professional and an elegant hostess.
In tracing the conflict between femininity and authorship in von Arnim’s works, this book engages with key literary issues of the time. Von Arnim’s early books offer a witty critique of New Woman fiction. Von Arnim’s self-positioning on the literary market and her relationships with writers like Katherine Mansfield, Henry James, and Virginia Woolf shed light on the relationship between middlebrow and modernist literature. Von Arnim’s complex autobiography, finally, gives a tentative answer to the all-important question: can a writing woman be a lady?

Details

University Press Copublishing Division / Fairleigh Dickinson University Press

Pages: 188 • Trim: 6½ x 9½

978-1-61147-703-0 • Hardback • June 2014 • $107.00 • (£82.00)

978-1-61147-704-7 • eBook • June 2014 • $101.50 • (£78.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / Women Authors, Literary Criticism / General, Literary Criticism / Australian & Oceanian

Author

Juliane Römhild is early career development fellow in English at La Trobe University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations & Illustrations
Introduction
Elizabeth and Her German Garden
What a Funny Mummy!
The Crux of the Matter
The Solitary Summer
Old Friends in Every-Day Clothes
Convictions of Their Own
The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rügen
Cropped Hair and Bloomers
Living in a Dream
In the Mountains
The Comic Detachment of Mind
The Kindliness of Henry James
A Pretty Little Story
Shakespeare at One Remove
All the Dogs of My Life
If this Were AutobiographyThe Woman, I Regret to Say, Is Myself
There Are Dogs & Dogs
Conclusion
Bibliography

Reviews

Romhild's scope is wide-ranging, taking on issues of writerly self-assertion, motherhood, and the negotiation of highbrow antecedents, as well as von Arnim's tactical anonymity.
— Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature

Femininity and Authorship in the Novels of Elizabeth von Arnim: At Her Most Radiant Moment by Juliane Romhild, is a 196 page literary study and analysis of the career, books, and literary issues reflected in the writings of von Arnim. A masterpiecve of meticulous scholarship, Femininity and Authorship in the Novels of Elizabeth von Arnim, is organized and presented in five major chapters. . . .Of special note is Juliance Romhild's 'Conclusion'. Enhanced with a List of Abbreviations and Illustrations; an informative introduction; a roster of Works Cited and a comprehensive Index, Femininity and Authorship in the Novels of Elizabeth von Arnim is a seminal work and highly recommended for academic library Literary Studies and Women's Literature reference collections and supplemental reading lists.
— Midwest Book Review