Von Arnim at her joyous, witty, well read best.

VonArnim has a witty writing style. The Solitary Summer is not quite as good as The Enchanted April but a nice classic.

The main female character spends five months reflecting on her surroundings and the people in her life. So even though she is not alone during this time she wanders from day to day alone in her thoughts wondering why things are the way they are. She wants to dig in the dirt, scold the villagers, tell the visiting army to go away ...

To me VonArmin was allowing this woman to think freely during a time when women did not do so. She had many unusual ideas for that time but never spoke them aloud This is not a serious or heavy story. Just a diary of sorts looking at the honest thoughts of a woman who lived a long time ago.

I've got sunshine on a cloudy day.
When it's cold outside, I've got the month of May.
I guess you'd say
What can make me feel this way?
My girl (my girl, my girl)
Talkin' 'bout my girl (my girl).

Another fabulous offering from Elizabeth von Arnim.

The writing again concentrates on the oasis of calm, peace, serenity and healing that her garden and her books offer her in the late 1800's.

She remains witty, observant, reflective and succinct.

A favourite phrase that jumped out at me whilst reading was this:-

"What a blessing it is to love books. Everybody must love something, and I know of no objects of love that give such substantial and unfailing returns as books and a garden....."

Exactly.

"It was the evening of May Day, and the spring had taken hold of me body and soul. The sky was full of stars, and the garden of scents, and the borders of wallflowers and sweet, sly pansies. All day there had been a breeze, and all day slow masses of white clouds had been sailing across the blue. Now it was so still, so motionless, so breath- less, that it seemed as though a quiet hand had been laid on the garden, soothing and hushing it into silence."

Utterly enchanting... breathtakingly beautiful descriptions of nature combined with witty, laugh out loud funny, social commentary! This is the third Von Arnim novel I have read and she has firmly enshrined herself among my list of very favourite classics authors.

The Solitary Summer is the second book in her loosely-veiled autobiographical series of "Elizabeth" books that chronicle her time living with her husband and children on his ancestral country estate in Germany. Told in diary format and covering the events of one summer (May - October) in which Elizabeth decides they won't have any house guests to disturb them from having a peaceful solitary summer.

"And was there ever such a hopeful beginning to a day, and so full of promise for the subsequent right passing of its hours, as breakfast in the garden, alone with your teapot and your book!"

This was a pleasant read--a memoir about a quiet summer spent mostly alone in her garden.

I should have read Elizabeth and her German Garden first, as this is a follow up to that book. The book is somewhat autobiographical, about her attempt to spend a solitary summer in her garden. I enjoyed a lot of the author's general observations in her unique voice. Some of my favorites are below.

On the pursuit of money: "What a waste of life, just getting and spending. ... They are only pennies, after all --unpleasant, battered copper things, without a gold piece among them, and never worth the degradation of self, and the hatred of those below you who have fewer, and the derision of those above you who have more."

"...When I run over the list of my friends and try to find one who would enjoy them, I am frightened once more at the solitariness in which we each of us live."

"Living face to face with nature makes it difficult for one to be discouraged."

"Nothing is so utterly destructive to meditation as to know that probably somebody inquisitive is eyeing you from behind a curtain."

Elizabeth von Arnim had a wonderful ability to make the reader feel like she was being spoken to directly by Elizabeth. She infused her stories with the concept that within a garden one could find peace and contentment while inserting a bit of the whimsical.

In this story, Mrs von Armin writes of her need and want for a summer of solitude with books to read, flowers to enjoy, and children to be pampered. Who does not dream of that happening? She achieves for the most part her desire and while interrupted occasionally by the people who intrude into her life, Elizabeth is able to share the joy of her garden and her life in Germany with her husband, the man of wrath, and her adorable children quaintly called by their birth month.

This was a fine tale told about the summer and justifiably should be read in that season where one can enjoy all the wonderful bounties that nature has to offer.

Free download available at Project Gutenberg.

Opening lines:
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.

Page 10:
What a blessing it is to love books. Everybody must love something, and I know of no objects of love that give such substantial and unfailing returns as books and a garden. And how easy it would have been to come into the world without this, and possessed instead of an all-consuming passion, say, for hats, perpetually raging round my empty soul!

Page 12:
I prefer sitting here on the verandah and looking down through a frame of leaves at all the rosebuds June has put in the beds round the sun-dial, to ponder over nothing, and just be glad that I am alive.

Page 39:
Any story-book or novel you take up is full of feeling descriptions of what everybody ate and drank, and there are a great many more meals than kisses; so that the novel-reader who expects a love-tale, finds with disgust that he is put off with menus.

Page 42:
Oh a garden is a sweet, sane refuge to have! Whether I am tired because I have enjoyed myself too much, or tired because I have lectured the servants too much, or tired because I have talked to missionaries too much, I have only to come down the verandah steps into the garden to be at once restored to quiet, and serenity, and my real and natural self.

What else should I say about this book? Only this: another little gem written by Elizabeth von Arnim.

4* The Enchanted April
3* The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rugen
4* Elizabeth and Her German Garden
3* The Solitary Summer
TBR Christopher And Columbus
TBR Vera

I didn't enjoy this one as much as Elizabeth and her German garden, but still it made me laugh a few times. She was clearly ahead of her time, and her opinions on women's conditions at the time were usually spot on. And the babies' comments were delightful to read, as usual.

Beautiful, charming, lyrical, poetic, and worth savoring for all its loveliness.

Solitary Summer is a short book about a woman's desire to spend one summer alone in her garden, inviting no one to visit, being able to enjoy her garden, her family, and herself for the whole summer. Her husband, whom she calls the Man of Wrath, doubted she would be happy, thought she would be dull. The book then follows her summer in diary style, describing her days during the 5 months of May through September.

I personally found the book absolutely charming, even in the free kindle version. Alas, being a book lover, I also coveted a "real" copy of this book, so I bought myself a lovely hardcover copy from 1901, which now has a permanent spot on my bookshelves, and which will be reread by me again in the future when I, like the author, desire an escape from the world into my garden.

Free e-book available at girlebooks.com.

This sequel of "Elizabeth and Her German Garden" is really lovely even for Von Arnim's standard. Oh my dear charming friend Elizabeth, I envy how you can made a book where nothing happened except from you insisting on having a guest-free summer (and failing temporarily) to be such a heartwarming and amusing book!