Juliane Römhild: Isobel Maddison, Elizabeth von Arnim, and Jennifer Walker, Elizabeth of the German Garden

Summary

2013 is an excellent year for Elizabeth von Arnim, who, until recently, has had the strangest of critical receptions; to date, there have been only three biographies, a handful of scholarly articles and a couple of PhD theses. Now three books on von Arnim have been published all at once. Isobel Maddison's study Elizabeth von Arnim: Beyond the German Garden is the first scholarly monograph exclusively on von Arnim's novels and does much to rehabilitate her as a successful writer of complex satirical fiction. It is a wide-ranging introduction based on a tremendous amount of research. Scholars will appreciate Maddison's discussion of some of von Arnim's best novels as well as hitherto unknown texts. She works closely with von Arnim's letters at the Huntington Library and, very helpfully, includes the complete Finding Aid to the Collection in the book.

Maddison is critical of the epithet ‘middlebrow’ often applied to von Arnim and presents her subject as a progressive, political author whose best writing defies easy categorisation. The first half of von Arnim's career is discussed under the heading of ‘The “German” novels’ and culminates in a detailed investigation of von Arnim's epistolary novel Christine (1917) in the context of anti-invasion literature. Maddison then examines the Fabian philosophies that underpin some of the later marriage- problem novels such as Love (1925) and Expiation (1929). These discussions are interesting and illuminating, yet the elaboration of the historical context at times overshadows the analysis. Maddison offers valuable insights, but her book needs a stronger critical vision that would hold together chapters as diverse as an introductory biographical sketch, a lengthy summary of von Arnim's contemporary reception, explorations of the political, biographical and feminist implications of various books, the film adaptations of von Arnim's novels and, last but not least, her friendship with Katherine Mansfield.

The latter is one of the most interesting chapters in Maddison's study. Following Kathleen Jones's lead, Maddison explores the personal and literary relationship between Mansfield and von Arnim.