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Elizabeth Von Arnim
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The Solitary Summer Hardcover – May 30, 2008

by Elizabeth Vov Arnim (Author)
3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 177 ratings
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The Solitary Summer, by Elizabeth Von Arnim - Akasha Classics, AkashaPublishing.Com - 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. On wet days I will go into the thickest parts of the forests, where the pine needles are everlastingly dry, and when the sun shines I'll lie on the heath and see how the broom flares against the clouds. I shall be perpetually happy, because there will be no one to worry me. Out there on the plain there is silence, and where there is silence I have discovered there is peace."
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  1. Print length
    108 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Akasha Classics
  4. Publication date
    May 30, 2008
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.38 x 8.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1605120944
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1605120942
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Akasha Classics (May 30, 2008)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 108 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1605120944
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1605120942
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.38 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 177 ratings

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Elizabeth Von Arnim

Elizabeth Von Arnim

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Customer reviews

3.8 out of 5 stars
3.8 out of 5
177 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Grace Brooks
5.0 out of 5 stars A book for anyone who loves being alone in a garden
Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2012
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"The Solitary Summer" was written a year after Elizabeth von Arnim's acclaimed first publication "Elizabeth and Her German Garden," and has so much of the same feel that it almost seems like an addendum. Here again we have all the makings of an autobiography: funny, unconventional English Elizabeth; her husband, the unromantic, German "Man of Wrath"; and her three daughters: the April, May and June babies. And here again we have the celebration of nature and the pure enjoyment of what it is to just have the freedom to soak it all in, written by a woman who seemed to ask little more of life than to just be left alone in a field of daffodils on a warm day.

Hence, her wistful request to the Man of Wrath that she be allowed to have a summer all to herself. She doesn't receive this, but in even detailing her attempts, and the other repercussions of being a lover of flowers in an upstanding German aristocratic household of the late 20th century, Elizabeth writes a book worth reading ... preferably while sitting in a field of daffodils.
6 people found this helpful
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Annie
4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful book, Cassia Press edition is terrible - find another
Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2021
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I enjoyed this book tremendously - von Arnim's writing style is wonderful. BUT the Cassia Press edition ended mid-sentence. The book just stopped, mid-sentence, near the top of a page. I closed it and threw it away.

That is the unforgivable flaw in this edition. There were other print oddities, such as separate words being joined (e.g., "to me" became "tome" and "be at" became "beat"), although the brain adjusted to this.

I'd highly recommend the book - just not this printing.
7 people found this helpful
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Kat A.
3.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful & Wise, But I Couldn't Stay Interested
Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2012
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There is no doubt that this is a beautifully written book full of rich language, poetic meanings and full-blooming descriptions of garden and life. This is an easy read and I love several quotations in the book. One of my favorites:

"I had three of these meek men one after the other, and learned what I might long ago have discovered, that the less a person knows, the more certain that he is right, and that no weapons yet invented are of any use in a struggle with stupidity."

Even with all these plusses in the book, I had a difficult time getting and staying interested with this book. At times, I felt the book rambling off in the woods. I guess I could sum up my lack of bonding with the book by quoting one of the books quotes:

"Books have their idiosyncrasies as well as people, and will not show me their full beauties unless the place and time in which they are read suits them."
6 people found this helpful
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Moccasin
5.0 out of 5 stars Winter dream for a gardener
Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2015
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Would you believe our author wrote in the early years of the twentieth century? The form is that of a journal with a few lapses. Elizabeth rhapsodizes about the joys of her garden, comments on British gardens and those of Germany, her native country. Along the way there are opinions voiced with humor and some feminine subtleties.

It is an ebook. Previously I saw "Enchanted April" movie, from vonArnim's book. I listened to that on audio book by the perfect reader, and then got it for the Kindle. I hear the voice in my head reading all of vonArnim's books. This one, "The Solitary Summer" is poetry to please a gardener's soul in winter.
One person found this helpful
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bookfan
1.0 out of 5 stars Five stars for the story; one star for the Cassia Press/Create Space edition, which is MISSING the ending
Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2015
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The book gets five stars, but do NOT buy the Cassia Press/Create Space edition (the white one with the red poppy on the cover). It is MISSING the last few pages of the story. The book ends mid-sentence, I kid you not, and all that is left is blank space. Obviously a printing error. I had to go to Project Gutenberg to find out what happens in the end of the book. Talk about terrible quality control!

Not only that, throughout the book there are spaces missing -- "see the" becomes "seethe," etc.

I wish there were a way to differentiate in a review between the book and the edition; if you know how, let me know. The story and writing itself are wonderful. This edition is not worth the paper it's printed on.
11 people found this helpful
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Jo
4.0 out of 5 stars Observations of life in the garden
Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2012
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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.

A nice quote 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."
7 people found this helpful
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L Hamilton
5.0 out of 5 stars A Reader's Gem
Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2011
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Although what we today would consider an 'old-fashioned' writer, Von Arnim's style and use of the language can be breathtaking. If you appreciate fine writing and amazing use of the English language, you will enjoy this book. Not a great deal happens in the plot, but you will constantly find yourself re-reading a sentence or description just to appreciate the sheer beauty of the words and thoughts. As a writer, it's a book I plan to keep handy to remind myself just how exceptional the written word can be.
4 people found this helpful
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quality & comfort
4.0 out of 5 stars Relaxing but a bit boring
Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2014
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Although it's well written, I found the writings to lack plot enough to keep my interest. Her philosophy seemed out if place to me in parts of the story. She was no doubt a very wealthy, spoiled lady of leisure. She had nothing to do but wonder around her yard while others worked. But she still had a way of putting words together. I lived her view of a peaceful garden and that, for me is the only saving grace if this book. Too disjointed in all other thoughts she wrote.
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Aletheuon
5.0 out of 5 stars Utterly charming
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 23, 2014
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Elizabeth von Arnim (1866 - 1941) had an interesting life. She was British but was born in Australia and named Mary Annette Beauchamp. Her cousin was the writer Katherine Mansfield. In 1891, she married the Prussian Count von Arnim-Schlagenthin, and moved to Nassenheide, Pomerania, where the von Arnims had a family estate. They produced four daughters and a son, whose tutors included E. M. Forster and Hugh Walpole! When her husband was sent to prison for fraud, she supported herself by writing 'Elizabeth and her German Garden', which was semi-autobiographical. It was very successful and she followed it up with this book, 'The Solitary Summer.' In it, the dominating Count is called 'The Man of Wrath', yet in quite a sweet and affectionate way, it seems to me.
This is a charming and rather beautiful book. It is about a relatively uneventful summer, yet its interest never flags. I loved it. It is a lovely portrait of life in Prussia a century ago, yet in a way it seems quite modern. She is certainly a wealthy woman of her time, however, running a household composed of masters and servants and visiting the poor in the nearby village, and her children seem hardly to intrude upon her relaxation, obviously in the care of servants. They are educated every afternoon by the village schoolmaster, who comes to the house. Elizabeth plays with them and otherwise spends a lot of time contemplating in the garden.
Her thoughts are fascinating, however; she's an intelligent, quite introverted and private person who knows and describes her garden intimately and philosophises gently about life. A lovely book!
7 people found this helpful
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Nicole
1.0 out of 5 stars Don't buy this edition
Reviewed in Canada on November 29, 2020
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A wretched edition of an otherwise charming story. Many words run confusedly together, or are separated in the completely wrong place. The story ends abruptly (in the middle of a word!) some 20 pages before the actual story ends. I was terribly disappointed. I recommend this story, I do NOT recommend this edition.
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Nicole
1.0 out of 5 stars Don't buy this edition
Reviewed in Canada on November 29, 2020
A wretched edition of an otherwise charming story. Many words run confusedly together, or are separated in the completely wrong place. The story ends abruptly (in the middle of a word!) some 20 pages before the actual story ends. I was terribly disappointed. I recommend this story, I do NOT recommend this edition.
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Carla B. White
4.0 out of 5 stars Ver y relaxing read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 11, 2015
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A very pleasant read. Nice gentle story.
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Melvyn Elphee
3.0 out of 5 stars Solitude with attitude
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 10, 2014
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The Enchanted April was such an enchanting book - and more profound than that - so I wanted to try another von Arnim immediately. This is less arresting, though still well written and individualistic. It is not a novel at all - no plot - but rather a reflective journal on a summer in the country. Von Arnim must have been quite a "feminist" in her day but now seems still to be too much in the doll's house and her little squirrelisms with regard to the "Man of Wrath" become irritating if not nauseating. Against this must be weighed a real delight in gardens and civilization along with an interesting social curiosity towards the less fortunate which is rather like the Victorian Lady Bountiful with self awareness. I am glad I read it, but would consider Gissing's Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft or Jerome's Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow more pressing along comparable lines.
9 people found this helpful
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Sahlan Diver
5.0 out of 5 stars Solitary Summer
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 18, 2015
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If you garden with passion you will love this upbeat book but not a book for the underprivileged as you will find when Elizabeth pays a visit to the poor.
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