jessreadthis's review against another edition
5.0
We are neither of us wise, but it is surprising how talking to a friend, even to a friend as unwise as yourself, clears up your brains and lets in a new light.
I almost didn't keep reading. I'm writing this in case, you a potential reader, pick up this book on a five star recommendation and felt as I did the first 47 pages into the big. The breathy, saccharine filled gushing love letters to Roger were too much. I began to wonder how von Arnim could fill an entire novel of these types of letters. This is an epistolary novel all written in letters by Fraulein Rose-Marie Schmidt to Mr. Roger Anstruther. Then a polarizing event occurs (which seemed inevitable) that changes the entire flow and tone of the novel. Brilliantly done.
Now I'll get to the review but I had to give this warning to potential readers who might have been tempted as I was to not continue with the novel.
There is no help, except what you dig out of your own self; and if I could make you see that I would have shown you all the secrets of life. -Rose Marie Schmidt
Fraulein Schmidt starts this novel as a starry eyed newly affianced at the advanced age of twenty six. It is a secret engagement (There's your first red flag. Never enter into a secret engagement, ladies and gentleman). She corresponds with her fiancee, Roger, eagerly and spritely in her love for him. As events occur in the book, we see a complete transformation and evolution in both she and Roger. Though since these letters are entirely from her viewpoint, one has to read between the lines on Roger's transformation. The novel follows a little over a year in which Rose- Marie sees rapid changes in her life. These changes follow a move, making new friends, taking in new boarders, learning to grow crops, and embracing the person she was on track towards becoming if her step-mother and the societal expectations hadn't derailed her briefly.
Why Did I Love It So?
I loved it so for the sheer depth and expanse. We see a stern, rebuking Rose-Marie, a gushing girl Rose-Marie, a hungry esthetic trying out vegetarianism Rose-Marie, a friend and confidant Rose-Marie, a questioning religious teachings Rose-Marie despite devotion showed on the anniversary of her mother's death, a devoted daughter to an absent minded professor of a father who cannot manage money without her, but ultimately a brilliant young woman who loves poetry and nature. I think a strength of von Arnim's writing is beautifully and eloquently describing nature and the changing seasons. This book was part nature writing, part discourse on philosophical and religious beliefs, dabbling in romance but all the while it was about a changing relationship between a man and a woman. I didn't expect to find the deepness in the story that I did.
I really want to study von Arnim as a person after reading this novel. I may be reading into things, but the questioning rawness of religion and God made me wonder if these were experiences von Arnim had. There is one particular scene where Rose-Marie goes to Herr Pastor for a confession. She assumes he is a "doctor of the spirit" and hoping to find spiritual healing. He instead berated and scolded her. Saying "Ach, miserable maiden, it is not with such as thee that Paradise is peopled. The taint of thy parentage is heavy upon thee. Thou art not, thou canst be, thou has never been a child of God." These cutting words just seemed so specific and knowing. I have to wonder what types of interactions with religion that von Arnim had.
Instead, we see a healing take place when Rose-Marie and her father move to the country. They sell/give away many worldly possessions to take a smaller house on an even smaller income than they previously had. Yet, we see the novel take a cerebral turn as Rose-Marie observes nature, reads poetry and wonders at the poets' lives, meets new friends that challenge her thinking and also require assistance, and her ever changing evolving role in Mr. Roger Anstruther's life. This was such a brilliant novel to read. A definite reread and I want to spend a month in a small cottage in the German countryside now. Probably in September where I can angle to hopefully get an invitation to a kaffeeklatsch for cake, coffee, and a bit of gossip.
I almost didn't keep reading. I'm writing this in case, you a potential reader, pick up this book on a five star recommendation and felt as I did the first 47 pages into the big. The breathy, saccharine filled gushing love letters to Roger were too much. I began to wonder how von Arnim could fill an entire novel of these types of letters. This is an epistolary novel all written in letters by Fraulein Rose-Marie Schmidt to Mr. Roger Anstruther. Then a polarizing event occurs (which seemed inevitable) that changes the entire flow and tone of the novel. Brilliantly done.
Now I'll get to the review but I had to give this warning to potential readers who might have been tempted as I was to not continue with the novel.
There is no help, except what you dig out of your own self; and if I could make you see that I would have shown you all the secrets of life. -Rose Marie Schmidt
Fraulein Schmidt starts this novel as a starry eyed newly affianced at the advanced age of twenty six. It is a secret engagement (There's your first red flag. Never enter into a secret engagement, ladies and gentleman). She corresponds with her fiancee, Roger, eagerly and spritely in her love for him. As events occur in the book, we see a complete transformation and evolution in both she and Roger. Though since these letters are entirely from her viewpoint, one has to read between the lines on Roger's transformation. The novel follows a little over a year in which Rose- Marie sees rapid changes in her life. These changes follow a move, making new friends, taking in new boarders, learning to grow crops, and embracing the person she was on track towards becoming if her step-mother and the societal expectations hadn't derailed her briefly.
Why Did I Love It So?
I loved it so for the sheer depth and expanse. We see a stern, rebuking Rose-Marie, a gushing girl Rose-Marie, a hungry esthetic trying out vegetarianism Rose-Marie, a friend and confidant Rose-Marie, a questioning religious teachings Rose-Marie despite devotion showed on the anniversary of her mother's death, a devoted daughter to an absent minded professor of a father who cannot manage money without her, but ultimately a brilliant young woman who loves poetry and nature. I think a strength of von Arnim's writing is beautifully and eloquently describing nature and the changing seasons. This book was part nature writing, part discourse on philosophical and religious beliefs, dabbling in romance but all the while it was about a changing relationship between a man and a woman. I didn't expect to find the deepness in the story that I did.
I really want to study von Arnim as a person after reading this novel. I may be reading into things, but the questioning rawness of religion and God made me wonder if these were experiences von Arnim had. There is one particular scene where Rose-Marie goes to Herr Pastor for a confession. She assumes he is a "doctor of the spirit" and hoping to find spiritual healing. He instead berated and scolded her. Saying "Ach, miserable maiden, it is not with such as thee that Paradise is peopled. The taint of thy parentage is heavy upon thee. Thou art not, thou canst be, thou has never been a child of God." These cutting words just seemed so specific and knowing. I have to wonder what types of interactions with religion that von Arnim had.
Instead, we see a healing take place when Rose-Marie and her father move to the country. They sell/give away many worldly possessions to take a smaller house on an even smaller income than they previously had. Yet, we see the novel take a cerebral turn as Rose-Marie observes nature, reads poetry and wonders at the poets' lives, meets new friends that challenge her thinking and also require assistance, and her ever changing evolving role in Mr. Roger Anstruther's life. This was such a brilliant novel to read. A definite reread and I want to spend a month in a small cottage in the German countryside now. Probably in September where I can angle to hopefully get an invitation to a kaffeeklatsch for cake, coffee, and a bit of gossip.
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