Day: August 16, 2018
Elizabeth von Arnim: The Solitary Summer – Reading Progress Update: 106 of 190 Pages
Hooray — and once more, Elizabeth is decades ahead of her time, in not (at least not at heart) joining the local clergyman’s and the city population’s uproar over the rural custom of “prefacing” a marriage by its consummation … and the inevitable consequences! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Summary post HERE. Further reading progress updates: 3 / 190 […]
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Elizabeth von Arnim: The Solitary Summer – Reading Progress Update: 95 of 190 Pages
Ugh. Those four-families-to-one-building cottages, with a single room per family, shared kitchens and looking out on a pig sty if you’re unlucky … I’d say humanity has advanced just a bit since Elizabeth’s day. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Summary post HERE. Further reading progress updates: 3 / 190 pages 9 / 190 pages 14 / 190 pages 22 […]
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Elizabeth von Arnim: The Solitary Summer – Reading Progress Update: 93 of 190 Pages
More baby talk about the hereafter, occasioned by the “June baby”‘s insistence that she doesn’t want to go to paradies because there’s nothing there for her to play with, which prompts this response by her sisters and her mother: “‘Why, she can play at ball there with all the Sternleins if she likes!’ The idea […]
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Elizabeth von Arnim: The Solitary Summer – Reading Progress Update: 89 of 190 Pages
“The Man of Wrath says all women love churchyards. He is fond of sweeping assertions, and is sometimes curiously feminine in his tendency to infer a general principle from a particular instance.” Hah! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Summary post HERE. Further reading progress updates: 3 / 190 pages 9 / 190 pages 14 / 190 pages 22 / […]
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Elizabeth von Arnim: The Solitary Summer – Reading Progress Update: 87 of 190 Pages
After one of her daughter’s had fallen into a neighbor’s slimy green pond: “It was no use sending for the doctor because there is no doctor within reach; a fact which simplifies life amazingly when you ave children. During the time we lived in town the doctor was never out of the house. Hardly a […]
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Elizabeth von Arnim: The Solitary Summer – Reading Progress Update: 83 of 190 Pages
So Elizabeth loves sweet peas! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Summary post HERE. Further reading progress updates: 3 / 190 pages 9 / 190 pages 14 / 190 pages 22 / 190 pages 30 / 190 pages 41 / 190 pages 46 / 190 pages 55 / 190 pages 62 / 190 pages 65 / 190 pages 67 / […]
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Elizabeth von Arnim: The Solitary Summer – Reading Progress Update: 69 of 190 Pages
Fatal objections to the candidacy of new parsons for the living becoming vacant on the estate: “One was too old, another not old enough; another had twelve children, and the parsonage only allows for eight; one had a shrewish wife, and another was of Liberal tendencies in politics — a fatal objection; one was in […]
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Elizabeth von Arnim: The Solitary Summer – Reading Progress Update: 67 of 190 Pages
“But what dreariness can equal the dreariness of a cold gale at midsummer? I have been chilly and dejected all day, shut up behind the streaming window-panes, and not liking to have a fire because of its dissipated appearance in the scorching intervals of sunshine. Once or twice my hand was on the bell and […]
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Elizabeth von Arnim: The Solitary Summer – Reading Progress Update: 65 of 190 Pages
“… twenty degrees of frost Réaumur …” Interesting, I had no idea they used this. That’s really cold indeed … -25°C (or -13F). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Summary post HERE. Further reading progress updates: 3 / 190 pages 9 / 190 pages 14 / 190 pages 22 / 190 pages 30 / 190 pages 41 / 190 pages […]
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Elizabeth von Arnim: The Solitary Summer – Reading Progress Update: 62 of 190 Pages
Ooooh, and I love that description of her foray into the garden just before dawn; so peaceful and serene. And yet, the symbolism of dreaming and then waking up to the day’s impending sorrows is impossible to miss. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Summary post HERE. Further reading progress updates: 3 / 190 pages 9 / 190 pages 14 […]
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Elizabeth von Arnim: The Solitary Summer – Reading Progress Update: 55 of 190 Pages
“A century ago a man lived here who loved his garden. He loved, however, in his younger years, travelling as wll, but in his travels did not forget this little corner of the earth belonging to him, and brought back the seeds of many strange trees such as had never been seen in these parts […]
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Elizabeth von Arnim: The Solitary Summer – Reading Progress Update: 46 of 190 Pages
I love the three “babies’” schoolroom debates. And their debates while playing. And Elizabeth must have had great confidence in the linguistic prowess of her readers … ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Summary post HERE. Further reading progress updates: 3 / 190 pages 9 / 190 pages 14 / 190 pages 22 / 190 pages 30 / 190 pages […]
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Elizabeth von Arnim: The Solitary Summer – Reading Progress Update: 41 of 190 Pages
“The Man of Wrath, I observe, is laying traps for me and being deep. He has prophesied that I will find solitude intolerable, and he is naturally desirous that his prophecy should be fulfilled. He knows that continuous rain depresses me, and he is awaiting a spell of it to bring me to a confession […]
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