The solitary summer (Arnim) 382

Elizabeth Von Arnim's The solitary summer is a lovely, lyrical follow up to Elizabeth and her German garden. If anything, I enjoyed it even more than the earlier title. The book takes Elizabeth (and her garden), two years later, over the period of a summer, and provides an account of what she feels that she has achieved with the garden, what she would like to do to it, as well as reflections on her books and reading, which were wonderful.

Rather than write more about this book, I'm going to share with you some extracts from the book. I think von Arnim's writing and things that she writes about in this book are just wonderful.

"I must be by myself for the once for a whole summer through" I repeated, looking around at these things with a feeling of hardly being able to bear their beauty, and the beauty of the starry sky, and the beauty of the silence and the scent - "I must be alone so that I shall not miss one of these wonders, and have leisure to really live"

"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"

Von Arnim describes her library, and then the collections...
"What a medley of books there is! Here is Jane Austen leaning against Heine - what would she have said to that I wonder - with Miss Mitford and Cranford to keep her in countenance on the other side. Here is my Goethe, one of the many editions I have of him, the one that has made the acquaintance of the ice house and the poppies...Walter Pater, Matthew Arnold, Thoreaum Lewis Caroll....various American children's books I loved as a child and read and loved to this day; various French children's books for the same reason, whole rows of German children's books on which I was brought up...and I verily believe, every gardening book and book about gardens that has been published of late years"

The book has been published three times by Virago, with an Italicised green cover, and two more recent ones. My copy, which Virago kindly sent me, is the

A fine of two hundred francs (Triolet) 207

A fine of two hundred francs was ever so kindly lent to me by Hayley from Desperate Reader earlier in the year (or maybe even at the tail-end of last year), which makes it particularly shameful that it has taken me so long to get around to reading it. Somehow when I saw it it didn't appeal, but when I finally read it, I regretted this very much.

Triolet, the author, is an extremely interesting character from what I learned from the introduction, involved in the French resistance during the Second World War, and recieving an award for her involvement. And this in turn inspired the stories in A fine...; in fact they were originally published "underground".

There are three stories in the volume. The first, which I enjoyed most, tells the story of Juliette, a resistance worker, in chapters alternating between her working for the resistance and the time leading up to her moving into this sort of work. The second tells the story of an artist called Alexis Slavky, and was apparently modelled partly on the life of Matisse, and deals with his attempts to work under wartime conditions. The third deals with the experiences of Louise, another resistance worker, and her attempts to while away the time spent waiting .

(The title by the way is apparently the secret code used to signal the Allied Landings in Normandy)

So, what I loved about this book was its ability to shed light on yet another aspect of WW2, one that I was really not at all familiar with. And I'd recommend it to those wanting to know more about the French resistance.

It's only been published once by Virago with this original green cover.

Thank you again to Hayley for lending it to me!

The good husband (Godwin) 486

I was left feeling a bit disappointed by The good husband; I'm not sure why. Probably starting to read it just before I came down with a sickness virus didn't help, nor trying to finish it when I was still struggling to concentrate on reading.

Essentially it's the story of Magda, who is dying, and her husband who is caring for her, and the characters that enter their lives. I didn't find the plot particularly gripping nor did I care very much for the characters.

Has anyone else read it? Was I just in the wrong frame of mind? I hope my fiance proves to be more of a Good husband than this book was! Anyway, Gail Godwin has written another VMC, intriguingly entitled The odd woman, so I will be revisiting her in due course.

It's been published just the once by Virago in 2002, in a more modern cover style.

Tell me a riddle (Olsen) 38

Tell me a riddle is a slim volume bringing together four short stories by Tillie Olsen. I had not encountered Olsen before - she comes from Nebraska and this collection was first published in the 1960s. Tell me a riddle, the title story, won the O Henry prize in 1961 for the best American short story. It tells the story of an elderly couple whose relationship has broken down who decide to take one last trip together after finding out that she is about to die. During the trip they manage to rekindle their original love. It has apparently been filmed and I think that it would make a beautiful film.

The other stories included I stand here ironing, O yes, and What sailor what ship. My favourite was I stand here ironing, a deeply moving account of a mother's estrangement from her daughter.

I was intrigued when I looked on librarything at the covers uploaded for this title, I could only find pictures of an edition which also includes Yonnondio. My cover is actually completely different! When I referred back to my Virago masterlist, I found that this edition has been produced as VMC number 363, incorporating numbers 38 (my edition of Tell me a riddle) and 39 (the separate edition of Yonnodio). But here are the pictures of the joint edition.

Two new Virago collections

As readers of my other blog will know, it was my birthday recently, and I was secretly a little bit disappointed that I didn't get any VMCs to add to my collection! They were on several birthday suggestions lists but all of my friends and family opted for other books - not that I wasn't grateful for other wonderful reads! Anyway, I was extremely excited to recieve a belated birthday present from a friend and colleague of two Virago collections - A Virago keepsake to celebrate twenty years of publishing and Virago new writing for the 90s. The first contains excerpts and writings by Virago authros from their first twenty years of existence, including my favourite Nina Bawden, as well as Kathleen Dayus, Alice Miller, Grace Nichols, AS Byatt writing about Willa Cather and Lyndall P Hopkinson on Antonia White, and the second is a sample of contemporary authors including Ellen Douglas, Janette Turner Hospital and Lisa St Aubin De Teran. A big thank you to my friend Owen's mum who kindly spared them from her shelves.

Elizabeth and her German garden (von Arnim) 173

I have been looking forward to reading Elizabeth and her German Garden for quite some time, as it is probably Elizabeth Von Arnim's most well-known work. It also reads like an autobiography, and is largely based on Von Arnim's own experiences - predominantly those of restoring the garden at the house she has moved to with her husband, but also describing her children (April, May and June baby respectively) and her own observations on life, and marriage.

Of course the descriptions of the garden and Elizabeth's plans for them are the main part of the book, and Von Arnim wonderfully describes the plants and flowers and the colours, as well as the birdsongs that she hears. Elizabeth is somewhat at odds with her gardener over her plans for the estate; he would rather have borders and bedding plants, but Elizabeth seeks to create something far more modern and inspirational.

It was an extremely gentle read, and accessible to the non-gardener. I enjoyed it very much, even if it lacked the plot and pace of her other novels, and I am very much looking forward to reading The solitary summer, which I believe is a follow up to this book.

It's been published four times by Virago; the first two green editions use the same cover illustration which I think wonderfully evokes the sense of the book. I'm not so sure about the image used on the most modern cover which is the one that I own (and which was kindly sent to me by Virago). 4*

The lacquer lady (Tennyson Jesse) 12

The lacquer lady was included among the wonderful pile of VMCs that FleurFisher kindly sent me back in February. I had heard a lot of good things about this one, but put off reading it - I had LOVED A pin to see the peepshow, but had been extremely disappointed by Moonraker, and the blurb on the back of this one didn't really sell it to me. How glad I am that I am doing this challenge, because I really enjoyed The lacquer lady in the end and would probably have passed over it.

Written following a prolonged trip to Burma that Jesse made in the 1920s, where she experienced court life, The lacquer lady is the story of schoolgirl Fanny; half Burmese she has been educated in a school in Brighton and returns to Manderley at the start of the book to be reunited with her parents. Fanny immediately emerges as somewhat of a character, not terribly truthful and constantly attempting to better her position. She wasn't hugely likeable, and this characteristic continues throughout the book (but sometimes it is interesting to have a less likeable heroine?). Once in Manderley she becomes friends with one of the princesses at the court of the Konbaung Dynasty and frequently is a guest at the palace; Fanny spends more and more time in the company of court, becoming immersed in Burmese culture and life.

The book goes on to relate two parallel strands; firstly Fanny's ageing and need to come to terms with this, but secondly, the political changes in Burma in the 1880s. Fanny is so caught up in the luxuries of courtly life that this almost passes her by... I didn't know anything about this place/time so it was absolutely fascinating from a historical perspective.

It's a very early VMC, but like Tennyson Jesse's other works, it's only been published once with an original green cover.