Von Arnim, Elisabeth - "Elizabeth and Her German Garden"

"Elizabeth and Her German Garden" - Elisabeth Von Arnim

"Elizabeth and Her German Garden" is the debut novel by English author Elisabeth Von Arnim. The novel is autobiographical and was published in 1898.
The author tells about her escape from her life, after five years of marriage. Elisabeth escapes from the noisy city boredom to the perfect silent solitude of a summer in Pomerania, marked by the dual Anglo-Germanic identity, mother of three little girls calling with the names of the month of conception and an often absent husband who defines "the man of anger."
But above all there is a garden, a theater of desires and hope, which will cull everyday life and become the sweet and quiet shelter of one's existence. Elisabeth will begin to spend long solitary hours immersed in reading and writing.
In this corner of the world opens to its senses a paradise of happiness, surrounded by books, children, birds and flowers: it is a shelter and a shelter from the suffering left behind. The garden therefore has a central role: it represents an ideal place with colors, smells; the garden is a place of dreams sheltered from a strange world from which the protagonist feels alienated.
In that garden, Elisabeth pours herself wholeheartedly into her, lovingly loving her inwardly, grasping her intensely, at least in the slightest change, just as the breath of life itself.