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Tue, 03 Jul 2007

von Arnim, Solitary Summer

Elizabeth von Arnim, Solitary Summer
free download at Gutenberg.org

Gutenberg.org has a large variety of books for free download and these include many hard to get classic titles. The best thing for reading them is a pocket PC or gadgets like the Nokia 770 and 800. A laptop could do as well.

This book is by a woman born in 1866 in Sydney, Australia who later married a Prussian nobleman. After a little time living in Berlin they moved to the family estate near the Baltic sea.

This book recounts, not really a solitary summer, as the full cast of family, servants, and villagers are all there, but one without the usual coterie of invited visitors. She takes us around her garden and surrounds and gives us a wonderful snapshot of the time. And in her summer wanderings she might help modern summer vacationers to slow down and feel the grass, smell the flowers, and generally establish a little low-key voluptuousness.

von Arnhim died in 1941 in Charleston, South Carolina. She wrote a number of books and was picked up for reprinting by the feminist publishers, Virago.

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