The Benefactress

The Benefactress / Elizabeth von Arnim
London: Macmillan, c1901.
346 p.

I'm turning to some older books from my shelves lately. This is a title from one of my favourite authors, Elizabeth von Arnim. She is best known, of course, for Elizabeth and her German Garden, as noted on the cover above. Modern readers will probably know her from Enchanted April, thanks to the wonderful film in the 90s. 

However, this one takes a young girl from England to Germany, where she has inherited a small country estate in Stralsund from her mother's people. Anna Estcourt has been living with her brother and his wife, and is made to feel the obligation she owes them for their charity. But then she is left a small house by a distant uncle, and decides to go to Germany and check it out for herself. She travels out with her sister-in-law, her niece and the governess -- but her sister-in-law is so horrified by the conditions and people that she heads home very quickly. Anna and the other two stay on. 

Anna is delighted to have a home of her own, and despite having a lot of updating to do and dealing with an obnoxious estate manager who expected to have things all his way, she is happy there. So happy that she thinks that she's obliged to share her happiness -- she decides she's going to open her home to indigent gentlewomen to share with her. The local pastor helps her write an advertisement and sift through all the replies. And finally she chooses three ladies to begin with.

Meanwhile, her neighbour Axel Lohm, a quietly competent man who'd been a friend of her Uncle, advises her on managing the increasing household of prickly characters she finds herself in. He has his own issues; jealousy from locals who cause him problems (including being arrested for insurance fraud, something which sounds similar to what the Von Arnims experienced themselves). 

Anna's desire for independence is worn down by her naive philanthropic attempts, and finally she gives in to her growing affection for Axel. The ending, as mentioned by many readers, is a bit rushed and inconclusive, but it's clear what the outcome is going to be. 

There is a mix of clever writing, humour, lightness, and also an oppressive feeling with all the nasty self-absorbed characters and dashes of misogyny and anti-Semitism from some of the characters. It was an interesting set-up, and a way for Von Arnim to comment on the differences between English and German mores, something she does in many of her books. She does skewer people's pretensions so sharply, and that is in full flight in this book. I enjoyed it, as I'm a big fan of most of her work. Anna was irritatingly naive, but still understandable and a reader can sympathize with her wish to be happy and unencumbered. It's a slightly acid take on romance and self-determination with great character sketches and wonderful landscape descriptions.