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lisamck's review
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
grubstlodger's review against another edition
3.0
Fräulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther is the fifth book I’ve read by Elizabeth Von Arnim and takes a different form than the other novels of hers I’ve read being an epistolary novel but an unusual one, showing only the letters of one side of the conversation.
We read the letters of Rose-Marie Schmidt, the daughter of a German scholar who lives in the university town of Jena. She’s 25 and people are beginning to wonder if she’ll ever marry. The family take in English men who wish to learn German and for the last year Mr Anstruther has lived with them. Just before leaving, he professed his love to Rose-Marie and asked for her marriage. The first letter is a cry of giddiness and acceptance but the next few letters start to show her disquiet. It’s clear that Anstruther’s father does not accept Rose-Marie as a wife and instead sets him up with an engagement to a rich heiress.
It would seem that this would be the end of the book but Rose-Marie is a quietly remarkable person and decides that what Mr Anstruther needs is an impartial friend to listen to his problems and give him advice. So the letters continue, with Rose-Marie chiding him for his inability to enjoy an Italian holiday she would love, telling him of the people and events in her life and giving him comfort when his fiancee turns him away.
During this same time, her stepmother dies, taking most of the family’s income. They move to a much smaller house and are reduced to a vegetarian diet. Her father labours on a book about Goethe no German publisher wants which she translates (and amends heavily) into one that is published in England. It’s in this part where she reveals how thoughtful she is, how funny, how full of thoughtfulness and philosophy. While she keeps declaring how little she knows and understands the world, the more she shows her great skills in enjoying it. It’s clear she is too good for Mr Anstruther and the reader gets to see if she realises this too.
Rather than a romance, this book is an anti-romance where Rose-Marie learns she is good enough for herself - and she is. While the novel is mostly a showcase of an extraordinary character, it’s not as gripping as it could be with very few exciting plot points or reverses. In making its point, it dulls some of its narrative satisfaction.
We read the letters of Rose-Marie Schmidt, the daughter of a German scholar who lives in the university town of Jena. She’s 25 and people are beginning to wonder if she’ll ever marry. The family take in English men who wish to learn German and for the last year Mr Anstruther has lived with them. Just before leaving, he professed his love to Rose-Marie and asked for her marriage. The first letter is a cry of giddiness and acceptance but the next few letters start to show her disquiet. It’s clear that Anstruther’s father does not accept Rose-Marie as a wife and instead sets him up with an engagement to a rich heiress.
It would seem that this would be the end of the book but Rose-Marie is a quietly remarkable person and decides that what Mr Anstruther needs is an impartial friend to listen to his problems and give him advice. So the letters continue, with Rose-Marie chiding him for his inability to enjoy an Italian holiday she would love, telling him of the people and events in her life and giving him comfort when his fiancee turns him away.
During this same time, her stepmother dies, taking most of the family’s income. They move to a much smaller house and are reduced to a vegetarian diet. Her father labours on a book about Goethe no German publisher wants which she translates (and amends heavily) into one that is published in England. It’s in this part where she reveals how thoughtful she is, how funny, how full of thoughtfulness and philosophy. While she keeps declaring how little she knows and understands the world, the more she shows her great skills in enjoying it. It’s clear she is too good for Mr Anstruther and the reader gets to see if she realises this too.
Rather than a romance, this book is an anti-romance where Rose-Marie learns she is good enough for herself - and she is. While the novel is mostly a showcase of an extraordinary character, it’s not as gripping as it could be with very few exciting plot points or reverses. In making its point, it dulls some of its narrative satisfaction.
jessreadthis's review against another edition
5.0
We are neither of us wise, but it is surprising how talking to a friend, even to a friend as unwise as yourself, clears up your brains and lets in a new light.
I almost didn't keep reading. I'm writing this in case, you a potential reader, pick up this book on a five star recommendation and felt as I did the first 47 pages into the big. The breathy, saccharine filled gushing love letters to Roger were too much. I began to wonder how von Arnim could fill an entire novel of these types of letters. This is an epistolary novel all written in letters by Fraulein Rose-Marie Schmidt to Mr. Roger Anstruther. Then a polarizing event occurs (which seemed inevitable) that changes the entire flow and tone of the novel. Brilliantly done.
Now I'll get to the review but I had to give this warning to potential readers who might have been tempted as I was to not continue with the novel.
There is no help, except what you dig out of your own self; and if I could make you see that I would have shown you all the secrets of life. -Rose Marie Schmidt
Fraulein Schmidt starts this novel as a starry eyed newly affianced at the advanced age of twenty six. It is a secret engagement (There's your first red flag. Never enter into a secret engagement, ladies and gentleman). She corresponds with her fiancee, Roger, eagerly and spritely in her love for him. As events occur in the book, we see a complete transformation and evolution in both she and Roger. Though since these letters are entirely from her viewpoint, one has to read between the lines on Roger's transformation. The novel follows a little over a year in which Rose- Marie sees rapid changes in her life. These changes follow a move, making new friends, taking in new boarders, learning to grow crops, and embracing the person she was on track towards becoming if her step-mother and the societal expectations hadn't derailed her briefly.
Why Did I Love It So?
I loved it so for the sheer depth and expanse. We see a stern, rebuking Rose-Marie, a gushing girl Rose-Marie, a hungry esthetic trying out vegetarianism Rose-Marie, a friend and confidant Rose-Marie, a questioning religious teachings Rose-Marie despite devotion showed on the anniversary of her mother's death, a devoted daughter to an absent minded professor of a father who cannot manage money without her, but ultimately a brilliant young woman who loves poetry and nature. I think a strength of von Arnim's writing is beautifully and eloquently describing nature and the changing seasons. This book was part nature writing, part discourse on philosophical and religious beliefs, dabbling in romance but all the while it was about a changing relationship between a man and a woman. I didn't expect to find the deepness in the story that I did.
I really want to study von Arnim as a person after reading this novel. I may be reading into things, but the questioning rawness of religion and God made me wonder if these were experiences von Arnim had. There is one particular scene where Rose-Marie goes to Herr Pastor for a confession. She assumes he is a "doctor of the spirit" and hoping to find spiritual healing. He instead berated and scolded her. Saying "Ach, miserable maiden, it is not with such as thee that Paradise is peopled. The taint of thy parentage is heavy upon thee. Thou art not, thou canst be, thou has never been a child of God." These cutting words just seemed so specific and knowing. I have to wonder what types of interactions with religion that von Arnim had.
Instead, we see a healing take place when Rose-Marie and her father move to the country. They sell/give away many worldly possessions to take a smaller house on an even smaller income than they previously had. Yet, we see the novel take a cerebral turn as Rose-Marie observes nature, reads poetry and wonders at the poets' lives, meets new friends that challenge her thinking and also require assistance, and her ever changing evolving role in Mr. Roger Anstruther's life. This was such a brilliant novel to read. A definite reread and I want to spend a month in a small cottage in the German countryside now. Probably in September where I can angle to hopefully get an invitation to a kaffeeklatsch for cake, coffee, and a bit of gossip.
I almost didn't keep reading. I'm writing this in case, you a potential reader, pick up this book on a five star recommendation and felt as I did the first 47 pages into the big. The breathy, saccharine filled gushing love letters to Roger were too much. I began to wonder how von Arnim could fill an entire novel of these types of letters. This is an epistolary novel all written in letters by Fraulein Rose-Marie Schmidt to Mr. Roger Anstruther. Then a polarizing event occurs (which seemed inevitable) that changes the entire flow and tone of the novel. Brilliantly done.
Now I'll get to the review but I had to give this warning to potential readers who might have been tempted as I was to not continue with the novel.
There is no help, except what you dig out of your own self; and if I could make you see that I would have shown you all the secrets of life. -Rose Marie Schmidt
Fraulein Schmidt starts this novel as a starry eyed newly affianced at the advanced age of twenty six. It is a secret engagement (There's your first red flag. Never enter into a secret engagement, ladies and gentleman). She corresponds with her fiancee, Roger, eagerly and spritely in her love for him. As events occur in the book, we see a complete transformation and evolution in both she and Roger. Though since these letters are entirely from her viewpoint, one has to read between the lines on Roger's transformation. The novel follows a little over a year in which Rose- Marie sees rapid changes in her life. These changes follow a move, making new friends, taking in new boarders, learning to grow crops, and embracing the person she was on track towards becoming if her step-mother and the societal expectations hadn't derailed her briefly.
Why Did I Love It So?
I loved it so for the sheer depth and expanse. We see a stern, rebuking Rose-Marie, a gushing girl Rose-Marie, a hungry esthetic trying out vegetarianism Rose-Marie, a friend and confidant Rose-Marie, a questioning religious teachings Rose-Marie despite devotion showed on the anniversary of her mother's death, a devoted daughter to an absent minded professor of a father who cannot manage money without her, but ultimately a brilliant young woman who loves poetry and nature. I think a strength of von Arnim's writing is beautifully and eloquently describing nature and the changing seasons. This book was part nature writing, part discourse on philosophical and religious beliefs, dabbling in romance but all the while it was about a changing relationship between a man and a woman. I didn't expect to find the deepness in the story that I did.
I really want to study von Arnim as a person after reading this novel. I may be reading into things, but the questioning rawness of religion and God made me wonder if these were experiences von Arnim had. There is one particular scene where Rose-Marie goes to Herr Pastor for a confession. She assumes he is a "doctor of the spirit" and hoping to find spiritual healing. He instead berated and scolded her. Saying "Ach, miserable maiden, it is not with such as thee that Paradise is peopled. The taint of thy parentage is heavy upon thee. Thou art not, thou canst be, thou has never been a child of God." These cutting words just seemed so specific and knowing. I have to wonder what types of interactions with religion that von Arnim had.
Instead, we see a healing take place when Rose-Marie and her father move to the country. They sell/give away many worldly possessions to take a smaller house on an even smaller income than they previously had. Yet, we see the novel take a cerebral turn as Rose-Marie observes nature, reads poetry and wonders at the poets' lives, meets new friends that challenge her thinking and also require assistance, and her ever changing evolving role in Mr. Roger Anstruther's life. This was such a brilliant novel to read. A definite reread and I want to spend a month in a small cottage in the German countryside now. Probably in September where I can angle to hopefully get an invitation to a kaffeeklatsch for cake, coffee, and a bit of gossip.
jovvijo's review against another edition
5.0
Doesn't this book ever sound like it might be the naughty letters between two star-crossed lovers?
In a way it almost could have been...
But I'm glad it wasn't!
Our Fraulein is ditched by Mr Anstruther (Let's call him Roger, it's easier), and she's not too happy about it, as one is apt be in such circumstances.
However they continue writing to each other, and, although we read only her letters, we begin to see the strange friendship they develop and the even stranger, more fascinating, mind of our heroine.
Crumbs, it's an Elizabeth von Arnim book so you know you're not getting run of the mill, boring snoring here! I though it a fantastic little read where not much happens in a way you enjoy thoroughly reading about it!
Recommended for folk who don't need kicking, punching and thumping in every book and who might like to read something a bit more chewy for the brain!
p.s. For those who have read it:
ISN'T THAT ENDING SOMETHING?! AAAAARGH! WHY DOES SHE ALWAYS END HER BOOKS LIKE THAT?!
Okay, carry on.
In a way it almost could have been...
But I'm glad it wasn't!
Our Fraulein is ditched by Mr Anstruther (Let's call him Roger, it's easier), and she's not too happy about it, as one is apt be in such circumstances.
However they continue writing to each other, and, although we read only her letters, we begin to see the strange friendship they develop and the even stranger, more fascinating, mind of our heroine.
Crumbs, it's an Elizabeth von Arnim book so you know you're not getting run of the mill, boring snoring here! I though it a fantastic little read where not much happens in a way you enjoy thoroughly reading about it!
Recommended for folk who don't need kicking, punching and thumping in every book and who might like to read something a bit more chewy for the brain!
p.s. For those who have read it:
ISN'T THAT ENDING SOMETHING?! AAAAARGH! WHY DOES SHE ALWAYS END HER BOOKS LIKE THAT?!
Okay, carry on.
amymurnan's review
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.75
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