Elizabeth and her German garden

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. 1906. MacMillan. 1st Edition thus.

First edition with coloured illustrations by Simon Harmon Vedder.

A semi-autobiographical story in the style of a year's diary written by the protagonist, Elizabeth. It is set on her husband's family estate at Nassenheide, Pomerania. Elizabeth gently mocks her husband, family and others around her as she describes her efforts to develop a garden on the estate. It includes commentary on nature and bourgeois German society, but is primarily humorous due to Elizabeth's frequent mistakes and her idiosyncratic outlook on life.

She looked down upon the frivolous fashions of her time writing “I believe all needlework and dressmaking is of the devil, designed to keep women from study.”