Elizabeth von Arnim's vivid, humorous, and subtly subversive
Elizabeth and her German Garden
is one of the great garden memoirs of all time. As the wife of a stern German aristocrat and mother of young children, the irreverent narrator of this engrossing memoir escapes the societal norms and constrictions of late nineteenth-century patriarchy by becoming an enthusiastic amateur gardener. As she grapples with the expectations placed on her as a woman, wife, and mother, Elizabeth's joyfully valiant commitment to gardening transcends the task at hand and affords her a level of independence that has inspired generations of devoted readers.