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The Countess from Kirribilli : The Mysterious and Free-spirited Literary Sensation Who Beguiled the World
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'She was Australian born, an international bestselling author and a member of the glamorous literary, intellectual and society salons of late nineteenth and early twentieth century London and Europe
'She was 'amused, cynical, ironic, loving, gay, ferocious, cold, ardent but never gentle'. She was a whirlwind. She created around her the atmosphere of a Court at which her friends were either in disgrace or favour, a butt or a blessing.
'Elizabeth von Armin may have been born on the shores of Sydney Harbour, but it was in Victorian London that she discovered society and society discovered her. She made her Court debut before Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace, was pursued by a Prussian count and married into the formal world of the European aristocracy. It was the novels she wrote about that life that turned her into a literary sensation on both sides of the Atlantic and had her likened to Jane Austen.
'Her marriage to the count produced five children but little happiness. Her second marriage to Bertrand Russell's brother was a disaster. But by then she had captivated the great literary and intellectual circles of London and Europe. She brought into her orbit the likes of Nancy Astor, Lady Maud Cunard, her cousin Katherine Mansfield and other writers such as E.M. Forster, Somerset Maugham and H.G. Wells, with whom it was said she had a tempestuous affair.
'Elizabeth von Armin was an extraordinary woman who lived during glamorous, exciting and changing times that spanned the innocence of Victorian Sydney and finished with the march of Hitler through Europe. Joyce Morgan brings her to vivid and spellbinding life.' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
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Works about this Work
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The Many Lives of Elizabeth von Arnim
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , August 2022;
— Review of The Countess from Kirribilli : The Mysterious and Free-spirited Literary Sensation Who Beguiled the World 2021 single work biography'Elizabeth von Arnim (1866-1941) is perhaps Australia’s greatest literary export. Born in Kirribilli, she was extraordinarily successful in her lifetime, and was regularly compared to Jane Austen for her talent and wit. Yet, with the exception of those in on the secret, von Arnim’s novels have been almost entirely forgotten. Despite recent editions by the British Library, Oxford University Press, and Persephone Books (which specialises in neglected literature by and about women), it can still be difficult to track down copies of some of her twenty-one works. Accounts of her life, meanwhile, tend to focus on her marriages and affairs, and those of her circles whose fame proved more durable, including her cousin, Katherine Mansfield, and E.M. Forster, whom she employed to tutor her children.' (Introduction)
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The Thorns and Petals of Kirribilli’s Titled Rose
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 10 July 2021; (p. 14)
— Review of The Countess from Kirribilli : The Mysterious and Free-spirited Literary Sensation Who Beguiled the World 2021 single work biography'Countess who? Mary Annette Beauchamp was born in Kirribilli in 1866. She married a German count, acquiring the name “von Arnim”. When she published her first book in 1898, Elizabeth in her German Garden, the author was simply “Elizabeth”, but these days her 22 books are all attributed to Elizabeth von Arnim. She grew up in England from the age of three, and lived in Europe and America, dying in South Carolina in 1941.' (Introduction)
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The Thorns and Petals of Kirribilli’s Titled Rose
2021
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 10 July 2021; (p. 14)
— Review of The Countess from Kirribilli : The Mysterious and Free-spirited Literary Sensation Who Beguiled the World 2021 single work biography'Countess who? Mary Annette Beauchamp was born in Kirribilli in 1866. She married a German count, acquiring the name “von Arnim”. When she published her first book in 1898, Elizabeth in her German Garden, the author was simply “Elizabeth”, but these days her 22 books are all attributed to Elizabeth von Arnim. She grew up in England from the age of three, and lived in Europe and America, dying in South Carolina in 1941.' (Introduction)
-
The Many Lives of Elizabeth von Arnim
2022
single work
review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , August 2022;
— Review of The Countess from Kirribilli : The Mysterious and Free-spirited Literary Sensation Who Beguiled the World 2021 single work biography'Elizabeth von Arnim (1866-1941) is perhaps Australia’s greatest literary export. Born in Kirribilli, she was extraordinarily successful in her lifetime, and was regularly compared to Jane Austen for her talent and wit. Yet, with the exception of those in on the secret, von Arnim’s novels have been almost entirely forgotten. Despite recent editions by the British Library, Oxford University Press, and Persephone Books (which specialises in neglected literature by and about women), it can still be difficult to track down copies of some of her twenty-one works. Accounts of her life, meanwhile, tend to focus on her marriages and affairs, and those of her circles whose fame proved more durable, including her cousin, Katherine Mansfield, and E.M. Forster, whom she employed to tutor her children.' (Introduction)
