Elizabeth von Arnim’s Vera written a 100 years ago is a sad story but handled with a light touch. It is set in southern England with characters of differing backgrounds and prosperity.
It is a story with 3 main characters: Lucy, a young woman whose father has just died; Wemyss, whose wife has just died; and Lucy’s elderly aunt, Miss Entwhistle or Aunt Dot. In other words, the book starts from a point of grief for the main characters.
The time period is short (just about a year and a few days ) and it mainly concerns Wemyss inveigling himself into Lucy’s life, despite the fact that he is twice her age (approximately), and marrying her and taking control of her life. Aunt Dot is concerned for the welfare of her niece and tries her best to be accommodating to this man who Lucy apparently loves.
It is interesting to note that Von Arnim was well known in the early twentieth century and only recently Virago have been republishing her books and her name is again becoming known. One member mentioned that she ‘wrote from life’. This could be described as similar to Helen Garner’s writing of the last 30-40 years.
First impressions
- I enjoyed it but wanted Wemyss to get his ‘comeuppance’. I wanted Lucy to grow up and realise her situation. I was also surprised that the novel seems modern in language and form which makes it even more pertinent in our times of horrendous domestic abuse still happening.
- It was a concentrated read but enjoyable, although I found the ending chilling. Von Arnim clearly writes about the position of women 100 years ago. I liked the humour. It is a grim story but it is handled with a light touch.
- I had no knowledge of Von Arnim before reading this book so I was a little puzzled by it. I ‘got into the suspense and thriller aspects’. The coercive control experience is clearly explained by Wemyss’ behaviour. I was upset that, when Wemyss went outside to make sure that Aunt Dot had left the house at the end of the book, a tree didn’t fall on him or something similar.
- I enjoyed it very much. It is well written. Wemyss is such a twit in regard to other people and especially women. Women put up with him. It was a surprise.
- I was intrigued by this book but felt frustrated by this fellow and found the ending flat. I loved Aunt Dot, Lucy’s aunt.
- I loved it. I am pleased that everyone else liked it as I had chosen it for our classic this year and feared that as it was not a happy book the other readers may be upset by it. This novel was Von Arnim’s 13th and she regarded it as her best novel. It is also her darkest. It is sparkly witty in places and was beautifully described by John Middleton Murray as ‘Wuthering Heights by Jane Austen’. (He was Katherine Mansfield’s husband.)
- It is a gothic type novel but with wit and humour.
Discussion:
Humour
The humour in this book was the first point of discussion. We particularly laughed at the scene where Wemyss noticed the button missing on the cloth over the piano leg, his outrage at the poor parlourmaid and her response. (See chapter XXI).
Also the scene where he asks for fresh coffee and toast and the parlourmaid Chesterton just waits outside the door with the food and drink and comes back in with the same drink and food, and Wemyss doesn’t notice. (See chapters XXIII and XXIV).
Another funny scene is when Lucy talks about the name of the house, called The Willows – “oughtn’t it to be called The Cows?” asked Lucy (chapter XVI). Another illustration of the sheer silliness and rigidity of Wemyss’ thinking. (Wemyss had said it was named for what was common around it.)
We also liked the humour of the episode when Miss Entwhistle is having dinner by herself and the food appears
‘dishes produced surprisingly as she couldn’t but observe, at the end of an arm thrust through a door … ‘ (page 222, Chapter XXVII)
This was apparently done because of Wemyss’ ridiculous rules.
Wemyss’ character being superficial is beautifully shown in the description of the Library, which is full of books which looked beautiful but were not read. This was a disturbing sight for Lucy. She liked books and read them, unlike her new husband. Lucy liked Vera’s books which (significantly) were books about escape or guide books to foreign places. Wuthering Heights was another Vera favourite. (Chapter XVIII).
“ I don’t want anybody to read my books” (said Wemyss). (page 148)
Wemyss and Lucy
Wemyss appears to be a successful business man although he is not liked by the bridge club members or his neighbours or his servants. They are terrified of him and stay because they only have to see him on the weekends when he comes down from London. Lucy’s father’s friends investigate him too on behalf of Lucy.
We discussed the character Wemyss at some length as such a bully and so nasty to his servants. Wemyss is a monster.
He was so convinced that his way with everything was the only way to do anything. This was extremely difficult for Lucy who was not controlled in this way by her father. Lucy found that marriage made life very different from being engaged, as Wemyss changed his attitude and his behaviour to her. (Chapter XIV). Lucy was in shock for most of the book after the marriage.
The Entwhistles, Lucy’s family, were kind and intelligent people, although not worldly and Lucy wasn’t used to being told what to think or do. She soon realises that it is better to stay silent rather than give her opinion about matters. Lucy is very vulnerable and in a bad situation. Lucy also realises that you don’t grow if your mind is closed. Lucy is a thinker, and considers herself simple at one stage but Wemyss does not agree. His idea of “being simple” is something very different: that there is only one answer – the right one – to any issue.
Writing
We briefly discussed the writing. It has wit and humour but skewers human behaviour. The author is invisible. We thought it was written as 3rd person subjective. Much of the thinking and doing is in the heads of the characters and it moves from character to character.
The ending
*** SPOILER ALERT, OF SORTS ***
Some readers didn’t like the ending. Opinions varied from being hopeless to hopeful. Is Lucy going to succumb or will she be able to escape ?
There was hope that Lucy wouldn’t commit suicide as Vera had apparently done. Some members were hopeful too that Aunt Dot may be able to help once Lucy could be more rational in her thinking. Lucy could visit Aunt Dot when Wemyss was at work in London. Aunt Dot was Lucy’s rescue plan possibly?
It is not a happy ending, but some readers found the book both funny and tragic. Others quite liked the ending and found it progressive for it not to be resolved.
Wemyss’ controlling behaviour reminded readers of other characters in other novels such as the second wife in Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, and the controlling husband in Elizabeth Harrower’s The watchtower.
Only one member didn’t like this novel, finding it too like Du Maurier’s writing which she doesn’t like. Du Maurier wrote after Von Arnim.
Background to the story
Minerva members were intrigued by Von Arnim’s background. Elizabeth von Arnim was born in Australia in 1866 as Mary Annette Beauchamp. She was a cousin to the well-known New Zealand-born writer, Katherine Mansfield. The family migrated to England when she was a small child.
She met Count Henning August von Arnim-Schlagenthin, a Prussian aristocrat and married him in 1891. Her early novels, written by ‘anonymous’, helped support them. Her second marriage in 1916 formed much of the basis for Vera. Her second husband was 2nd Earl Russell, Frank Russell, and this marriage ended in ’acrimony’. (See the Wikipedia entry on her).
Von Arnim wrote several books based on her own biography, such as her first novel, Elizabeth and her German garden published in 1898, and her one nonfiction work, the pseudo memoir, All the dogs of my life published in 1936.
There have also been biographies of Von Arnim published in the last few years, notably Jennifer Walker’s Elizabeth of the German Garden (2013); Gabrielle Carey’s Only happiness here: in search of Elizabeth von Arnim (2020) and Joyce Morgan’s The Countess of Kirribilli (2021).
Present : 7
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