The Captive Reader

As we begin December, I’m trying to come to grips with the cold hard truth that I am not going to be able to review all of the books I want to, in the depth that I want to, before the end of the year.  So I’ve begun the process of prioritizing.  Which ones do I abandon entirely?  Which ones do I want to perhaps review in brief in an odds and ends review post?  And which ones deserve their own, dedicated posts?  At the top of that last list is Christopher and Columbus by Elizabeth von Arnim.  Simon and I read this around the same time (we were able to chat about it when we met up in London in September) but he was much more prompt with his review and loved it so much that it was added to his “50 Books You Must Read But May Not Have Heard About”.  And that, really, captures all you need to know about the excellence of this charming, slyly humourous novel.

Anna-Rose and Anna-Felicitas are seventeen year old German-English twins who, as the novel begins, are being shipped off to America by the English aunt and uncle they’ve been living with since they were orphaned.  Though both girls feel English, the influence of their beloved-English mother, their exteriors clearly announce their German origins:

Both were very German outside and very English inside.  Both had fair hair, and the sorts of chins Germans have, and eyes the colour of the sky in August along the shores of the Baltic.  Their noses were brief, and had been objected to in Germany, where, if you are a Junker’s daughter, you are expected to show it in your nose.

It is 1916 and England is less than welcoming to Germans, even young girls who feel more English than German (however un-English their r’s may sound).  So off to neutral America they go.

A large and delightful portion of the novel is concerned with their voyage to America.  Anna-Felicitas displays an admiral talent for sea-sickness, Anna-Rose, a capable, managing sort, worries about how best to care for her and avoid the attention of their odious, German cabin-mates, and the remarkable Mr. Twist comes into their lives.  Mr. Twist is just the person any friendless young person would be lucky to meet, though his unimpressive appearance might not make that immediately obvious:

Mr Twist, who below the nose was nothing but kindliness and generosity, his slightly weak chin, his lavishly-lipped mouth, being all amiability and affection, above the nose was quite different.  In the middle came his nose, a nose that led him to improve himself, to read and meditate the poets, to be tenacious in following after the noble; and above were eyes in which simplicity sat side by side with appreciation; and above these was the forehead like a dome; and behind this forehead were inventions.

Mr Twist is an excellence blend of affection and intelligence, a motherly millionaire who has both the inclination and the means to be of help to our young heroines.  And of course he is immediately viewed as trust-worthy, as should anyone be who has made their fortune from the invention of a no-drip teapot (an incalculable service to mankind).

Once arrived on dry land, the twins’ plans begin to go awry.  When their contact in New York falls through, the twins, of course, call on the only friend they have in America: Mr Twist.  With him in tow, they set out for California, where things start out just as poorly as they had in New York until the trio embarks on a wonderful new project: the opening of a little cottage tea room, specialising in the English afternoon teas the girls love so much and were so shocked to not find in America.  The evolution of the endeavour is endlessly entertaining, introducing the babbling Mrs. Bilton (the tea room hostess/chaperone for the twins) whom the girls are always seeking to shake if only to get some silence and the talented but silent Chinese cook, Li Koo, with a genius for cakes.  Through it all, the girls are happily dreaming up grand fantasies of their success while Mr Twist unveils a stunning marketing campaign, trying to build anticipation among wealthy locals for the opening.  But at the same time, the locals are being to gossip about the millionaire and his mysterious teenage charges.

I adored the twins and how nicely they balanced each other.  Anna-Rose is more practical and focused than Anna-Felicitas but, at the same time, she is much more sensitive and her emotions and copious tears can prove a trial.  Anna-F is the more beautiful twin and can be a bit dreamy but has a will of iron and a very straight-forward way of looking at the world.  They have secrets and disagreements, like all sisters do, and they still have the ability to surprise each other.  They complement one another without being mirror images.

The convenient, romantic ending does let down the book a little but I’m not entirely sure how I would have preferred von Arnim conclude the story.  If nothing else, she allows us to glimpse a more confident Mr Twist, which only made me love him more.  Fond as I am of the twins, the wonderful Mr Twist was my favourite character in the novel.

With every von Arnim novel I read, I come away amazed by her range.  She can write stories that are quite dark and then she can write beautifully light tales like this, all with the same clever, cutting wit that keeps the dramatic tales from being too depressing, the light fantasies from being too saccharine.  The more I read of her, the more I am enthralled by her skill and also by the sheer entertainment and pleasure I get from reading her novels.