Set in the early 1900’s, Anna Estcourt is 25 and living with her sister-in-law Susie in London when she inherits a small German estate from her Uncle. She is bored and dissatisfied with her high society life and her domineering sister-in-law who nags her to marry. For more: https://readableword.wordpress.com/2021/08/08/the-benefactress/ ( )

I liked this more than I liked the movie of [b:The Enchanted April|3077|The Enchanted April|Elizabeth von Arnim|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1162239197s/3077.jpg|387804]. In addition, the librivox recording is superlative. The story wraps up extremely quickly; I would have enjoyed a longer chuckle at the unfortunate ladies of the house. ( )

An early work by Elizabeth Arnim, this book is amusing, but by no means as delightful as her Enchanted April. Its heroine is Anna, a young girl whose parents are dead and is living with her brother and his wife, Susie. Anna is very pretty and Susie is constantly trying to marry her off, but Anna will not cooperate, preferring to lead an independent life (even though she has no visible means of support).

When an uncle in Germany dies and leaves his estate to her, Anna decides to use her newly found money to provide a home for for ladies of quality who have fallen onto hard times. Her new German neighbors hardly know what to make of her, but she soon has an establishment set up with a down-at-the-heels Princess as her housekeeper, her niece, Lettie, as her ward, and two other ladies of semi-quality in her care. Plus it doesn't take long for the town's handsome landowner to become highly attracted to her.

Of course, as in most of von Anim's novels there is a lot of silliness with misplaced affections, some "straight out of central casting" villains, and a falsely accused man, before we get to the requisite happy ending.

This is a pleasant, easy ready for the summertime. ( )

Die junge Engländerin Anna, adelig, aber mittellos, hübsch,
aber unwillig zur Heirat, muß vom Geld ihrer Schwägerin
leben, bis ihr ein Onkel völlig überraschend ein Gut
vererbt - in der Nähe von Stralsund. Man begibt sich an
dieses "Ende der Welt", Anna richtet sich ein und
beschließt, sehr zum Mißfallen ihrer Umgebung, von ihren
Einkünften gefallene Damen einzuladen. Als schließlich ihr
ehrenwerter Nachbar zu Unrecht verhaftet wird und damit
ihre Hilfe braucht, erkennt sie ihre Liebe zu ihm -
Happy-End. "Anna Estcourt", im Original "The Benefactress",
war E. von Arnims 1. großer Roman, in dem die Heldin nicht
in Ich-Form erzählt; trotzdem sind die Parallelen zu ihrem
eigenen Leben und Wesen unverkennbar. ( )