Christine by Alice Cholmondeley (1917)

Alice Cholmondeley is the pseudonym of 'Elizabeth' of German Garden fame, now known as Elizabeth von Arnim. There had been quite a hiatus between her previous novel and this one. That novel had seemed almost like a final statement of the theme that had made her famous; young English woman journeys to north-eastern Germany to marry a titled German, and discovers herself in the process, as well as revealing the extraordinary differences between the two cultures, almost invariably to Germany's disadvantage, using humour edged with savage wit. She returns to Germany as a subject in this, but of course all pre-war "sweetening" is gone. Christine is a young ingenue who has travelled to Berlin to follow her musical studies - she is a prodigious violinist. The novel is built of her letters back to her mother in England. There are only the two of them, her father is dead, so their attachment is significant. The time of Christine's travel to Berlin is an important one, though she doesn't know it to begin with; it is the summer of 1914. As she grows accustomed to her new studying life there, she reveals in letters home what can be regarded as the usual 'Elizabeth' subject matter: how silly and pompous and ludicrous the Germans are. But this period marks itself as the weeks go along by the souring which occurs. Conversations become focussed around the Servian duke who has been assassinated and around the friends and enemies of Germany in the ensuing jockeying for points. These ludicrous Germans begin to reveal a more sinister import; their faces become redder, conversations become more strangulated, the tension rises. In the midst of this Christine has been taken up by a Junker family, going on summer break with them, and also falling head over heels for a young soldier friend of theirs. Finally war breaks out, the English come in on the 'wrong' side, and Christine is very quickly persona non grata. She makes her escape using trains toward Switzerland where her mother is staying. The original pseudonymous publication of this, with an introduction by 'Cholmondeley' posing as a grief-stricken mother, which included the information that Christine never made it alive out of Germany, was intended I think as an attempt at 'literary faking' and meant to be understood, initially, as genuine. It was certainly taken as such in some quarters, though the slightly obvious and plotted quality should have rung alarm bells. It has charm, and brightness, but feels a little like a return to overfamiliar territory. It's a good thing that this territory is still entertaining, and mapped by as fine a writer.