The Pastor's Wife

"The Pastor's Wife" by Elizabeth Von Arnim is a novel written in the early 20th century. The story centers around Ingeborg, the daughter of a bishop, who finds herself yearning for freedom and adventure outside the confines of her structured life. Following a dental visit, she embraces the exhilaration of solitude in London, which leads her to impulsively join an excursion to Switzerland, where her life takes an unexpected turn. At the start of the book, Ingeborg experiences a vivid awakening to life beyond her duties as her father's assistant. Fresh from a tooth extraction, she is filled with elation and a sense of possibility, free from the burdens of her familial expectations. This leads her to the thrilling decision to join an excursion that will transform her mundane existence. During the trip, she encounters Herr Dremmel, a German pastor, with whom conversations about life, duty, and love unfold. This initial encounters give way to a deeper connection, culminating in an unexpected proposal that introduces tension between personal desires and familial obligations, setting the stage for a story about self-discovery, the constraints of societal norms, and the complexities of romantic relationships. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Elizabeth von Arnim, born Mary Annette Beauchamp, was an English novelist. Born in Australia, she married a German aristocrat, and her earliest works are set in Germany. Her first marriage made her Countess von Arnim-Schlagenthin and her second Elizabeth Russell, Countess Russell. After her first husband's death, she had a three-year affair with the writer H. G. Wells, then later married Frank Russell, elder brother of the Nobel prize-winner and philosopher Bertrand Russell. She was a cousin of the New Zealand-born writer Katherine Mansfield. Though known in early life as May, her first book introduced her to readers as Elizabeth, which she eventually became to friends and finally to family. Her writings are ascribed to Elizabeth von Arnim. She used the pseudonym Alice Cholmondeley for only one novel, Christine, published in 1917.