I'm not sure what to think of this book. Was it meant to be serious or a play on the absurd? Ditto the main character, Ingeborg. I loved von Arnim's The Enchanted April, but this is not a "lovely" book. The book is about a woman's place in society and ends with a "triumphant tragedy." This was also a commentary on "church" people who have absolutely no idea what it means to follow Christ, IMHO. So sad at all the heartache these good church people caused. This took place mostly in Prussia, but the "church" was no different in any of the settings. I found the book a bit tedious and too long! Although a novel, it is said to have been autobiographical. 497 pages ( )

Virago - but where does Oakhill come in to it? extraordinarily moving - not least because of my father - and how i do love rye bread but oh how she suffered - is it any surprise so many of us are put off by the church? ( )

'every time she had asked leave of her father to do anything, it had been refused with bits of Bible, which was so silencing'
By sally tarbox on 29 May 2012
Format: Paperback
I ADORED this wonderful story of subjugated bishop's daughter Ingeborg, who finding herself at liberty in London for a few days, decides to go on a tour to Lucerne. Here she meets Herr Dremmel, a pastor from East Prussia, who proposes within the week.
Braving her family's disapproval, Ingeborg joins him in his very different world (although the characters are German, this area is now on the Polish/ Russian border.) At first she relishes her new found freedom, left to read what she likes and explore the local countryside while her husband focusses on his main interest in life- developing new fertilizers in his laboratory.
But her idyll is shortlived:
'Since their marriage he had instinctively left off calling her a lamb...He was glad he had been able to be so thoroughly in love. He was glad he had so promptly applied the remedy of marriage...She held the honourable position he had always known she would ultimately fill, the position next best in his life after the fertilisers.'
Ingeborg's married life, the choices she makes, form the bulk of this oh-so-unputdownable novel. ( )