Das Leben der Hochgraefin Gritta von Rattenzuhausbeiuns

by Gisela von Arnim

Die 13-jährige Gritta lebt zusammen mit ihrem Vater, dem Graf von Rattenzuhausbeiuns, und einem Diener in einem heruntergekommenen Schloss. Der Graf ist mehr an seinen Erfindungen interessiert als am Regieren, daher ist die Familie verarmt. Grittas Mutter ist vor langer Zeit verstorben. Im Schloss leben viele Ratten. Gritta ist mit Haferbrei versorgt, dem einzigen, was sie im Schloss zu essen bekommen. Der Graf hatte eine Hafererntemaschine erfunden, daher wird er von den Bauern mit Hafer versorgt.Als eine Prinzessin in das Schloss kommt und den Graf heiratet, wird Gritta in eine Klosterschule gebracht. Dort erfährt sie den Plan des Gouverneurs Pekavus, den König zu stürzen. Nachdem sie wieder zu Hause ist, geht sie mit ihrem Vater zum König. Es gelingt ihr, die Pläne von Pekavus zu vereiteln.

Genres: Fiction, Fantasy, Classics, Germany, German Literature, 19th Century

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1845

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow. That was quite some trip. I would like to rate this higher, but honestly I can't. I wish there were different categories to rate for. But before I come to the book I like to tell you something else...

About the authors

This book was written by Bettina von Arnim together with her daughter Gisela von Arnim. Gisela was 12 or 13 years old when the book was published in 1840. Bettina von Arnim was a well known 19th century writer. So famous, in fact, that her face made it not only onto a stamp but also on a German Deutschmark bill. She was born Elisabeth Catharina Ludovica Magdalena Brentano and her brother was the famous poet Clemens Brentano. Rumor has it she became friends with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. How far this friendship went is hard to say. Fact is that Bettina von Arnim wrote an epistolary novel called Goethe's Correspondence with a Child. Another rumor connects her with composer Ludwig van Beethoven as being one candidate for his "immortal beloved". She had some interesting friends indeed. The man she eventually married was Achim von Arnim (suprise! another poet and novelist). They had seven children together and her youngest was Gisela von Arnim. The book here was the first one published with Gisela mentioned as an author. Later Gisela von Arnim published more books on her own, mostly fairy-tales. Like her mother Gisela von Arnim also married a writer: Herman Grimm who was the son of Wilhelm Grimm, the younger of the two famous Grimm brothers. Enough of this 19th century gossip.


(Mother left; daughter right)

About the book

[this may contain some mild spoilers]
The main character in this fairy-tale novel is young heroine Gritta von Rattenzuhausbeiuns. The English edition translates this to Ratsinourhouse, which is close, but no cigar. The correct translation is, of course, Ratsathomewithus. At the beginning Gritta lives with her father alone in a castle. The Count von Rattenzuhausbeiuns doesn't really care for his daughter, because he is only interested in some quaint machinery he is going to invent. One day the Count meets another woman, whom he eventually marries. So now we have a step-mother, and since we are in a fairy-tale, things will inevitably go down for the step-child. In this case Gritta is brought to a monastery, which includes a convent school. There are a few friendly nuns, but mostly the children (all girls) have to suffer. Especially the abbess is a real bitch. One day Gritta and her ten friends plus a young nun manage to escape. The gang of girls roams the woods and villages with the intention to return the children to their respective parents. But before it comes to that they find themselves on a sailboat by accident and set off to some foreign and magical lands. On this boat an old salt, fittingly equipped with a pipe, tells the girls about his own adventures, night after night. This didn't last for 1001 nights, but it's clearly an homage to The Arabian Nights. Due to some storm the children are thrown off the ship and find themselves on a beach. From there they make their way to a forest, which looks like paradise to them. They find a cave, and start making themselves a new home. What follows is another homage. Children on their own on an island? Anyone? No – it's not Golding's Lord of the Flies.
It's the much better (and my favorite) Jules Verne novel Deux Ans De Vacances, but with girls instead of boys.
Correction! Actually, strike that last sentence. I realize that Verne's novel was published 44 years after this one. So, if anything Jules Verne has cribbed from the von Arnims. More power to them!


(the gang in the woods)

All in all this is an engaging story. It sparkles with charm, wit, and fantasy. Especially Gritta, the old sailor, and one of Gritta's friends called Wildebeer (Wildberry) are some memorable characters. The embedded story of the old sailor and his adventures on the "Island of Shadows" and with the "Butterfly-people" would make a great short story all of its own. What also made me happy is the almost complete absence of violence in this story. This is so much different from other fairy-tales I know (e.g. the ones from the Grimm brothers). The girls settle their problems peacefully. The worst thing I recall is the siege of the Rattenzuhausbeiuns castle by some soldiers. But nobody had to die; the soldiers were driven off with the use of pots and pans and some hot porridge.

Unfortunately there are also some issues I had with the book. It was written during the romantic period and it shows. I have no problem with that in general but in this case some descriptions of the oh-so-wonderful nature went a little over the top. There are very many uses of the diminutive form. Too many for my taste. Virtually everything in the woods seem to have a -chen (German suffix indicating a diminutive) added to it. This was getting on my nerves sometimes. Especially since Gritta herself is such a strong character. This just doesn't fit to her. In addition there appear to be some strange leaps in some places. I had to read a few sections two times to make sense of it, and I think that has to be ascribed to the two different authors. Of course I don't know how the book was written, but I imagine that some parts were written by Gisela alone without being "corrected" by her mother. I don't like to make the impression that those parts are bad, because they aren't. For a really great story though, I think another run-through of the text by an editor would have been helpful. But maybe delivering a great story wasn't the original intention. For the first readership, that is the children and especially girls back then this was most likely a wonderful book. Written (in parts) by an author of the same age. Some kind of Hunger games from the middle of the 19th century, in which violence is replaced with fantasy and wit. The German blurb calls Gritta von Rattenzuhausbeiuns the "Pippi Longstocking of romanticism". I think that's nonsense and just a marketing gag. Apart from being about the same age, having a strong character and being half-orphans I see not much similarities here.

Free version available here.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

[Manybooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

First and foremost, although I do happen to own both Bettina von Arnim and her daughter Gisela von Arnim Grimm's original 1845 German text (Das Leben der Hochgräfin Gritta von Rattenzuhausbeiuns) and Lisa Ohm's 1999 English language translation, I am in fact not planning to ever officially review Das Leben der Hochgräfin Gritta von Rattenzuhausbeiuns, I am ONLY going to be actively reviewing The Life of High Countess Gritta von Ratsinourhouse and mainly if not even solely because I for one and very much surprisingly do rather find Ohm's translation stylistically quite superior to in particular Bettina von Arnim and Gisela von Arnim Grimm's vocabulary choices. Because indeed, the consistent and continuous tendency for the mother/daughter writing team to overuse many standard German expressions and descriptive adjectives, this really and majorly gets on my reading nerves, but glory be, in the English translation, Lisa Ohm has not only considerably tightened up and solidified the often exaggeratedly rambling textual flow of the original German text, she has also removed or changed the majority of the annoying repetitions, leaving with The Life of High Countess Gritta von Ratsinourhouse an absolutely wonderful in every way translation which is in fact and in my humble opinion also much more readable and less frustratingly tedious than Das Leben der Hochgräfin Gritta von Rattenzuhausbeiuns.

Now with regard to textual thematics and contents, in The Life of High Countess Gritta von Ratsinourhouse, the two coauthors and by extension of course the translator, they seem to have superimposed the frame of the tradtional fairy tale (with its often inactive and subjugated female characters) over the novel of developemt (over the so-called Bildungsroman), which lessens the latter and highlights the constraints women and girls must endure regarding education, personal choices and basic freedoms. And while main protagonist Gritta does have certain freedoms regarding education and the like and in particular once the girls in a group find themselves in a quasi Robinson Crusoe type of existence after their shipwreck, any potential movement ahead, any educational opportunities and advancements (such as is supposed to be the theme of every Bildungsroman) are unfortunately diminsihed, and stagnated by the fairy tale elements, since how these appear in The Life of High Countess Gritta von Ratsinourhouse, they place major constraints on Gritta (and also on her female companions), as they rendcer them all into typical, inactive and subjugated by the patriarchy women.

Four stars for The Life of High Countess Gritta von Ratsinourhouse and I do definitely and nightly recommend Lisa Ohm’s translation over and above the German original (mostly of course because of the already mentioned stylistic superiority of the translator over Bettina von Arnim and Gisela von Arnim Grimm but also and equally because The Life of High Countess Gritta von Ratsinourhouse also contains two very interesting and academically enlightening introductions as well as a detailed bibliography).

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Das Buch hat alles, von dem immer behauptet wird, es wäre alles eine GANZ neue Erfindung. Überhaupt Autorinnen, ja Frauen haben geschrieben. Protagonistinnen, oh mein Gott Frauen können was erleben! Und sogar Heldinnen, was? Frauen erleben Abenteuer? Mein Kopf explodiert gleich! Ja, auch hier stellt sich raus, das gabs alles schon immer, egal was manche pseudo Konservative anderes behaupten. Ach und wenn ich das richtig verstanden habe, gabs sogar eine 3er-Beziehung, falls das aber eine alte Formulierung für etwas anderes ist, lass ich mich gerne von Expert*innen eines Besseren belehren
Teilweise wird etwas despektierlich über Körper gesprochen, das hätte auch rausbleiben können. Allerdings kann ich auch nicht mit 2022er Maßstäben an eine über 150 Jahre alte Geschichte rangehen.
Insgesamt eine sehr schöne phantastische Geschichte, die ich sehr weiterempfehlen würde.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know this book has strong messages and themes about the role of women, but overall, the best part about this book for me was how it re-instilled a love for German fairy tales.

[lisa_emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

From Publishers Weekly:

"Written in the early 1840s, this unusual German Bildungsroman-fairy tale was long passed over for publication owing to the difficulty of authenticating its authorship, its missing final pages (finally rediscovered in 1986) and its strong feminist bent. The narrative's underlying satirical commentary on the role of girls and women in 19th-century Germany portrays men, aristocrats and commoners alike, as weak and intellectually inferior to females."


A fairy tale where the girl saves the day by being so good. Not good as in becoming meek and in learning how to sew, cook, ect; but she becomes courageous, adventurous and self-reliant. Over all, a fun read with much humor, and with a curious angle. This is not a story of a girl versus the big bad world, but rather how girls can find another world within the strange world they already live in.

[Karin Jäger · Rating 2 out of 5]

​​Inhalt:​ Die Geschichte beginnt, als Gritta 7 Jahre alt ist. Sie lebt mit ihrem gräflichen Vater, der Maschinen erfindet, und einem alten Diener auf einer heruntergekommenen Burg. Das Geld ist knapp; der Graf cholerisch und in seine Arbeit vertieft. Da begibt es sich, dass er ins Dorf gehen muss. Auf dem Weg trifft er ein edles Fräulein mit ihrem Gefolge. Sie verlieben sich und Gritta wird ins Kloster abgeschoben. Daraus ergeben sich zahlreiche Erlebnisse und Abenteuer für Gritta. Illustriert haben das Märchen Gisela von Arnim und Herman Grimm.

​Meine Bewertung: Die Autorinnen hatten durchaus viel Fantasie, beginnend bei Wortneuschöpfungen und erfundenen Namen hin zur Handlung mit vielen Ereignissen und Höhepunkten. Allerdings ist kein wirklich roter Faden in der Geschichte. Sie wird chronologisch erzählt, aber viele Dinge, die breit dargestellt werden, haben letztlich wenig bis keine Bedeutung im weiteren Verlauf.

Beispiele wären die Verteidigung der Burg, die dramatisch inzeniert wird, mir jedoch bedeutungslos erscheint; die Ratten, die immer einmal wieder auftauchen - sie haben Gritta als Baby versorgt und ihr so das Leben gerettet, als der egozentrische Vater sie für seine Arbeit vernachlässigt hatte, sie nehmen aber an der Handlung nicht wirklich teil; die Lieblingsnonne Mermeta, der Gritta zur Flucht verhilft, die dann aber kurz danach ihrer eigenen Wege geht und die ganze Kinderschar ihrem Schicksal im Wald überlässt.

Diese Passagen boten mir keine besondere Unterhaltung und ich fand sie nicht lesenswert. Zugegeben, habe ich das Buch nach etwa der Hälfte abgebrochen und nur noch überflogen. Sprachlich fand ich den Roman anstrengend. Wohl der Zeit entsprechend, finden sich ungewohnte Satzstellungen, Auslassungen und veränderte Wortbedeutungen, so dass ich öfter zweimal lesen musste, um zu verstehen. Ich fand zwar, dass die Autorinnen ein Talent für Ironie hatten. Allerdings wurde es nur selten eingesetzt. Zudem war der Text für meinen Geschmack mit Details überfrachtet. Mir hat außerdem nicht gefallen, dass Gritta nur langsam an Bedeutung gewann. Sie ist doch laut Titel die Hauptperson der Geschichte. Dann wird aber breit davon erzählt, wie sich der Graf in die Jungfer Nesselkrautia verliebt. Erst als Gritta ins Kloster gebracht wird, steht sie im Zentrum des Geschehens. Der Graf ist sowieso ein Unsympath. Ich konnte ihn von Anfang an nicht leiden.

Ohne Empathie zwingt er Gritta und den Diener Müffert dazu, seine Maschine auszuprobieren, und schert sich nicht darum, wie sich die beiden dabei verletzen. Und er will sogar Gritta verprügeln, weil er die Maschine falsch eingestellt hatte, und Müffert und Gritta auf eine Mauer katapuliert wurden. Dort vergisst er sie für die Nacht. Gritta würde gar nicht mehr leben, wenn die Ratten sie nicht gefüttert hätten.

Nesselkrautia ist ebenso unsympathisch mit den vielen Ohrfeigen, die sie an die Pagen verteilt. Als sie Gritta ins Kloster schickt, ist das keine große Überraschung. Im Kloster geht es dann weiter mit den bösen Menschen, was für mich auch anstrengend war. Ich fand die bösen Figuren an dieser Stelle recht klischeehaft. Am Ende allerdings löst sich das etwas auf. Die Illustrationen fand ich schwierig zu erfassen. Das mag am Format gelegen haben. Ich kann mir vorstellen, dass sie auf einer ganzen Buchseite abgedruckt deutlicher sind. Allerdings fiel mir auf, dass das Zentrale eines Bildes oft von sehr viel Rand umgeben war und damit in seiner Bedeutsamkeit geschmälert wurde. Andererseits hatte man sich mit ihnen viel Mühe gegeben, indem man ihnen Perspektive und zahlreiche Details verliehen hat. Weil ich das Märchen sehr wenig mochte, vergebe ich insgesamt 2 Sterne an den Roman.

[Natalia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mean like. It's just a fairy tale. In the most stereotypical sense you can think of. It's fine, it wasn't hard or long to read, but it wasn't that entertaining. The characters were large but stagnant or barely talked about beyond Gritta. I like the language, as I feel like a kid would likely still be able to enjoy a book like this now, and Gritta is definitely an interesting character considering the time period this came from, but like. She's going on my shelf and won't be coming down for a while. Not terrible, but maybe not my cup of tea.

[Nina ( picturetalk321 ) · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unexpected and total delight. Written in 1840, this bears no trace of Victorian femininity, demure womanhood or moralistic children's tale. It is a tale told about children -- young girls, for the most part -- and I'm thinking, designed so that children may read it. That is, there is no sex. There is a somewhat hetereronormative ending with the wedding of the central character Gritta to a prince but that is about the only normative event in this romp of an irreverent action adventure odyssey among nuns, fairies, pirates and speaking rats.

Countess Gritta of Rats At Home lives with her father in a run-down castle, taken over by the rat queen and her family. The widowed Dad is a mad inventor who experiments with machines and contraptions and likes to use his daughter as a human cannonball in his homemade rocket. He marries a flamboyant and fashionable young lady who turns the castle upside down with her remodelling activities and her entourage of dandyish valet boys. Gritta is sent away to a boarding school run by nuns, and now the story really takes off.

The twelve school girls plus Gritta run away from the nunnery and embark upon a series of madcap adventures. They fend off pirates, survive shipwreck, live a Robinsonian life in the woods, befriend a shepherd boy and a princeling both of whom are set to do sweeping, sewing and cooking tasks, hang out with elves and fairy folk, and are in general so refreshing, so free, so kind, so committed to friendship with each other, so resourceful, so amazing in turning all the traditionally "feminine" pursuits into high-octane survival skills -- that they just made me smile from page to page.

In the end, Gritta is reunited with her father, mum-in-law and new baby half-brother all of whom the 13 girls rescue from destitution and homelessness.

This is pure fun and reminds us that women writers of the 19th century were perfectly able to dream up a romp of a life, centred on girls and women, roaming across the globe and entirely doing away with gender-based strictures. Plus the prose is lovely and fresh as dew, reminiscent of Eichendorff's Aus dem Lebe eines Taugenichts.

[Abi (The Knights Who Say Book) · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hoped I would enjoy this but it was just one of the most tedious books I've ever read for school.

[Carolyn]

DNF at 16%

I don’t know what’s happening in this story and I truly don’t care, either.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

A curious, meandering, disjointed little German tale that was compilation between an author and her teenage daughter.