The Life of High Countess Gritta Von Ratsinourhouse

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. ( The male powers of the day, including the ruling monarch, were duly offended.) Now available in English for the first time, the tale charts the adventures of 12 young convent-school students who are taught the skills, manners, and attributes that good (read: conformist) girls must have. Young High Countess Gritta, the protagonist, is sent away to the convent by her stepmother, who accuses the seven-year-old of being ""a wild little thing"" who ""can't embroider, weave, [or] spin."" When the girls finally escape their walled-in school, it is Gritta who leads their flight, and Gritta who oversees the founding of the girls' own community on an island in paradise, where they lead a self-sufficient life amid elves, dancing rats (hence the Ratsinourhouse of the title) and the bounty of nature. This is a delightfully clever tale of female empowerment, and a lengthy introduction by the translator places it firmly in its historical and social context. The story's only ambiguity is Gritta's decision to forgo the community and marry Prince Bonus of Sumbona; it's unclear whether she does so to satisfy her own heart or his. (Aug.) FYI: Bettine von Arnim and Gisela von Arnim Grimm were mother and daughter; Gisela married Herman Grimm, the son of fairy tale collector Wilhelm Grimm.