The Princess Priscilla’s Fortnight by Elizabeth von Arnim was first published in 1905 and my copy is a second impression of it and it was a 1905 Christmas present to Mary from Jim. I bet she enjoyed it just as much as I did. It is available free here from Project Gutenberg though.

Princess Priscilla is a middle daughter and is 21 years old. Both of her sisters are already married and Priscilla is expected to get married soon, to someone she doesn’t know. Unsurprisingly she’s not keen on the idea and decides to run away from her home in southern Europe, she wants to travel to England. Helped by Herr Fritzing her teacher and one of her maids they travel to England and end up settling in a small rural village in there. They’re going to live a very frugal life in two tiny adjoining cottages. Priscilla is happy but her maid is appalled and Herr Fritzing is soon at his wit’s end as he’s in charge of the money and he hadn’t been able to take as much with him as he would have liked.

Everything is so expensive, but Priscilla is determined to get to know the locals and become part of the community and she very quickly discovers that giving the villagers money makes her very popular. Of course she always has the best intentions but her actions don’t have the outcomes that she expects – the road to Hell being paved with the best intentions of course!

I don’t think that Elizabeth von Arnim was capable of writing a book that didn’t contain humour so although this one is a bit like a moral fairy tale it does have plenty of laughs in it too.

I read this one for The Classics Club Challenge.