ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on von Arnim's Christopher and Columbus. In contrast to At Mrs Lippincote's, this 'war novel' has received no detailed criticism in English. Christopher and Columbus is undeniably political, yet von Arnims use of the conventions of the romantic comedy and her reputation for delightful entertainment is such that her second biographer, Karen Usborne, can conclude that the novel 'hardly mentioned the war at all and concentrated relentlessly on the frivolities to be encountered on the West Coast of America'. The chapter also focuses on von Arnims last novel, Mr Skeffington. In the twenty years between this and Christopher and Columbus, von Arnim had continued to be a highly popular and, particularly with Vera in 1921, critically acclaimed novelist. Finally, it discusses Taylor's At Mrs Lippincote's, which uses a knowing intertextual comedy: combined together, intertextuality and comedy form a particularly powerful stylistic technique that builds a close community of readers who read the novel in a certain way.
