Introduction, by Brenda Bowen

--The Enchanted April

Chapter One of 'Enchanted August', by Brenda Bowen

Sometimes you just want to read an over-the-top, lighthearted but endearingly sweet story where everything ends up just as it should. Where there are no mysteries as to the wrongs being righted; just a curiosity as to what witty remark one or another character will say and how their bungling, though magical, actions will lead them to the happily-ever-after ending you wish them all to have.

It reads as sweetly as Gene Stratton-Porters "Freckles" but with a rollicking wit that matches that of Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest." It's quite a memorable and enjoyable duo! And it really must be read with satire in mind, otherwise the story will seem odd and out of line. Just remember, wrongs are righted and relationships are wonderfully united again.

I definitely recommend listening to this one. Eleanor Bron did a simply splendid job and gave my husband and I numerous moments of chuckle-time at the character's absurdities and her wonderful narration of them.

Cleanliness: "d*mn" and "*ss" were used several times. A man has a crush on a married woman (he does not know she's married and his affections change before declaring anything). A married man, who has become estranged from his wife, is falling for a beautiful lady (this and their marriage are righted). Very light kissing between a husband and wife. A man writes books about the mistresses of royalty - his wife does not approve of these filthy books. A man has only a towel wrapped around him for one scene. A woman smokes cigarettes. Mentions some alcohol.

*Note: I listened to the audio version of this book so this Cleanliness Report may not be as thoroughly detailed as other reports are. Also, some inappropriate content may have been forgotten/missed and not included in the report.

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Very enjoyable story of 4 English women who holiday in Italy to escape their lonely lives in London. The transformations wrought by the Italian sun and the landscape are wonderful to behold. There is a delicious note of irony behind the narrative as we watch these women wake up in a decidedly un-feminist time from their pre-holiday existences. I definitely think I'll re-read this book in the future.

I love to read this book every few years, especially in April, and this April with the social distancing and stay at home orders was a perfect time to reread. The magic of this castle on the Mediterranean Sea in Italy and the gorgeous flowers and healing sunshine works on the dispositions and relationships of the four ladies who rent the castle for a month. It's just enchanting! My favorite book of Elizabeth's.

When Lotty Wilkins, wilted but not empty in spirit, found an advertisement in the London Times one damp and miserable February afternoon regarding a small medieval Italian castle on the shoes of the Mediterranean to be let, furnished, for the month of April, she could not resist. The notice beckoned "to Those Who Appreciate Wisteria and Sunshine" and Mrs. Wilkins certainly needed sunshine in her life. Her enthusiasm for the place spreads to Mrs. Rose Arbuthnot, a pious woman secretly nursing the pain of lost love, for much as she loves her husband she cannot seem to reconcile the rather unconventional books he writes and her belief in doing right "in God's eyes" and thus they have been estranged for many years. Lotty, too, wishes her marriage might hold more and she longs to escape to a place where she could allow herself to blossom as she has not been able to in her own home. Lotty and Rose soon find two other women to help defray the costs of the villa: elderly Mrs. Fisher, who clings to the past with all the energy left in her frail life, and seems to find more to enjoy in the writings of famous friends long dead than in the vibrancy and youth around her; and Lady Caroline, an incredibility beautiful member of the aristocracy, who wants only to be left to herself but who, despite her attempts at being cold and unfriendly, can be seen only as enchanting and angelic by those around her who continue to "grab" at her in London and prompt her escape Italy.

When the women arrive abroad, they find that the beauty of the Italian April truly enchants them—and that it begins to make them feel not only more connected with their inner self, but also more generous and loving to the world around them. This, then, is a story of how sometimes getting away from it all brings you back to everything that matters most. I love the story so dearly I don't feel I can write an adequate review. I am deeply grateful to my friends who encouraged me to read this—and encourage those who have not yet read it to do so. I think that many of us have had the yearning to experience something new in life, have seen how visiting someplace different can help us understand the familiar a little bit more while at the same time opening up a new facet of our own self.

"To those who appreciate wistaria and sunshine..."

This is the second Elizabeth von Arnim book I've read recently, and I've enjoyed them so much I plan on reading more of her novels. Enchanted April is the story of four unhappy Englishwomen who impulsively rent a castle in Italy in April, and the experience changes them for the better. One finds peace, another vitality, and several find love. I was especially fond of the character Lotty Wilkins, the one who was convinced that a month in Italy would invigorate them all. This novel is so delightful that I was ready to book a flight to Italy for next spring.

Some favorite passages:

"Mr. Wilkins, a solicitor, encouraged thrift, except that branch of it which got into his food. He did not call that thrift, he called it bad housekeeping."

[On Mrs. Wilkins first morning in Italy.] "She lay with her arms clasped round her head thinking how happy she was, her lips curved upwards in a delighted smile. In bed by herself: adorable condition. She had not been in bed without Mellersh once now for five whole years; and the cool roominess of it, the freedom of one's movements, the sense of recklessness, of audacity, in giving the blankets a pull if one wanted to, or twitching the pillows more comfortable! It was like the discovery of an entirely new joy."

"She was having a violent reaction against beautiful clothes and the slavery they impose on one, her experience being that the instant one had got them they took one in hand and gave one no peace till they had been everywhere and been seen by everybody. You didn't take your clothes to parties; they took you. It was quite a mistake to think that a woman, a really well-dressed woman, wore out her clothes; it was the clothes that wore out the woman -- dragging her about at all hours of the day and night. No wonder men stayed young longer."

"Lady Caroline began to be afraid these two were originals. If so, she would be bored. Nothing bored her so much as people who insisted on being original, who came and buttonholed her and kept her waiting while they were being original."

Note: There is also a lovely movie version of the book featuring Miranda Richardson, Joan Plowright, Polly Walker and Josie Lawrence.

April is apparently the cruelest month, but my nomination would probably be those four weeks or so spanning the middle of October on up to Thanksgiving; I can't speak for anyone else, but for anybody on an academic calendar it's an interminably long period with not even a single three day weekend for some kind of brief respite, and Thanksgiving break is reached more or less in a state of exhaustion. It was during this period that I realized that if I couldn't actually take a vacation I was going to take a literary one, and I took this off the shelf, which I had been saving for just such an occasion.

And it pretty much did the trick. It's a lovely novel, and I took a long, leisurely amount of time to read it, picking it up on occasions when I just couldn't bring myself to read anything else (even though there was always so much more that should and needed to have been read) or during bouts of insomnia caused by incessant thinking over what I still needed to get done. There's not much I feel like I can say about this novel, not that I feel much needs to be said; it's more or less how four British women, similar only in a vague but profound sense of dissatisfaction with their lives, on a whim rent a villa on the Italian coast for the titular month. But what seems like an indulgent lark quickly blossoms into four weeks of rapturous transformation for all four women (as well as several individuals they are close to). Once the women arrive in Italy the narrative is sustained through the type of problems such as "oh, how is Mrs. X going to respond to Mrs. Y doing Z?", but that's a great part of its appeal—it's not a matter of if a character is going to undergo positive mental, emotional and even physical transformation, but a matter of how much. Really, Von Arnim manages to do a whole lot with material that many other writers would have a hard time using to sustain a short story (though Von Arnim doesn't realize that a little landscape description goes a long way).

In a curious coincidence, in 1922 Eliot proclaimed April "the cruellest month," while the very same year Von Arnim declared it enchanted. Though the traditional literary canon would disagree, I have to side with Von Arnim on this one.

"Rose clasped her hands tight round her knees. How passionately she longed to be important to somebody again—not important on platforms, not important as an asset in an organisation, but privately important, just to one other person, quite privately, nobody else to know or notice. It didn't seem much to ask in a world so crowded with people, just to have one of them, only one out of all the millions, to oneself. Somebody who needed on, who thought of one, who was eager to come to one—oh, oh how dreadfully one wanted to be precious!"

This novel by Elizabeth von Arnim, first published in 1922, opens on a rain-swept London day in February not very long after the end of WWI. Lotty Wilkins is in town from her home in Hampstead for a day of shopping. Going to her club for lunch, she happens to see an advertisement in a paper addressed to " ... Those Who Appreciate Wistaria and Sunshine". It seems that a small mediaeval Italian castle on the shores of the Mediterranean is being offered for rent during the month of April. When Lotty spies a woman of the "church set" known to her by sight -- a Mrs Arbuthnot -- apparently perusing the same advertisement, she impulsively engages the reserved Mrs Arbuthnot in conversation.

Both these women are in a state of discontent as far as their individual matrimonial positions are concerned. Rose Arbuthnot has gradually drifted away from her husband Frederick as she does not approve of his profession, that of a successful writer of "popular memoirs of the mistresses of kings". Rose has always had serious problems with the way in which Mr Arbuthnot makes his money, and she is riddled with guilt over the fact that her charitable work with the poor of the parish is partly financed with funds originating from this frivolous and sinful source. Her disapproval has succeeded in driving a wedge between them, with an austere and loveless relationship the inevitable result -- with Rose dedicating herself to her good works, and Frederick indifferent and dismissive of his wife's feelings and opinions. Lotty, married to Mellersh Wilkins, is in awe of him and overpowered by his aura of superiority as a distinguished solicitor.

Lotty, at best a rather impetuous creature, is quick to mention the possibility of the two of them taking the advertised castle for the month of April, and so the germ of an idea -- impossible for sure and fraught with difficulties in bringing it to execution -- is born.

Once the plan is set in motion, it gains momentum complete with little subterfuges -- to circumvent Mr Wilkins' possible objection; Mr Arbuthnot's usual indifference to Rose's doings is not a factor to be considered -- and painstaking planning as to the arrangement of finances. On learning from Thomas Briggs, the young owner of the castle, that the property has enough beds for eight people, they decide to advertise in their turn with the purpose of adding more people to the party and thus reducing the costs involved. And so the other two major characters are introduced: the youthful aristocrat Lady Caroline Dester (known as Scrap) and the elderly widowed curmudgeon Mrs Fisher. Both these women have their own reasons for wishing to spend a month away from London -- especially Scrap, who has grown weary of the unwanted company of gentlemen "grabbers" constantly vying for her attention.

The midnight arrival of Lotty and Rose at the castle of San Salvatore in a downpour fragrant with the enticing aromas of wet earth and blossoms and accompanied by an umbrella-wielding servant lighting their way with a lantern, is rendered unforgettably by Von Arnim in beautiful prose. And once San Salvatore is reached, the reader is transported to a magical place of flowers, breath-taking views and balmy sun-drenched days.

As the delights of the castle start working its charms on the four ladies, the stage is set for changing attitudes and new insights. When Lotty decides to invite her husband to join her -- trusting implicitly in the powerful restorative qualities of San Salvatore to transform their barren relationship -- another layer is added to the story. Soon Rose starts deliberating on the advisability of extending a similar invitation to Frederick, and so the delicate dance is set in motion that will determine the outcome for all these meticulously drawn characters. But it's not only romance and flowers. Elizabeth von Arnim displays a delicious sense of humor throughout, like in the subtle competition between Rose and Mrs Fisher for the right to preside as hostess, or in the sly appropriation of certain areas of the castle for their exclusive use by Scrap and Mrs Fisher -- and the supremely funny passages dealing with the temperamental bathroom at the castle; and Mellersh Wilkins' undignified experience while enjoying a bath there after his early morning arrival at San Salvatore.

I really took my time with this one, not because it was a trial to get through it, but because the spell it weaves is so utterly compelling and all-encompassing that you want to linger in its atmosphere for the longest possible time. It made me yearn for a place like San Salvatore (in the same way millions of readers must have yearned for Shangri-La on first becoming acquainted with James Hilton's Lost Horizon), where all the niggling disappointments of life and the general shortage of love and compassion of our modern age can simply melt away and leave you a changed person in all respects.

For a novel first published ninety-five years ago, it still has the power to delight and entrance at every turn. It certainly held me in a velvet vice. I do not think many people could stand up to the charms of Von Arnim's book without giving in willingly to its very real pleasures.

Airbnb-ing in the 1920s!

Four women, who haven’t got a lot in common except for their desire to get away from everything that constitutes their daily lives, join forces and budgets and, acting on their hearts’ desires, rent an Italian villa, fully equipped with all the trimmings for a relaxing stay for the whole month of April of a distant spring.

The time is the 1920s. The place is London (where they meet and set forth on their adventure) and San Salvatore, a fictional medieval castle complete with dungeons, battlements and the necessary servants, on the shores of the Mediterranean. Their plan appears ordinary enough by today’s standards but it must have seemed groundbreaking when the book was published in 1922. Their stay is full of unexpected twists and turns but the beauty of their surroundings has a soothing effect on their disposition and eagerness (or lack thereof) to open up to what their respective realities and the people who populate them have to offer. Namely love, hope or mere companionship.
Elizabeth von Arnim is a capable story weaver and very apt in describing her characters’ yearnings and uncertainties, as well as their defenses and self-protecting assurances. The slackening of the latter and the consequential self-revelations are done elegantly and ever so discreetly.

Thus, our heroines’ escapade turns out to be immensely beneficial for their bodies and souls alike, as usually is the case when people have the chance to get away from routine, change scenery and see everything that complicates their lives under a new light. A timeless remedy, apparently. Its abrupt disappearance from our lives in the past (and present) months has left a big void that charming stories like this one are doing a pretty good job at filling up.

One of the real pleasures of reading is discovering those hidden gems, those novels that I had never heard of, that turn out to be perfectly enjoyable. The Enchanted April is somewhat of a fairytale, a fantasy that could happen, probably has happened somewhere before. It's the story of four English women, Londoners, who are unhappy with their personal lives, especially with the romantic side. They see an advertisement in a London paper for the April rental of a castle in an Italian fishing village and the magic begins.

Mrs. Wilkins (Lotty), Mrs. Arbuthnot (Rose), Mrs. Fisher, and Lady Caroline Dester (Scrap), are the four vacationers, not friends, just acquaintances, each with their personal reasons for wanting to get away, to reflect on the past and renew their outlook for the future. Elizabeth von Arnim so beautifully describes the setting and the characters that you feel part of the story. The characters are wonderful, I especially liked Lotty and Rose, and the descriptions of the flowers and gardens surrounding the castle made the setting seem capable of changing the lives of the characters. Change them it did, the magic happens and how it affected each one of them is what makes the story so enjoyable.

Очень правдивый роман о том, что многие проблемы в жизни моментально решатся, если просто взять и заставить себя уехать на месяц в итальянский замок.

Check out my discussion of this book and its movie adaptation on Booktube!