Well, I was promised a garden of delights and I was not disappointed. Plenty of gardens in a riot of colour and a choice of succulent delights as well.
Like some other reviewers here I was slightly discouraged to see men arrive, naively hoping, I suppose, that these women in their retreat would find their inner proto-feminists and throw off the carapace of propriety and convention in more areas than their conversation. But this is not D.H. Lawrence, and further it is essential to show their goodwill and transformation into loving and genial creatures in practice, and what better way to show how generous they are than for them to practise on these sorry specimens of manhood? Lotty's husband, for example. When transported by affection for Lotty, he pinches her ear. The magical influence of this wondrous Italian hideaway makes him positively expansive:

There was at no time much pet in Mellersh, because he was by nature a cool man; yet such was the influence on him of, as Lotty supposed, San Salvatore, that in his second week he sometimes pinched both her ears, one after the other, instead of only one; and Lotty, marvelling at such rapidly developing affectionateness, wondered what he would do, should he continue at this rate, in the third week, when her supply of ears would have come to an end.

I imagine there would maybe follow a short introduction to something that I believe is known as an erogenous zone.

The greatest of all the many delights is that ironic tone, which keeps this in the realm of magical whimsy (see how strenuously I am avoiding the word enchanted), never allowing it to stumble flat-footed into sentimentality. And the greatest of all the ironies is the compliment paid to Aphrodite amongst women, who goes by the charming name of Scrap. She is that kind of celestial beauty that first transfixes the male of the species and then turns him into a clumsy idiot, so, young as she is, she has nevertheless had plenty of practice at putting bumbling nervousness at ease, coping with awkwardness and negotiating potential minefields. Her finest hour comes at a dinner. Her reluctance to face the latest bumbling, blushing idiot has made her a little late. A 'situation' is brewing, but Scrap, with breathtaking quickness and composure, says just the right thing to save one man's face. For that she is paid the greatest possible compliment a woman could ever get: she is as decent as a man.

What more could we ask.

OKAY, LET THE GUSHING BEGIN.

Oooohhhhh not to be unoriginal, but really the perfect word to describe this book is “enchanting”.

My word was this good.

There’s something about certain classics written in the 1920s/1930s that is simply so charming. The simple yet eloquent sentences, the glorious fashions, the tea-drinking in gardens and letter-writing in drawing-rooms.

Oh, what I wouldn’t give for an escape to San Salvatore right about now!

Although I doubt going there would be as good as reading the book itself. Unless I had a Lotty Wilkins to accompany me and a husband to summon, I doubt my stay could be as delightful as this was. The Enchanted April was as unrealistic a novel as they come, but what an escape!

What a perfectly blissful, gloriously romantic journey. Elizabeth von Arnim has such a way with words, this book simply oozes with beauty, from Lady Caroline to the flowering gardens, and the last, sublime moonlit scene. The epitome of romantic charm, my friends. Love itself, with a capital L. Heaven, as Lotty would say.

I will admit, it started slowly. It was a great, promising beginning, but it was a bit slow (I also got very busy after I started it and went for a while without reading it, so maybe that’s why). It was very relatable, however.

Two women, on a rainy English day, find an ad in a newspaper about a castle in Italy to be let for the month of April. It seems too extraordinary to even consider it, especially since neither woman plans on telling her husband.

But just think – the ad promises wisteria and sunshine! How does one resist?

Besides, life is so suffocatingly dull in Hampstead. For Lotty Wilkins, it’s lonely and miserable; her days consist of feeling shy and awkward and getting her husband’s fish for dinner. It rains and it’s depressing. And for Rose Arbuthnot, life consists in burying her unhappiness by helping the poor every second of the day, trying her best to forget that her husband doesn’t love her anymore.
So then, why not? Why not seize this marvelous chance and escape for a month? Just one glorious, delicious month amid the wisteria and sunshine, living in a castle in Italy.

Husbands can be left alone for a month, can’t they? They need never find out.

So Rose and Lotty decide in their turn to advertise and see if a couple more women would like to join to help reduce the cost. Their only two applicants are Lady Caroline Dester, an incomparable beauty in desperate need of solitude, and the elderly Mrs. Fisher, also in desperate need of a change of scenery.

These four incredibly different women therefore journey to San Salvatore to Escape Life for a month.

But Life, of course, has other plans, and coupled with Love, manages to intervene in unforeseen yet amazing ways. For the endless charms of San Salvatore work on everyone like a magical spell. The reader not the least of whom will be most affected.

If The Enchanted April doesn’t make you sigh with happiness, melt at the impossibly satisfactory ending, and dream of undying, passionate romance, I don’t know what will.
What an utterly, thoroughly moving and transformative self-discovering journey. Filled with humour, beautiful flowers, luscious landscapes, and perfectly wonderful characters, The Enchanted April is escapism at its best. With just enough common sense to compensate for its sweet, unrealistic romantic elements, this book is quite the delight.

And if you happen to love flowers and are interested in hand embroidery, head on over to my blog The Diary of a Northern Belle, to see my latest project inspired from this book! I explore some flower meanings based on the Victorian Language of Flowers and stitch happy flowers.

Some spoilers ahead, so beware.

On a whim, I joined a few of my GR friends in a group read of this novel, which I'd not read previously. Originally published in 1922, the premise of the narrative is appealing: four unrelated women share a medieval castle on the Italian Riviera for a month, the "enchanted April" of the title. Each woman has a reason to escape her life in gloomy London and, in time, each woman is transformed by the experience.

The novel gets lots of love from reviewers and I understand why. It has warmth, wit and charm. It's also an ode to friendship, love and the transformative power of travel, sunshine and a beautiful environment. In addition, there's a fairytale element to the work - the use of the word "enchanted" in the title is a bit of giveaway.

As much I appreciate the strengths of the work, for me it fell away once the husbands of two of the characters arrived. I found both men's new appreciation for their wives difficult to believe. Fairytale endings are all very well, but the idea that badly damaged marriages are going to fix themselves quite so quickly stretches credulity just a bit too far. As did the behaviour of another male character, who turns up romantically interested in one of the women and transfers his interest to another within nanoseconds. Overall, while I like the female characters a lot, the men don't have much to be said for them. I'm not convinced that the enchantment would last after Italy, April and sunshine had disappeared. But then, I've never been much of a romatic.

Reading this has made me want to run away to Italy for a while. The idea of a month in a medieval castle with views of the Mediterranean is very appealing indeed, whether or not it works magic. 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 stars for the fun of reading the book with others.

There are books that I might read and like but that I know are really only for me. Then there will be a book that I read and like and immediately want everyone I know to start reading it too. This is that latter kind of book. And surprisingly so because, in the abstract, it doesn't sound like anything I would really like.

In the abstract, four women in early 20th Century Britain find an ad to rent for one April a medieval castle in Italy. The women don't know each other, but for various reasons, women reasons, they sign up. Sounds very Under the Tuscan Sun-ish, which I say with scant snobbish disdain.

But it wasn't that. It was taut and surprising and kind. Yes, it was kind.

There was great writing: Loose talks about husbands had never in Mrs. Fisher's circle been encouraged. In the 'eighties, when she chiefly flourished, husbands were taken seriously, as the only real obstacles to sin. The kind of sentence, that is, that you can spend an evening pondering.

Mrs. Fisher is the oldest, by much, of the four women, and the only one that didn't captivate me. The other three all did, each in their own way. And I can't wait for you to meet them. I kind of need you to meet them.

There are men, and they suffer by comparison as characters. But not in a Margaret Atwood kind of way, not hyperbolic monsters. Instead they are men. And I had to nod at the non-hyperbolic accuracy.

I'd been struggling a bit, for a variety of reasons, finding no traction in my reading. From the first paragraph here I was hooked. I've now had a very enchanted November.

This was a delightful little story! Four women, previously unknown to one another, leave a dreary winter in England behind to take a one month April holiday in a small, charming Italian castle after responding to an advertisement in a newspaper. The descriptions of the landscape are very lush and made me wish that I could make such an escape myself after a seemingly never-ending winter.

“By the end of the week the fig-trees were giving shade, the plum-blossom was out among the olives, the modest weigelias appeared in their fresh pink clothes, and on the rocks sprawled masses of thick-leaved, star-shaped flowers, some vivid purple and some a clear, pale lemon.”

The novel is also sprinkled with humor throughout as the four very different personalities either bluntly clash with one another or surreptitiously try to avoid one or another of the group. I often found myself smiling at some of their little antics and remarks. Each woman begins with her own struggle, discontent, and preconceived notions of what is expected of her as a female member of society.

Lotty Wilkins, who is the first to embrace the charms of Italy and is the quintessential transformed spirit in the novel, begins her journey as one who really has very little confidence in herself. “Her clothes, infested by thrift, made her practically invisible; her face was non-arresting; her conversation was reluctant; she was shy.”

Rose Arbuthnot, the religious and charitable but lonely wife, is initially described: “Steadfast as the points of the compass to Mrs. Arbuthnot were the great four facts of life: God, Husband, Home, Duty… Frederick had been the kind of husband whose wife betakes herself early to the feet of God. From him to them had been a short though painful step.”

Mrs. Fisher, the elderly widow, who leaves England for Italy with the notion that “Hardly anything was really worth while, except the past… She had not come away from these friends (in London), these conversable ripe friends, in order to spend her time in Italy chatting with three persons of another generation and defective experience; she had come away merely to avoid the treacheries of a London April.”

And finally, the beautiful, unattached Lady Caroline, never without a suitor to her own exasperation, believes “Worse than jokes in the morning did she hate the idea of husbands.” She wishes to be left completely alone and yet she seems to attract everyone to her; and her coldness and biting remarks towards others is unnoticed due to her overwhelming beauty. “People were exactly like flies. She wished there were nets for keeping them off too. She hit at them with words and frowns, and like the fly they slipped between her blows and were untouched.”

Ultimately, no one is immune to the enchantments of Italy and companionship and each undergo their own individual transformations. They learn the value of friendship and that “Beauty made you love, and love made you beautiful.”

Perhaps one would say that this book was too neat and tidy, maybe a bit unrealistic. However, I felt it was a breath of fresh air and a great reminder that a little respite and new acquaintances can help immensely to renew a dampened spirit.

This was so mesmerizing and lovely. I had heard of the movie and knew vaguely what it was about, but I didn't realize it was first a book until recently. Why? Everything that is any good, is always first a book. Four women seek a vacation in Italy to get away from a dreary, soggy London. April in Italy sounds like a precious dream and it is. Each lady is miserable and alone in their own ways, even though two of them are married.

Once it seems that the dream might become reality, they start to awaken to what life could be if they only allow it to be. This is a perfect novel, funny and sweet and tender hearted about us silly humans.

A lovely book and great characterisationeven though Lady Caroline does get on my nerves . Noone can appear THAT angelic when they really want to be a bit nasty, but it's not her fault, it's the author who overexaggerates that bit and repeats it ad nauseam..

Not much chance for a detailed review, but maybe I get there some day.

I'm not sure I have enough wonderful adjectives for this little novel. In this time of bad news all around the globe, travel restrictions, event cancellations, panicked people buying up hand sanitizer and whatever else will see them through, this turned out to be the perfect novel at the perfect time. Through the magic of words, I spent the month of April in a medieval castle on the coast of Italy with four ladies not previously known to each other. Each with her own problems and need to get away for a while, each with her own pre-conceived ideas of how life should be lived, each of whom came under the spell of the gardens and magic of San Salvatore. This was also a novel for which the phrase "comedy of errors" surely was invented. I laughed my way through each chapter at the dialogue and thoughts of everyone involved, from visitors and husbands and servants, to the ladies themselves. A delightful respite for readers "who appreciate wistaria and sunshine".

For those who have never read Elizabeth von Arnim, do yourself a favor and pick up one of her books. This is the third one I've read, and she is a balm to the soul.

Four women spontaneously rent a castle in Italy for the month of April. Two of them are distant acquaintances, but other than that, they don't know each other. They are all displeased with their lives, and need a break. Away from everything they know, they get the chance to think things over, to come back to their true selves, as it were.

And the little castle, San Salvatore, seems to be just what they need. It is a place of healing. I would have loved to say that this story has a strong sense of place, but it falls a bit short of that. We don't really get to know the surrounding area, and the castle itself, although it's rooms are described, are not really that distinct. It is a sunny place, by the sea, with lots of flowers. It does sound lovely, but it doesn't have all that much personality.

This is first and foremost a character study.

First we meet Lotty, who is afraid of her husband, almost harassed by him, and since he believes she's a fool, she doesn't have much confidence. Away from their normal lives, however, she gets to flourish. She is quite sensitive, and good at reading people.

Mrs. Fisher, the elderly widow, is caught up in what is proper and decent, and judges people all day long. It takes a long time for her to "fall under the spell of San Salvatore" as Lotty puts it, and open up. But when she starts to question herself, and her own feelings, she too, starts to change and develop.

Mrs. Fisher was upset. There were many things she disliked more than anything else, and one was when the elderly imagined they felt young and behaved accordingly. Of course they only imagined it, they were only deceiving themselves; but how deplorable were the results. She herself had grown old as people should grow old, - steadily and firmly. [...] If, after all these years, she were now going to be deluded into some sort of unsuitable breaking-out, how humiliating.

Lady Caroline Dester is exhausted. She is rich and beautiful, and therefore people won't leave her alone. All she wants is silence and solitude - like a true introvert. But when she finally have time to think, to be herself, without other people's opinions on her obscuring her view of herself - what kind of a person is she, really? Now that she has her much longed for peace and quiet, she can finally find out.

And lastly, there's Rose Artbuthnot, who's very religious, and doesn't approve of what her estranged husband does for a living. She herself lives by the virtue of self-sacrifice, and feels guilty for even coming along. But her faith and her principles have failed to make her happy, so here she is.

Lotty is the most perceptive of them by far, and once she gains a little confidence, she says things as she sees them:

"Why, we've got positively nothing to do here, either of us, except just being happy. You wouldn't believe," she said, turning her head and speaking straight to Mrs. Fisher, portions of orange in either hand, "how terribly good Rose and I have been for years without stopping, and how much now we need a perfect rest."

A fresh, new environment does allow you to see your life from the outside. To question both yourself and the people in your life - how you treat them and how they treat you. The Enchanted April describes this well, the characters have a lot of psychological depth, tempered with a big dose of charm and humor.

This book didn't blow me away, but it was sweet, and it had a lot of charm.

This was the sweetest spring read, review to come!

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To Those Who Appreciate Wistaria and Sunshine. Small mediaeval Italian Castle on the shores of the Mediterranean to be Let furnished for the month of April. Necessary servants remain.

n

And the above ad placed in The Times begins a sequence of events in the historical fiction novel written by British author Elizabeth von Arnim and published in 1922, thought to be her best book. Two women initially being taken in by the advertisement of the Italian castle, San Salvatore, for the month of April as they are coping with the chilling and damp winters in London, England meet with the owner to make arrangements. With the realization that expenses may be more than anticipated, they acquire two more women for their vacation on the Amalfi Coast. Each of these women are dealing with their own loneliness, whether it was in their marriage or in other relationships. As their vacation progresses, the four women begin to learn more about one another as well as themselves. This is such an atmospheric novel with certain passages carrying one away to the south of Italy.

n  

"All the radiance of April in Italy lay gathered together at her feet. The sun poured in on her. The sea lay asleep in it, hardly stirring. Across the bay the lovely mountains, exquisitely different in colour, were asleep too in the light; and underneath her window, at the bottom of the flower-starred grass slope from which the wall of the castle rose up, was a great cypress, cutting through the delicate blues and violets and rose-colours of the mountains and the sea like a great black sword."

"The wistaria was tumbling over itself in its excess of life, its prodigality of flowering; and where the pergola ended the sun blazed on scarlet geraniums, bushes of them, and nasturtiums in great heaps, and marigolds so brilliant that they seem to be burning, and red and pink snapdragons, all outdoing each other in bright, fierce colour. The ground behind these flaming things dropped away in terraces to the sea, each terrace a little orchard, where among the olives grew vines on trellises, and fig-trees, and peach-trees, and cherry-trees. The cherry-trees and peach-trees were in blossom--lovely showers of white and deep rose-colour among the trembling delicacy of the olives; the fig-leaves were just big enough to smell of figs, the vine-buds were only beginning to show."

"It was, that year, a particularly wonderful spring, and of all of the months at San Salvatore April, if the weather was fine, was best. May scorched and withered; March was restless, and could be cold and hard in its brightness; but April came along softly like a blessing, and it it were a fine April it was so beautiful that it was impossible not to feel different, not to feel stirred and touched."

n
The Enchanted April is a quiet and gentle novel in spite of its unexpected twists. And it is within these beautiful surroundings of this stunning setting on the Amalfi Coast in Italy, that there are many changes as each of the women are able to reconnect with their spiritual roots. It becomes apparent that this enchanted April has certainly worked its magic, wistaria and sunshine, indeed!

An absolute joy and pleasure to read! A very, very English novel despite the author not being (she was born in Australia). Essentially this is a story of loneliness and the need for everyone to open their hearts to others. Every character is lonely in some way. Rose has alienated her husband through her immersion in ‘God’s work’, Lotty and her husband have drifted apart (he’s awful so no wonder), Mrs Fisher has become a lonely old woman through her meanness of spirit and attachment to the past, and Lady Caroline has become embittered because she is beautiful and is indulged by everyone constantly. All feel a fundamental emptiness in their lives but all will find happiness during their month long stay in San Salvatore, an idyllically located Italian castle with a glorious garden.

Set in the 1920s, the characters are initially socially distanced from one another by English reserve and class differences. Even young women call each other Mrs Wilkins and Mrs Arbuthnot rather than introducing themselves by their first names. Despite the profound loneliness the characters are experiencing, there are many laugh out loud moments and it’s easy to imagine it set as a stage play. There is a film of it which I plan to watch ASAP as the cast is mouthwatering and includes Miranda Richardson, Alfred Molina, and Dame Joan Plowright who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

An easy 5 stars from me. I found myself reading more slowly to make it last longer!