After my last, very intense read, I needed something...I dunno...happy? Surrounded by flowers? Under warm, blue skies? Lounging by the Mediterranean Sea? And yes! -that’s it - in sunny Italy!

The four ladies of Enchanted April painted this scene with understated humor (really, the very best kind) while I sipped tea, served by Mrs. Fisher not Mrs. Arbuthnot, in the garden at San Salvatore castle.

At the beginning, the choppy, rambling syntax provided no reading flow and I re-read many sentences before I became used to it. The transformation of the ladies and the visitors to the castle, plus the evolving theme are one of the most unique and pleasant styles I have come across. Happiness now :)

You can't best a good old holiday in warmer climates, but for the four ladies at the heart of Elizabeth von Arnim's 1922 novel there is more to it than that. The story is both a triumph to the transformative power of travel, and charmed with a decorative feel like that of a sun-kissed fairytale. von Arnim certainly cast a spell over me, and although we may only be talking of the Italian coast, it really felt like being whisked further away, enraptured in another world.

Four very different women in terms of age and attitudes respond to an advertisement in the Times appealing to "those who appreciate wisteria and sunshine" to come and rent a small medieval Italian castle for a month. That month being April of course. The two original two respondents, Mrs Wilkins and Mrs Arbuthnot, are joined in their escapism by the youthful Lady Caroline, whose beauty and general melodiousness have become something of a burden to her, and the formidable Mrs Fisher, who first appears a bit of a grouch, but she slowly succumbs to the pleasant environment after initially insisting the other guests think of her as just as "an old lady with a stick". She sets about imposing her will on the rest, which makes up just one part of the story. Each lady is vaguely unsatisfied with their lot and Mrs Wilkins and Mrs Arbuthnot both have marriages of quiet English unhappiness, but that is about to change as both husbands are invited to come and stay, and it's this holiday reunion that sparks a deeper love, not just for the wives and husbands, but something is opened up in all of them.

Elizabeth Von Arnim has a keen eye for small human failings, the little acts of pettiness and selfishness in which most people indulge. She is perceptive about the way people misread one another's good and not so good intentions, and the early chapters read like a comedy of miscommunication. I felt it wasn't until the second half that the novel really shines, the characters seem fuller, growing on you like a petite garden flower. She also, perhaps not surprisingly, given her famed German garden revels in the descriptions of the castle grounds and their beauty and colour, like reading a vivid painting as literature. Everything is centred on the castle and guests, there are no outside influences, creating it's own little world of delight. The surroundings really do rub off on the women, they eventually start to wake up, shifting in the perceptions of love and life.

When I think back to how the novel opened with misery and cold rain, by the time I reached it's happy finale all was forgotten. The story was both humorous and wise, with a wisp of a premise, but von Arnim's brilliant writing transforms it into something much more, a possible satire on post-WWI British society, a sardonic rumination on human foibles, and a tale of women coming into their own. And most impressive of all, she makes it look effortless. The four main characters are precisely drawn, and their transformation during this break works it's way into the reader, you can't help feel but a rapturous joy in their presence.

It is written in a way that evokes geniality, without dipping her toes into the waters of sentimentality, which is a testament to her talent as a writer. And it's sweet pleasant temperament and light-hearted nature made for a nice comfortable read. This would be an ideal candidate for that 'holiday book' whilst relaxing by the sea with a slightly chilled chianti. On holiday reading of a holiday: perfect fit! Sadly I had to settle for the Parisian suburbs. But not to worry, von Arnim brings the holiday to you in the comfort of your own home.

The Enchanted April is one of those books that you accidentally stumble across but once you read it, it will remain indelibly in your memory. A beautiful book written by Elizabeth Van Arnim over 100 years ago, but one which captures the love and beauty that we many times fail to notice in our own present day lives. This is a book about four women who get to spend the month of April in a castle in Italy. They are all different in terms of backgrounds and personalities. Two come from seemingly loveless marriages, another is a 65-year-old widow hopelessly lost in her past, and the fourth is a beautiful socialite, Lady Caroline. Until an ad appeared in London paper none of these ladies knew each other but eventually they arrive at the castle in Italy, and beginning on the first day one of the ladies begin to experience beauty and love that is so obvious at the castle. Mrs. Wilkins sends a letter to her husband to please come and join her. As time goes on more men enter the story and by the end everyone who's there leaves a changed person. This is not a book filled with a lot of action and adventure, but rather is one you want to savor for the truths that lying just beneath the surface, and that we so many times overlook. What kept this from being a five star read for me is that I would've liked this book to been about 40 or 50 pages longer because after the beginning of the third week of that long ago April, the book quickly moves to the end when everybody leaves, but still smells the aroma of the flowers of Italy. Having been to Italy many times myself, I can tell you that it is a wonderful land filled with beautiful sites, and it's something that certainly can rekindle one's love and passion for life as it did for fictitious ladies many a year ago. And even if you have never visited that country, Van Arnim does a superb job of bringing that country to you in this book!

What I learned from this book (in no particular order):

1.tSpring in Hampstead is depressing. Italian trains are always late.

2.tEating macaroni with a knife, even though it is of the wormy, stringy variety, is an insult to a proper Italian cook.

3.tOther people’s chills are always the fruit of folly, and the worst thing that could happen is that if they are handed on to you, who had done nothing at all to deserve them.

4.tBeing too sexy for your own good is hazardous to your mental health.

5.tClothes that are infested with thrift make you practically invisible.

6.tIt is difficult to be improper without men around.

7.tThere were in history numerous kings who had had mistresses and there were still more numerous mistresses who had had kings.

8.tYou shall only write books that God would read. Books about long-dead mistresses are NOT something that HE would read.

9.tThere are miserable sorts of goodness and happy sorts --- the sort you’ll have at a flower-bedecked medieval Italian castle by the sea, for instance, is the happy sort.

10.tA flower-bedecked Italian castle by the sea can repair the most broken of marriages and induce you to fall in love with a random person.

BUT SERIOUSLY,

I liked this book until the men show up at the villa; I can appreciate how Mrs. Wilkins and Mrs. Arbuthnot have been changed by their time there, but the men just basically show up at the end of the book and suddenly (cue swelling music) IT’S AMORE. Everything is suddenly hunky-dory again between the estranged married couples, although Mr. Wilkins is still steeped in his miserly, ambulance-chasing mentality, and Mr. Arbuthnot originally came not to see his wife, but to make a grab, both personally and professionally, at Lady Caroline Dester the Flapper heiress. And Mrs. Fisher’s icy crotchetiness suddenly melts for, of all people, Mellersh Wilkins, a man who still primarily thinks of her as a walking cash cow for his solicitor firm. Briggs, the villa’s owner and perhaps the most sympathetic of the men, is incredibly fickle. Having come for Rose Arbuthnot, whom he thought to be a widow, he immediately transfers his affections to Lady Caroline once he laid eyes on her supernatural prettiness. And, despite protesting against the unwanted attention from men barely a dozen pages ago, including Briggs, the author tells us, conveniently, that it’s amore for them too.

I guess I just have difficulties with accepting the villa as a sort of deus ex machina for all the characters; or perhaps I was just having a bad day when I finished the book. Or perhaps I’m secretly a repressed housewife who desperately needs a life-restoring, love-enhancing holiday at an impossibly beautiful Italian villa on the Amalfi Coast. Yeah, that’s it. Now I’m going to pester hubby about blowing out our hard-earned nest egg on some charmingly dilapidated pile somewhere sunny in Italy.

Enchanting! Mesmerizing! Ultimately... spellbinding!

How else can one describe the written wonder that is "The Enchanted April," a classic novel written by the incomparable Elizabeth von Arnim in 1922, a novel that still has the ability to capture a reader's senses so fully it becomes an instant, never-to-be-forgotten, lifelong favorite for many readers several decades after being published!

The characters, dialogue, setting and plot within this book are so equally well-developed they weave a mosaic of finely-knit ingredients that create the perfect recipe to formulate a stellar novel. The characters are revealed like paint being chipped from a wall, a bit at a time, unveiling so much of the brewings within their mind and actions you cannot help but be transfixed.

Take for instance this revealing line:

"How passionately she longed to be important to somebody again—not important on platforms, not important as an asset in an organization, 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 one, who thought of one, who was eager to come to one—oh, oh how dreadfully one wanted to be precious!"

A flurry of emotions wanting to break free is evident here. And this is just a minute example of the descriptive reflections portrayed from each character. No one character and their thoughts are left mysterious in this book. There is a sweet, poignant longing to fully live life and love and be loved with all their hearts by the ladies in this book. Their emotions are palpable, splattered on the page for you to revel in with every turn of the page. Whatever the characters were experiencing in their lives and the dreams and hopes they aspired to- I felt it... all of it.

In addition, this quoted line conveys a classic connotation in that it can easily fit into today's society. It is indeed timeless. Anyone of us can feel like this at any time within our lives- longing to be "privately important"- not for the "mechanical" asset we can bring to an organization or platform but what we can bring of our true selves in authentic relationships we keep near and dear to our hearts in humble privacy.

Another line strikes a poignant chord:

"Why couldn't two unhappy people refresh each other on their way through this dusty business of life by a little talk—real, natural talk, about what they felt, what they would have liked, what they still tried to hope?"

The setting was magical, so tangibly alive I could actually feel the soft breeze caress my own cheeks and imagine the scent of flowers and sea that lingered in the air. The vivid scenes permeated my own senses. This descriptive paragraph says it all:

"The ripples of the sea made little gurgling noises at their feet. They screwed up their eyes to be able to look into the blaze of light beyond the shade of their tree. The hot smell from the pine-needles and from the cushions of wild thyme that padded the spaces between the rocks, and sometimes a smell of pure honey from a clump of warm irises up behind them in the sun, puffed across their faces. Very soon Mrs. Wilkins took her shoes and stockings off, and let her feet hang in the water. After watching her a minute Mrs. Arbuthnot did the same. Their happiness was then complete."

My heart was elated... my soul was transported to that beautiful vacation spot skillfully depicted by the author. I felt like I was right there in Italy, in a world teeming with visual beauty, color and a hearty abundance of hope. A world where dreams can turn into reality just by sight and breathing in the air. This is magic skillfully, yet naturally, etched by the author. Words flowed into cinematic scenes that unraveled within the mind. The spot-on extent of this writing perfection is rare. Incomparable.

There is no doubt... I am gushing for I was quite simply and irrevocably... "enchanted."
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5/5

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.

The Enchanted April is a very sweet book I have read. It is a classic which is timeless and of universal appeal. The story is about four women, who are almost strangers, sharing a medieval castle for the month of April in Italy. These four women, having fled from their unhappy homes, reflect on themselves and their past in the quiet, beautiful, sunny surroundings. At the end of their shared vacation, they come to understand themselves better and see clearly what has made them unhappy while developing the inner strength and calm to face the future.

For a classic, the book surprised me, for it didn't have the diction one would expect from a classic. The writing was pretty basic and the flow was not smooth, nor graceful. Yet the story drew me in. I was enchanted by the descriptive setting and the wonderful choice of characters. The four females, three young and one old come from different backgrounds and has different problems. The young Mrs. Wilkins has led a restrained life and was overtaxed in her domestic duties; the young Mrs. Arbuthnot was ignored and abandoned; the beautiful and young Lady Caroline Dester was tired of admirers and pursuers; the old Mrs. Fisher needed a change in her monotonous life. It was interesting to read these different characters and their different problems. The characters were so true and real and their problems, their heartaches, all too relatable. This made it easy to connect with the characters and feel for them. There were so many expressions in these characters that I could personally relate to. And this made the reading touching and emotional.

One could call this book, light and sentimental, and perhaps, it is so. But the honest and truthful account of the lives and problems of young and old women of her time, and their relevance for the modern-day, made the read appealing. I honestly enjoyed the read and could recommend it without reservation.

Delightful.

"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.

I hadn’t heard of this classic gem until a review for it popped up in my Facebook group. It turned out to be a fun & quick read, a pleasant surprise.

Story:

Lottie Wilkins spots an advert in The Times, promoting a holiday in a medieval Italian castle for “those who appreciate wisteria and sunshine”. Fed up of her daily routine and boring marriage, she decides to use her nest egg and go for a month-long holiday in this castle. She can’t afford it on her own, but fate puts her in the path of three more ladies who are eager to make their escape from the dreary April in London. Under the Mediterranean sun, these four ladies, who are distinct from each other in almost every way, find themselves slowly breaking their shells and bonding with each other, finding unexpected friends amid strangers.

Where the book truly shines is in its characters. The four ladies who go on holiday are the four main characters in the book. In addition, there are two husbands, one owner of the castle, and two castle servants who come in the storyline randomly. All of these eight characters are so wonderfully well-sketched that you will be able to understand their thoughts and motivations and believe their character turnarounds when they occur. Lottie is the timid one who discovers her inner strength in Italy. Rose Arbuthnot is a religious person who believes any extravagance to be against the will of God. Mrs. Fisher is a snooty widow who believes that the past was much better than the present. Lady Caroline Dester is the typical gorgeous rich socialite with one exception: she is fed up of the male attention and wants to be away from those dazed by her beauty. The way the author has woven these four disparate women seamlessly and realistically makes for an enjoyable reading.

The story is insightful and witty at the same time. Considering that it was written almost a hundred years ago, in 1922, some of the content is a little dated. But to an intelligent reader, the book will still offer a lot of points to ponder upon.

The writing style is the only minor flaw. The content sometimes sounds a little repetitive as the author tends to use the same words again and again, sometimes within the same paragraph. Some sentences are duplicated within a same chapter, a few paras later. This becomes more obvious when you are listening to the book. I’m not saying that the writing is bad. On the contrary, it is quite intelligent. While depicting Mrs Fisher, for instance, the words become pompous. For Mrs. Wilkins, the words are utterly simple. That proves the author’s prowess. I guess the recurrence of the phrases just indicates the natural and genuine writing flow in the days before Microsoft Word, online thesauruses and other editing tools available to the writers of today.

All said and done, this book is a classic for a reason. Its content and writing flow won’t suit everyone. At the same time, it is not as heavy on the head as some classics are. So if you want to begin with classic novels, this could be a wonderful one to start off with. If you are a classics fan, don’t read this book looking for the classy style of a Jane Austen; you will be a teeny bit disappointed. Just read it as a historical women’s fiction and you will enjoy the book.

My rating: 4.5.

If you are an audiobook fan, you can give a try to the audio version by Helen Taylor. This narrator is a joy to listen to with her pitch-perfect enunciation and mellifluous voice. As the book is in the public domain, this audio is available for free on Librivox. Make sure you go for the Helen Taylor version; the other narration isn’t so great.


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Вълшебна история за четири твърде различни англичанки, които отиват на италианската Ривиера, за да отморят сетивата и духа си след безкрайните дъждове на Лондон. Всяка идва с багаж от любовни разочарования, семейна досада, хронична самота или пресищане от охолство. Социалният им произход и темперамент подготвят почвата за чудесни комични сблъсъци, а неразбирателството е на път да ескалира, когато започват да пристигат (не)очаквани гости.

Но никога, никога не подценявайте лъчезарната пролет! Да се пренебрегва възможността за щастие е углавно престъпление срещу душата. Радостта от живота е в споделеността и добрия разговор. Това, което храни сетивата, храни цялото същество. Не е случайно, че в оригинал заглавието е „Омагьосаният април“ („Enchanted April”), макар че и българският избор е уместен.

Въпреки че сюжетът звучи много познато и съвременно, тъй като днешната литература експлоатира до втръсване темата за трансформиращата сила на южното слънце и долче вита, книгата е написана след Първата световна война. Вероятно от нея е тръгнала матрицата на клонинги от типа на „с дъх на лимони“, „с ухание на канела“, „с аромат на лавандула“, все на идилични места, на които са попаднали екзистенциално уморени северняци. Избягвам такива книги, не от снобизъм, а от елементарното поднасяне на туристическа стръв, опакована като литература. Но „Вълшебният април“ не можах да подмина, именно заради годината на издаването й, която обещава съвсем различен културно-исторически пласт.

“Вълшебният април“ носи всички съставки на приятната литература, която няма да ви загуби времето. Образите са убедителни, сюжетът, макар и леко да наслажда, е правдоподобен, а атмосферата – пленителна; а и защото книгата не подценява интелекта на читателя. Книгата показва задълбочените познания на авторката за викторианския литературен елит и английските нрави, особено при сблъсък с чужденци.

Самата Елизабет фон Арним (фамилията идва от брак с немски аристократ) има много интересна биография, който се преплита с големите имена на нейното време – например Е. М. Фостър е бил възпитател на децата й, а в последствие се омъжва за брата на философа Бъртранд Ръсел. Клюкарски детайл, но когато става въпрос за хора на перото, се надявам, че е простено

„Имаше известна липса на достойнство в безпокойството“.

„Често бе попадала на жени, които също не искаха мъжете си, но това изобщо не намаляваше възмущението им, ако решаха, че някой друг ги иска.“

„…колко е трудно да бъдеш безсрамен, когато няма мъже.“

Comfort reading at it's best.
Lotty is tired of dreary London, so when she reads an advert in The Times, for 'people who appreciate Wisteria and sunshine' she longs to be able to rent out the Castle being advertised. She finds three other ladies to share the rent and off they go for the month of April. The beauty of the place works a kind of magic on them all.
This book is so evocative I felt as though I was there with them, as such, it's a book I love to read in the winter as it reminds me that better things are just around the corner.

Re-read on 20/02/25. It has been so cold for so long, I felt I needed some warmth in my life. This certainly did the trick.